Hyundai and Kia Lead the Future: K-Autonomous Driving Partnership Set to Transform Urban Mobility

[The Public — Reporter Lee Yoojung] On March 9, Hyundai Motor Company and Kia said the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport named them the vehicle manufacturer and the transport-platform operator, respectively, for the \"K-Autonomous Driving Cooperation Model,\" a component of the ministry's Autonomous Driving Demonstration City Development Project.

The demonstration program is the first in South Korea to validate autonomous driving technology at a city scale and will cover the entire Gwangju metropolitan area. Officials plan to collect large-scale, high-quality real-world driving data to set technical standards and update regulations for autonomous vehicles.

Hyundai and Kia were chosen to build dedicated development vehicles and to operate the transport-platform component, recognition of their capability to produce tailored autonomous vehicles and their AI-driven software expertise.

Under the project, the companies will supply purpose-built vehicles tailored to the needs of selected autonomous-technology developers. They will also run transport-brokerage and control platforms to validate commercial autonomous services, helping expand the K-Autonomous Driving Cooperation Model and supporting South Korea’s bid to become a leader in autonomous mobility.

Building vehicles for autonomous development requires more than vehicle supply. It also involves adding sensors specific to each autonomy approach, integrating vehicle-control systems, enabling over-the-air updates, and implementing other features needed to develop and validate autonomous functions.

Hyundai and Kia already produce dedicated vehicles for different autonomy systems: they supply Ioniq 5–based autonomous cars on a foundry basis to Motional and to Waymo's robotaxi operations, demonstrating their capability to manufacture tech-specific platforms.

The companies said they will support autonomous-technology developers by producing development vehicles and by sharing the vehicle and operational data generated during trials to accelerate technology refinement.

They will also deploy their Shucle platform — a dispatch and ride-matching system designed to integrate a city's various transport modes into a single service — as part of the demonstration.

Developed with the autonomous era in mind, the Shucle platform uses AI and real-time traffic data to generate optimal routes, manage passenger pick-ups and drop-offs, and monitor all vehicles to ensure operational safety.

Since 2019, Hyundai and Kia have proven the platform’s effectiveness by providing ride-hailing and dispatch services across 33 local governments and more than 82 service areas, demonstrating stable operational capabilities.

Using Shucle in the Gwangju trial, Hyundai and Kia aim to deliver an integrated autonomous-service model that seamlessly connects vehicles, platforms and users, and to lead the development of new mobility experiences and ecosystems.

Kim Soo-young, executive director of Hyundai and Kia's Mobility Business Division, said, \"This demonstration gives us a vital opportunity to validate our integrated autonomous-driving capabilities in a real urban environment. We will focus on advancing technology to build a system where vehicles, autonomous systems and platforms interact organically, and on turning our trial results into scalable standards.\"