"What is Mobility in the Post-Corona Era?"... Hyundai Kia Motors Hosts Idea Festival

All New Idea Festival Final Competition Awards Ceremony

Online presentation scene of the physical production category at the Hyundai Kia All-New Idea Festival. Clockwise from the top left are the demonstrations of the Grand Prize winner 'Car Pure', Gold Prize winner 'Safe Guard', 'Untact Virtual Controller', and 'Interactive Digital Showroom' (Photo by Hyundai Kia).

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ji-hee] Hyundai Kia Motors has unveiled future mobility technologies and scenarios that it has been developing for seven months since June last year to prepare for the post-COVID-19 era.

On the 7th, Hyundai Kia Motors announced that it held the awards ceremony for the finals of the ‘All New Idea Festival,’ where employees presented and directly created future mobility ideas, at the Technology Research Center in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. The Idea Festival has been held annually since 2010 under the supervision of Hyundai Motor Group’s R&D Headquarters to foster a creative and challenging organizational culture.

This year’s Idea Festival was themed ‘Post-COVID-19, Future Mobility We Propose,’ encouraging employees to proactively consider the direction Hyundai Kia Motors should take in the post-coronavirus era. Notably, this year the target participants were expanded beyond the R&D Headquarters to include employees from various departments. Additionally, a new ‘Scenario Production Category’ was introduced, allowing participants to propose technology scenarios through visual media such as videos.

The competition received the highest number of ideas in its history. After document and interview screenings, 11 teams (including one from the China Technology Research Center) were selected for the finals. Hyundai Kia Motors supported all finalist teams with production costs and physical production spaces. Each team spent about seven months creating their ideas in physical form and scenarios.

In the ‘Physical Production’ category, the finalists included ▲‘Interactive Digital Showroom,’ a photorealistic vehicle digital showroom with interactive capabilities ▲‘Remember Our Memory,’ a data storage and reproduction system for music and scenery of nostalgic spaces ▲‘Car Pure,’ an electrolyzed water vehicle sterilization system ▲‘Safe Guard,’ a contactless communication system inside and outside the vehicle via side mirrors ▲‘L.U.V,’ an electric side-step type last-mile kickboard ▲‘S1 Wheel System,’ a system enabling charging, driving, and steering functions all operated at the wheel ▲‘Untact Virtual Controller,’ a contactless steering device using remote haptics and holograms ▲‘The World of Infinite Ppyu,’ a tunnel display utilizing rear seat window sunshades as projector screens. In the ‘Scenario Production’ category, the finalists were ▲‘MAX BOX,’ a detachable console hardware BOX platform ▲‘Sharing Safety with You,’ a future mobility Bluetooth personal portable and wearable safety device ▲‘DUET,’ a power-sharing system between vehicle doors.

The 11 finalist teams presented their works through online judging sessions, including explanations, demonstrations, and Q&A. An executive judging panel from the R&D Headquarters, Strategic Technology Headquarters, and Production Development Headquarters evaluated the works based on originality and customer satisfaction to determine the final rankings.

As a result, in the Physical Production category, the Car Pure team won the grand prize; Safe Guard, Interactive Digital Showroom, and Untact Virtual Controller received gold prizes; and S1 Wheel System, The World of Infinite Ppyu, Remember Our Memory, and L.U.V were awarded silver prizes. In the Scenario Production category, the MAX BOX team won gold, while DUET and Sharing Safety with You teams received silver prizes. The grand prize team received a cash prize of 10 million KRW, the four gold prize teams received 5 million KRW each, and the six silver prize teams received 2 million KRW each, along with opportunities to tour major domestic and international industrial facilities.

A Hyundai Kia Motors official stated, “The record-high participation rate since the first Idea Festival indicates that employees have been continuously interested in predicting life after COVID-19 and how to create new customer value. Based on the selected ideas, we plan to research technologies that customers can actually experience and to continuously operate and expand this challenging platform to foster a creative R&D culture.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.