Hyundai Motor Group will sequentially apply its in-house developed end-to-end (E2E) autonomous driving artificial intelligence (AI), “Atria AI,” to mass-production vehicles starting in 2029. Ahead of that, the first software-defined vehicle (SDV) launching in 2028 will be equipped with Level 2+ autonomous driving technology developed in collaboration with Nvidia to begin securing large-scale driving data.

Hyundai Motor Group held its “2026 CEO Investor Day” at the Conrad Seoul hotel in Yeouido, Seoul on the 26th, unveiling its mid-to-long-term SDV and autonomous driving strategy. Park Min-woo, President of Hyundai Motor and Kia’s AVP Division and CEO of 42dot, said at a media briefing after the event, “Atria AI will enter mass production starting in 2029.”

Atria AI is an approach that connects the entire process — from perception to judgment to control — through a single AI model. By the end of this year, the company plans to deploy approximately 200 vehicles in an urban demonstration project in Gwangju to collect data on unexpected situations. Regarding the hallucination problem in AI models, Park explained, “It’s not simply end-to-end; an explainable AI model that serves as a guardrail is incorporated alongside it.”

The first mass-produced SDV in 2028 will feature Level 2+ autonomous driving technology developed with Nvidia. Level 2+ enables hands-free driving on highways, where the driver can take their hands off the wheel. The plan is to subsequently expand Atria AI adoption to build a lineup spanning from Level 2+ to Level 4, the fully autonomous stage requiring no driver.

The core of this strategy is the “data flywheel.” It is a virtuous cycle in which data is collected from vehicles driving on real roads, used to train AI and improve performance, and then redistributed to vehicles via over-the-air (OTA) software updates. Hyundai Motor Group leverages its annual sales of over 7 million vehicles and its network spanning more than 190 countries as the foundation of its data competitiveness.

Park said, “In the AI era, the competitive benchmark will depend on who secures more real-world experience, extracts meaningful data from it, and connects it more quickly to AI training and product improvement. We will surpass competitors in cumulative data volume around 2033.”

To this end, the group is also standardizing sensor systems across its affiliates. Based on the Nvidia ecosystem, Hyundai Motor, Kia, 42dot, and Motional are unifying their sensor systems and building a framework to integrate and utilize data collected by each company under consistent standards.

Infrastructure to handle the rapidly growing data volume is also being internalized. Starting in 2029, the 100-megawatt (MW) Saemangeum AI Data Center will come online to handle the entire process of data collection, validation, and distribution in-house. The data center is designed to accommodate more than 50,000 graphics processing units (GPUs).

The autonomous vehicle contract manufacturing (foundry) business is also expanding. Ioniq 5-based robotaxis produced at Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA) will be supplied to Waymo starting in Q4 this year. There have been earlier reports that Hyundai Motor is pursuing a plan to supply 50,000 units to Waymo. At an estimated price of approximately $50,000 per vehicle (about 69 million won), this translates to expected revenue of $2.5 billion (approximately 3.5 trillion won).

Motional, the autonomous driving joint venture in which Hyundai Motor holds a stake, will also commercialize Ioniq 5 robotaxis with Uber in Las Vegas at the end of this year. Motional plans to expand its business into Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

Specific timelines were also presented for the robotics business. The company will accelerate commercialization of manufacturing AI robots with Boston Dynamics, deploying the humanoid robot “Atlas” at HMGMA production sites starting in 2028. Hyundai Motor plans to build robot production facilities with an annual capacity of 30,000 units by 2028 and has already secured an initial supply volume of 25,000 units. A significant portion of the initial volume will be absorbed internally within the group.

In the infotainment space, starting with the Grandeur facelift model, the company will equip vehicles with the next-generation system “Pleos Connect” and the generative AI agent “Gleo AI.” The approach involves analyzing data collected from vehicles to enhance Gleo AI performance, develop new features, and redistribute them to vehicles via OTA updates.

In its core finished vehicle business, Hyundai Motor Group presented a vision to launch more than 100 new models by 2030 and achieve global sales of 5.55 million units in the same year. Of these, more than 18 models will be entirely new vehicles entering segments where the company has not previously sold any models. The operating margin target was raised to 9% or higher.

Meanwhile, questions about Boston Dynamics’ initial public offering (IPO) also came up at the briefing. Kim Heung-soo, Executive Vice President and head of Hyundai Motor Group’s GSO Division, said, “Nothing has been decided. We are internally reviewing which options would be best for Boston Dynamics’ growth, and once a decision is made, we will communicate with the market at an appropriate time.”