Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv are teaming up to create a joint venture to develop and commercialize SAE Level 4 and Level 5 autonomous vehicles.
The joint venture will begin testing driverless systems in 2020 and have a production-ready autonomous driving platform for robotaxi providers, fleet operators and automotive manufacturers in 2022. Both companies will each have a 50% ownership stake in the joint venture that will be valued at a total of $4 billion.
Aptiv will offer its autonomous driving tech, its intellectual property and about 700 workers to the joint venture while Hyundai will contribute $1.6 billion in cash at closing and $400 million in engineering services, R&D and access to its own IP.
Hyundai’s Korean operations will be the technology center for the base vehicle modification and serve as a testbed for self-driving mobility service platforms.
The alliance between Hyundai and Aptiv is just one of many self-driving vehicle projects cropping up around the world. Waymo has formed an agreement with the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance to explore self-driving taxis and deliveries in France and Japan. Uber and Volvo have come together to develop self-driving capabilities for cars in Volvo's series of XC90 base vehicles. Meanwhile, Toyota and Subaru are working together to develop electric vehicles as well as potential self-driving capabilities. Apple has also thrown itself into the mix by acquiring Drive.ai in order to further its own self-driving interests.
