A fully self-driving car has yet to arrive, but we’re getting close. Several automakers have announced that they are hard at work on Level 4 and 5 self-driving vehicles and now Hyundai has announced that it has teamed up with Aptiv to jointly develop an autonomous car platform.
The joint venture will advance the development of Level 4 and 5 autonomous technologies and will begin testing fully driverless systems in 2020. A production-ready autonomous driving platform is slated to arrive by 2022. As part of the agreement, Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv will each have a 50 percent ownership stake in the joint venture, valued at $4 billion.
Aptiv will contribute its autonomous driving technology, intellectual property, and approximately 700 employees focused on the development of scalable autonomous driving solutions. Hyundai Motor Group affiliates — Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors and Hyundai Mobis — will collectively contribute $1.6 billion in cash at closing and $0.4 billion in vehicle engineering services, R&D resources, and access to intellectual property.
“The new joint venture marks the start of a journey with Aptiv toward our common goal of commercializing autonomous driving,” said Euisun Chung, Executive Vice Chairman, Hyundai Motor Group. “The combined capabilities of Aptiv, a leading global technology company, and our Group, a global OEM, will create invaluable synergy to lead the autonomous driving landscape.”
