Hyundai Motor chief inspects latest technologies at Seoul Mobility Show

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun, third from right, visits the Tesla booth set up at the 2023 Seoul Mobility Show held at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. Yonhap

By Kim Hyun-bin

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun visited the 2023 Seoul Mobility Show to see the latest in robotics and other recent technologies driving the automotive industry, Tuesday.

At the Tesla booth, he looked at the robotic humanoid Tesla Bot and asked Hyundai Motor executives if it was functional. A Hyundai Motor executive explained, "There are still limits to dynamic motion.”

Hyundai Motor Group acquired Boston Dynamics, a U.S. robot manufacturer, and is expanding its robotics business. Boston Dynamics developed Spot, a four-legged walking robot, and Atlas, a robot capable of walking upright on two legs.

Chung also stepped into the booth of Masta Motors, a medium-sized domestic company, to look at the miniature electric pickup trucks and miniature electric vans on display, and asked questions about the vehicles.

On the way to the exit, the chairman stopped at the booth of Ghost Robotics, which featured the company's “Vision 60,” a quadruped walking robot similar to Spot.

Chung carefully observed how Vision 60 moved freely and listened to the explanation of its performance from the person in charge. He asked questions such as “Which batteries do you use?” and “What is the coverage of Vision?”

In addition, the chairman looked around the booths of Hyundai Motor Group affiliates such as Hyundai Motor, Kia Corp., Genesis and Hyundai Mobis. At the Hyundai Motor booth, he watched a robot charge an electric vehicle, visited the Sonata The Edge zone and listened to explanations from company officials. At the Kia booth, Chung also observed the reactions of visitors looking at the EV9.

He also visited booths of other finished cars such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW's MINI, looking closely at Mercedes' EQE electric sedan and the AMG SL 63 4 Matic+ which is scheduled for release in April.

Before leaving the event, Chung met with reporters and said of the show that “Everything was impressive.”