April 19, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] South Korea’s largest automaker Hyundai Motor has formed a global consortium with 27 multinational firms to rev up development of self-driving cars.

The consortium is composed of automakers, insurers, tech firms and logistics companies -- including Toyota, Volkswagen, Qualcomm, Nissan, General Motors, BMW, Volvo, Liberty Mutual Group, Sompo Holdings, Ericsson, Uber Technologies and UPS, among others. 

They plan to develop self-driving technologies and establish uniform safety standards and regulations for autonomous driving. The group was formed following the World Economic Forum’s call in May for such an initiative.

The group will kick off with road tests of self-driving cars this month in Boston and share data on safety, traffic congestion and the influence on railroads and other public transportation systems. They plan to meet every two months and report the findings at the annual WEF meeting.

Hyundai has been actively teaming up with global partners in the future car market that includes internet-connected and driverless cars. The automaker has partnered with US tech giant Cisco Systems to develop in-vehicle network solutions, while it signed a deal to establish a big data center in Guizhou province, China, in cooperation with the local government.

American EV maker Tesla Motors, however, is not part of the alliance. Neither are Ford and Google, which formed a similar consortium in April to push for federal action to put autonomous cars on the road.

By Ahn Sung-mi (sahn@heraldcorp.com)