Cars, but not as we know them: Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis to become 'Software Defined Vehicle' brands from 2025

Hyundai Motor Group (HMG) has today revealed it will focus on creating and marketing Software Defined Vehicles (SDVs) from 2025 onwards, as part of a $20 billion move it hopes will fundamentally change mobility.

In a conference this morning, executives from Hyundai Motor Group presented plans that detailed the vision for its brands, Hyundai, Kia and Genesis, to build electric cars that are, as the SDV name suggests, defined by their software.

For customers, this essentially means HMG products will share one of two platforms, and have the capability to be updated remotely in a similar manner to the way Tesla provides customers with ‘over-the-air’ updates.

Its two platforms, called eM and eS, have been designed to reduce development time and costs, and each serve a different purpose within the company’s future product plan.

The eM platform will serve as the basis for HMG’s EVs “across all segments” and is touted to provide a 50 per cent improvement in driving range compared to current EV platforms.

HMG also says it aims to support Level 3 or higher autonomous driving tech with this platform, of course including over-the-air updates.

The second platform, eS, will be a base ‘skateboard’ platform on which Purpose Built Vehicles (PBVs) can be built for “tailor-made” solutions in industry.

Key to Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis’ future is the operating system on which its vehicles will run, the Connected Car Operating System (ccOS). The system is co-developed with Nvidia to incorporate AI to process large amounts of information as quickly as possible, and control the vehicle’s centralised software architecture. 

Using the information collected from “sensors within the cameras, radars, and LiDARs mounted on the vehicle”, the ccOS will be able to manage control of the car in varying levels of autonomy based on specific situations.

To simplify the architecture of the vehicle, and allow the vehicle’s computing to be done more cohesively, Hyundai Motor Group will shift towards a ‘Domain centralised architecture’, which groups the vehicle’s computer controllers into four sections: comfort, driving, infotainment (or multimedia), and advanced driver assistance system (ADAS).

Hyung Ki Ahn, vice president of electronics development group, said this can be thought of as “an organically connected structure that improves the function of a vehicle’s electrical device components” by having one computer control many components, rather than each component having its own control computer.

“As this architecture significantly reduces development complexity and enables software updates to be carried out effortlessly without any requirement to manually modify the controller, it is ideal for presenting a variety of vehicle segments, and region-specific models tailored for different countries. It also enables us to respond flexibly to what consumers want in this fast-changing market.”

When asked what advantage its new software defined vehicle platforms and systems would have over its competitors, executives pointed out HMG is developing its future product to be able to be customised and updated based on individual market needs, from the higher-end luxury offerings in its Genesis range to more budget vehicles destined for “developing markets”.

More specifically, the focus is on being able to update the vehicle long after it rolls out of a dealership.

“Hyundai Motor Group's data platform will not only be simply for driving. It will also play an important role in enhancing the convenience and diversity of the customer's mobility experience by engaging throughout the vehicle's entire life cycle,” said Eunsook Jin, executive vice president and head of ICT innovation division of Hyundai Motor Group. “Going forward, we'll also help create a new mobility ecosystem, connecting cars with other mobility devices, based on data connectivity and scalability.”

During HMG’s presentation, its plans for an interconnected mobility system were of focus, with cars and other transportation solutions all digitally ‘conversing’, although HMG executives didn’t clarify how these interconnected systems would work in a world like the current environment, which is still used by older vehicles and non-autonomous transport systems.

In pursuit of its development, Hyundai Motor Group says it will spend approximately 18 trillion won (AUD$20,116,146,000) by 2030.