Hyundai Motor Group hosted the country’s largest mobility developer festival, the 3rd HMG Developer Conference, presenting the future vision and direction brought by the transition to Software-Defined Vehicles (SDV).
On the 13th (Monday), the conference, held at the Coex Auditorium in Samsung-dong, Seoul, concluded with great success, attended by over a thousand external IT developers, university students, investors, and more.
Since 2021, Hyundai Motor Group has continuously hosted the “HMG Developer Conference” to share the latest research and development achievements accumulated during the process of promoting the SDV transition and to discover outstanding talents in the software sector.
This year’s developer conference featured in-depth presentations on topics such as ▲SDV ▲autonomous driving ▲mobility services ▲AI, with a total of nine companies participating including Hyundai Motor, Kia, 42dot, Hyundai Mobis, Hyundai AutoEver, Hyundai Kefico, Hyundai Transys, Hyundai Engibi, and Motional.
The HMG Developer Conference opened with an opening keynote by CEO Song Chang-hyun, overseeing the SDV division of Hyundai Motor and Kia, and 42dot, marking the beginning of the event.
CEO Song shared the concept of SDVs, the forthcoming transition to a software-centric development approach, and the differentiated experiences customers will enjoy through SDVs.
He emphasized that “SDV signifies ‘a paradigm shift in development methods’ by applying a software-defined approach to vehicle development,” adding that through a fundamental paradigm shift in vehicle development, ultimately the software will define not only driving performance but also convenience features, safety features, and even the brand identity of the vehicle.
Especially, Song pointed out that the current hardware-centric development approach makes it challenging to deliver an overall user experience, and that it is difficult to provide customers with the latest experiences akin to those found on smartphones. He also mentioned that this environment poses constraints for mobility developers implementing new features.
To overcome these issues, Hyundai Motor Group plans to focus on initiatives such as ▲decoupling HW and SW ▲standard architecture to establish an agile value delivery system that can promptly meet market demands and provide updates.
Song stated, “By establishing a standardized vehicle software framework, we will support free connections with external developers, creating a new level of development ecosystem where anyone with ideas can implement killer apps and services related to mobility. We expect Hyundai Motor Group’s transition to SDVs to provide many people with the freedom of movement, breaking the constraints of time and space, enabling them to focus on more valuable tasks.”
Following this, Executive Vice President Yoo Ji-han of the Autonomous Driving Division of Hyundai and Kia presented a video unveiling the development of Remote Parking Pilot (RPP) technology, sharing how the efforts and research of actual developers are reflecting in reality.
Remote parking allows vehicles to park themselves in vacant spaces and move to the passenger’s location autonomously when summoned through a smartphone command.
This video, shot at the parking tower of Hyundai and Kia’s Namyang Technology Research Center, depicts a Genesis GV80 autonomously searching a vacant spot and successfully parking itself from the drop zone. Afterward, once the user calls for the vehicle from the pick-up zone, it shows the car autonomously driving to that location.
Executive Vice President Yoo revealed that they are developing the remote parking technology based on precise maps and positioning information from the parking tower, while also developing a memory parking feature that remembers the driving and parking paths taken by the driver to park automatically.
Additionally, he showcased various driver-assist features that are either completed or under development through video, including advanced lane following assist (LFA), smart cruise control (SCC), forward collision-avoidance assist (FCA), and the pilot service for robot shuttles at the National Assembly.
Yoo emphasized, “Hyundai and Kia are advancing autonomous driving technology under the development philosophy of ‘universal safety’ and ‘optional convenience,’ aiming for safe and comfortable mobility for everyone on the road. To achieve first-class autonomous driving technology, we plan to continuously expand our external development network and maintain global collaborations.”
Furthermore, the conference featured presentations from external experts including Michael Sevidick, Vice President of Engineering at Motional, who talked about unmanned robo-taxi technology, and a special lecture on AI by Professor Lee Sang-keun from Korea University.
After the major presentations, discussions and presentations by development practitioners followed. Notably, during the Q&A session, developers shared their experiences and know-how, creating an engaging atmosphere among participants.
During breaks between the presentations, a ‘VLOG’ featuring developers from Hyundai Motor Group was displayed. The six-part VLOG showcased the work environment and welfare of developers, presented in a story format that was accessible and entertaining for external developers.
As part of the conference, Hyundai Motor Group provided a colorful array of activities, including recruitment counseling programs, photo booths, and prize events. Particularly, the recruitment counseling involved participation from both HR personnel and developers from various fields to address participant inquiries and facilitate deep communication.
Videos of developer presentations featuring developers from various fields within the Hyundai Motor Group were made available on the HMG Developer Conference website (https://devcon.hyundaimotorgroup.com).
The online presentation videos, consisting of a total of 48 sessions, covered not only traditional vehicle development topics but also key technology elements comprising SDVs, such as infotainment, connected cars, deep learning, computer vision, vehicle data, and cloud technology, along with the trends in the latest technologies.
Hyundai Motor Group allowed participants to leave questions and comments in the comment section for each online presentation video. They plan to maintain the comment section for online sessions until the end of this year to support communication between presenters and participants.
A Hyundai Motor Group representative stated, “We hope the HMG Developer Conference will serve as a platform for sharing the experiences and achievements of our developers pursuing challenging goals with external developers. We will continue our efforts to build a developer culture and environment where mutual development can thrive through communication.”
Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor Group launched the developer community platform ‘HMG Developers’ in conjunction with the hosting of the 3rd HMG Developer Conference. HMG Developers is aimed at sharing the know-how of Hyundai Motor Group developers and strengthening communication through developer blogs, news about developer-related events, technical content, and various events.
Lee Sang-jin daedusj@autodiary.kr