Hyundai Motor and Kia have announced a significant expansion of their cooperation with American semiconductor company NVIDIA, focusing on autonomous driving technologies and software-defined vehicles (SDVs). This partnership aims to accelerate the internalization of autonomous driving technologies by developing an optimized architecture based on NVIDIA's standardized designs for autonomous driving. The two companies plan to jointly develop next-generation autonomous driving solutions, leveraging their respective strengths in software-defined vehicle capabilities and expertise in autonomous driving technology.

Initially, Hyundai and Kia will apply NVIDIA's Level 2 and higher autonomous driving technologies to select vehicle models, establishing a long-term collaboration framework that aims to reach Level 4 autonomous driving, including robotaxi solutions. The collaboration will be particularly centered around Motional, Hyundai's autonomous driving joint venture, which is set to start discussions on enhancing Level 4 robotaxi technology. This strategic move indicates Hyundai's serious commitment to establishing itself in the autonomous driving landscape, utilizing NVIDIA’s advanced technologies to create innovative driving solutions.

Furthermore, Hyundai anticipates that this collaboration will greatly assist in achieving 'artificial intelligence internalization.' By adopting NVIDIA’s Hyperion platform, the company plans to build a centralized design structure that is scalable from Level 2 to Level 4 autonomous capabilities. This approach will facilitate a virtuous cycle of data collection, AI learning, and performance enhancement, enabling Hyundai to consolidate data across its operations into a single learning pipeline, thus enhancing the quality and efficiency of their autonomous vehicle technologies and overall performance.