Hyundai, Volkswagen promise autonomous vehicles in 3 years

Global giants Volkswagen and Hyundai have teamed up with leading technology minds to produce a driverless car by 2021.

Hyundai's says self-driving cars will be a reality in just three years. Pic: Supplied.

DETROIT (AP) Hyundai is promising self-driving cars within three years after partnering with a US autonomous vehicle tech firm led by former executives from Google, Tesla and Uber.

The world’s biggest carmaker, Volkswagen has also announced a partnership with the firm Aurora Innovation, which was started last year by ex-Google autonomous car chief Chris Urmson and others.

VW says its collaboration will help bring self-driving cars quickly to roads worldwide, while autonomous Hyundais are expected to be in the market by 2021.

The partnerships are the latest in a string of tie-ups between traditional car companies and tech firms as they race to be first with self-driving vehicles.

The Ioniq test car is loaded with radars and cameras. Pic: Supplied.

Aurora is based in Pittsburgh and Palo Alto, California. It was started last year by Urmson, former Tesla executive Sterling Anderson and ex-Uber autonomous vehicle leader Drew Bagnell.

Terms of each partnership were not released.

Urmson left Google in 2016 after more than seven years of work on its autonomous vehicles. At Tesla, Anderson led development of the company’s semi-autonomous Autopilot system after its initial release, and he led development of the Model X SUV, according to Aurora’s website. Bagnell was a founding member of Uber’s Advanced Technology Centre that’s

working on autonomous cars in Pittsburgh.

Look, no hands. Hyundai says it will be selling driverless cars in three years. Pic: Supplied.

Volkswagen, which produces about 10 million vehicles annually, hopes the tie-up will bring autonomous vehicle technology to all of its brands. Its stable includes Audi, Skoda, Seat, Porsche and Lamborghini.

The company says it has been working with Aurora for the past six months, integrating its sensors, hardware and software into VW vehicles.

Hyundai says the partnership with Aurora will bring autonomous vehicles to market that can operate without human input in most conditions.

The partnership has yet to say how its first batch of self-driving vehicles will be used, but analysts expect they will likely be for commercial use, such as self-driving taxis or ride-hailing services, rather than for sales to individual consumers.

Hyundai’s autonomous test-bed in action. Pic: Supplied.

General Motors said in November that its self-driving vehicles will carry passengers and deliver goods in big cities by 2019.

Hyundai earlier joined with Cisco Systems and Baidu to collaborate on internet-connected cars. It has also set up a $45 million fund with South Korea’s SK Telecom and Hanwha Asset Management to invest in artificial intelligence start-ups worldwide.

The South Korean automaker plans to share more details of its project with Aurora during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week, where it will also unveil the brand name of a new fuel-cell SUV that will be tested for self-driving technology.

The company plans to show off some of its autonomous driving cars during the Winter Olympics Game next month in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

“We know the future of transportation is autonomous, and autonomous driving technology needs to be proven in the real-world to accelerate deployment in a safe and scalable manner,” says Dr Woong Chul Yang, Vice Chairman of Hyundai Motor.

“Combining our advanced vehicle technology that embeds the latest safety features with Aurora’s leading suite of Level 4 autonomous technology will advance this revolution in mobility with Hyundai in a leadership position.”

Paul Gover reports an Australian evaluation of self driving Hyundais will begin before the end of the year.

It follows previews of Hyundai’s self-driving technology last year at the company’s Namyang proving ground in South Korea, using converted ix35 SUVs.

“There are a number of government trials going on around the country and we’re keen to get an autonomous Ionic electric car to join in,” Hyundai Australia’s spokesman, Bill Thomas says.

“The aim is definitely to have a car here sometime this year. I can’t be any more precise than that at the moment.”

Hyundai has taken an aggressive line on new technology in Australia and was the first carmaker to import a hydrogen-powered car for testing, even establishing a dedicated fueling station at its headquarter in the Sydney suburb of Ryde.

“The next-generation hydrogen car is called the FE and we’ve agreed to supply 20 of those to the ACT government. That will happen early next year,” says Thomas.

“That car, which is about to be unveiled in the USA, also has a lot of autonomy in it.”

He is waiting for more detail from Korea on the Ioniq test program but says the package in the car is fully integrated and not just a bolt-on solution.

“It’s quite a stealthy set-up, because the cameras are all mounted inside the car. There are no spinning discs or big bars anywhere on the outside.

“It’s all being trialled on the Ioniq and that’s where the technology is being rolled out.”