Hyundai, Kia strengthen ties with Aurora

<p>Hyundai Motor Group &lpar;the Group&rpar; and Aurora Innovation Inc&period; has announced that Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors Corporation have invested in Aurora to accelerate development of autonomous vehicle technologies&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In a statement signed by JH So&comma; head&comma; PR Team and made available to OpenLife&comma; the move is aimed at strengthening the strategic partnership formed between the companies in 2018&comma; under which Hyundai&comma; Kia&comma; and Aurora have been collaborating on self-driving technologies on Hyundai’s flagship fuel cell vehicle NEXO&period; With the new investment&comma; the companies have agreed to expand research to a wide range of models and to build an optimal platform for Hyundai and Kia’s autonomous vehicles&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The statement explains that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Aurora is the leading innovator of self-driving technology and we look forward to building a stronger collaborative partnership with them&comma;” said Youngcho Chi&comma; President and Chief Innovation Officer at Hyundai Motor Group&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Working closely with industry leaders around the world will help us develop fully self-driving vehicles that are safe and innovative for our customers&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Since its establishment&comma; Aurora has quickly secured its place as an industry leader in the development of self-driving technology&period; Its self-driving system&comma; the Aurora Driver&comma; comprises the lidar&comma; radar&comma; and cameras that perceive the world around it and the computer that runs the software modules&comma; enabling it to make sense of the world and plan a safe path through it&period; With the integration of the Aurora Driver&comma; Hyundai and Kia vehicles will enhance their ability to monitor&comma; react&comma; and adapt to different surroundings&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are pleased with the progress made with the Hyundai and Kia teams&comma;” said Sterling Anderson&comma; Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Aurora&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Together with all of our ecosystem partners&comma; we are seeing the convergence of a powerful platform that will deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely&comma; quickly&comma; and broadly&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Hyundai and Kia’s partnership with Aurora is part of the Group’s ongoing efforts to lead the autonomous driving domain&period; In 2017&comma; Hyundai’s IONIQ successfully demonstrated autonomous driving technologies in urban environments in Las Vegas at CES&period; Hyundai also <br &sol;>presented a fleet of autonomous vehicles equipped with Level 4 technologies at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Hyundai Motor Group’s future mobility plans include commercialization of Level 4 autonomous vehicles by 2021 with the pilot launch of a fleet of autonomous robo-taxis in smart cities&period; <br &sol;>By overcoming current limitations on automobiles and drivers&comma; the Group will enrich the lives of its customers and deliver true &OpenCurlyQuote;Freedom in Mobility&period;’<&sol;p>&NewLine;