Hyundai Motor Group's Autonomous Driving JV Motional: "Commercializing Robotaxi Services by Year-End"

Laura Major, CEO of Motional, the autonomous driving joint venture of Hyundai Motor Group, announced that the company will begin commercializing driverless robotaxi services by the end of this year.

According to the industry on March 8, CEO Major appeared on Hyundai Motor Group's official podcast channel, "Hyundai Progress," where she shared Motional's vision for autonomous driving technology and made this announcement.

"Hyundai Progress" is a knowledge content series that delves deeply into mobility technology, and has released a total of 13 episodes so far. This is the 14th episode, and it marks the first time a senior executive from Hyundai Motor Group has directly participated in the communication.

Motional CEO Laura Major during an interview. Hyundai Motor Group

원본보기 아이콘

In the interview, CEO Major discussed Motional's plans to commercialize driverless robotaxi services by the end of this year, the process of advancing autonomous driving technology, the introduction of a generative AI-based Large Driving Model (LDM), and broadly addressed the direction of autonomous driving development and key industry issues.

CEO Major emphasized, "In 2024, Motional redesigned its autonomous driving system architecture to be AI-first and transitioned to a Large Driving Model. This decision was a significant turning point in the development of autonomous driving technology."

She explained that restructuring the system architecture involves significantly more risk than simply improving existing technology, but by successfully implementing these changes, the company was able to make a major leap forward.

CEO Major added that the shift in the architecture of the autonomous driving system not only improved driving quality, but also brought about innovative changes in the system's ability to handle complex urban environments, global scalability, and operational costs.

Additionally, CEO Major stressed that Motional’s top principle in autonomous driving development is none other than passenger safety.

CEO Major said, "Motional applies an end-to-end (E2E) approach using the Large Driving Model to general driving scenarios, which account for more than 90% of driving situations. For edge cases-which make up about 1% of scenarios, such as unexpected incidents-we have adopted a safety guardrail system that has been thoroughly validated over time."

The guardrail system refers to a safety shield mechanism that is prioritized to prevent the autonomous driving system from making incorrect decisions.

CEO Major highlighted that "the 1% of edge cases that occur in exceptional situations are the key learning points for improving the performance of autonomous vehicles."

In response to a question about how the company improves from failure, CEO Major stated that "fail fast" is the company's motto. The faster a problem is discovered, the quicker it can be solved and the faster lessons can be learned.

Motional has development hubs in various regions, and is particularly conducting tests and collecting diverse data in Las Vegas and Pittsburgh.

CEO Major explained, "We strategically selected these two cities because of their contrasting environments." Las Vegas features a modern urban layout, wide roads, and predictable patterns of pedestrian movement-characteristics of a planned city. In contrast, Pittsburgh has the features of an old city, including narrow and winding roads, irregular intersections, and numerous bridges and tunnels.

CEO Major also commented on Motional's competitive edge in commercialization. Motional has formed partnerships with companies such as Uber and Lyft, and has operated various pilot programs. She explained that the experience of delivering more than 130,000 ride services through these initiatives is the very source of their competitive strength.

CEO Major said, "Through operating these partnerships, Motional has gained valuable insights into what information passengers want inside the vehicle, whether they use the vehicle display or their mobile phones more, how much they use certain features, and how to implement functions such as route changes or mid-journey drop-offs within the system. We have applied these insights to create real solutions for passengers' needs."

She concluded by emphasizing that Motional is continuously making improvements ahead of the launch of driverless autonomous services by the end of this year, and that enhancing the overall passenger experience before commercialization is an important value.

© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.