Hyundai, Kia to invest in Aurora to develop driverless systems

A Hyundai Nexo hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle with Aurora's self-driving systems / Courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group

By Kwak Yeon-soo

Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors will invest in Aurora Innovation, a U.S. developer of self-driving technologies, with a plan to integrate driverless systems into their models. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The companies have been working for the past year to develop and integrate the “Aurora Driver,” Aurora's self-driving system, into Hyundai Motor's Nexo hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles as well as focusing on other projects.

Together, the companies plan to design and develop sensors, software and data systems needed to deploy driverless cars.

Established in 2017, Aurora's three co-founders have extensive backgrounds in self-driving cars. Sterling Anderson is the former director of the Autopilot program at Tesla; Drew Bagnell headed the autonomy and perception team at Uber's Advanced Technologies Center; and Chris Urmson was the former head of Google's self-driving project.

The startup's other investors include Amazon, Greylock and Shell Energy's venture group.

“Through our strategic partnership, we will develop safer and more innovative self-driving cars,” said Chi Young-cho, president and chief innovation officer of Hyundai Motor Group.

Aurora also expressed its desire to expand the reach of its services, stating, “Our aim is to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly and broadly.”