Certainly, everyone is racing to develop fully autonomous vehicles, and now Hyundai Motor Group is joining in the competition. Hyundai has recently hired a former General Motors researcher to oversea their center. Lee Jin-woo will now head the Intelligent Safety Technology Center. This will be a combined research center for Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors. As Hyundai Motor said in a statement,
“The new centre will not only enhance existing Advanced Drive Assistance System technologies but also conduct research into artificial intelligence related self-driving car technologies with the aim of commercializing those technologies.”
Their goal with the center is to have highly automated vehicles by 2020 and fully autonomous ones by 2030.
The race is definitely one. Ford Motor Co. recently announced that it plans to invest $1 billion in the coming five years in their autonomous vehicle tech firm Argo Al. In another bold move, GM actually made a billion dollar purchase of the Silicon Valley self-driving startup Cruise Automation.