Former Tesla and Nvidia Executive to Lead Hyundai Motor's Autonomous Driving Business, Aiming for Mass Production by 2029

Title context: Former Tesla and Nvidia Executive to Lead Hyundai Motor's Autonomous Driving Business, Aiming for Mass Production by 2029 Text: Earlier this year, Minwoo Park, who previously worked on autonomous driving technology development and commercialization at NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US) and Tesla, Inc. (TSLA.US), was appointed head of Hyundai Motor Group's autonomous driving division, becoming the youngest division president at the automaker. The appointment aims to strengthen Hyundai's competitiveness in software-defined vehicles and autonomous driving-related software, accelerate product development, and is expected to leverage Minwoo Park's professional background to drive the group's rapid advancement in this field. What Minwoo Park inherited was a division torn apart by internal strife and lagging behind rivals such as Tesla, Inc. in the race to perfect driverless cars. How bad was Hyundai's driver-assistance software? In 2023, Hyundai ranked last in Consumer Reports' ranking of such systems among more than a dozen U.S. automakers. Progress in closing the gap was slow to materialize, ultimately prompting Group Executive Chairman Euisun Chung to bring in the 48-year-old executive to strengthen the group's autonomous driving business. Minwoo Park now faces a daunting task: catching up with rivals such as Tesla, Inc. and BYD Company Limited, which have already rolled out urban road navigation technology. Falling behind in the industry's fastest-growing segmentMorgan Stanley estimates the market could reach $200 billion by 2030would threaten Hyundai's position as the world's third-largest automaker, as consumers increasingly prioritize driver-assistance features in their car-buying decisions. Since taking office in February, Minwoo Park has pushed through sweeping reformsbreaking down departmental barriers between software teams and engineers, unifying priorities, and accelerating decision-making. He said that while cultural transformation takes time, he has already noticed that teams now spend more time discussing products rather than engaging in internal strife. Minwoo Park said: "Hyundai Motor Group lacks neither technology nor talent. The challenge is synergy." Minwoo Park was born and raised in South Korea and attended Korea University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in electrical and computer engineering. He then obtained a master's and doctorate in computer science and engineering from Pennsylvania State University. There, he shifted his focus to computer visionwhich he calls the best decision he has ever made. Minwoo Park spent his graduate years at Penn State's Computer Vision Research Laboratory, studying how computers extract and interpret information from images and video, before working in research at Eastman Kodak Company (Eastman Kodak Co.) and ObjectVideo, developing computer vision technology for automatically determining the geographic location of images and video. He then joined Tesla, Inc., where he helped lead the camera-centric "Tesla, Inc. Vision" and in 2016 won the electric vehicle pioneer's top talent award. He later moved to NVIDIA Corporation, rising to vice president, overseeing driverless software teams covering perception, sensor fusion, and machine learning. When he decided to move to Hyundai, NVIDIA Corporation CEO Jensen Huang sent his blessings for the move, saying Minwoo Park would take on "a role of great importance to Korean industry." Minwoo Park said: "At Tesla, Inc., I learned that real-world data is the key to ultimately improving AI. At NVIDIA Corporation, I understood that success requires not only AI models but also the computing power, software, and infrastructure needed to deploy them at scale." Hyundai's autonomous driving technology has never truly gone beyond basic highway driving, failing to make the leap to complex city streets. But all that is about to change. In a video released this month showcasing the company's next-generation systemcalled Atria AIMinwoo Park sits in the passenger seat of an Ioniq 6 as the vehicle swerves around parked cars in the rain, completes unprotected left turns, and navigates Seoul's narrow alleys. Minwoo Park personally test-drives the system every weeksimilar to Tesla, Inc., the system relies primarily on cameras to plan routes in real time, just like a human driver. To close the gap, Hyundai is fundamentally changing the way it builds autonomous vehicles. Rather than relying on scattered sensors and components from traditional suppliers, the automaker is turning its vehicles into data-collection machines powered by NVIDIA Corporation's top-tier AI chips. Under Minwoo Park's plan, Hyundai will use NVIDIA Corporation's systems to launch upgraded driver-assistance features by 2028. As millions of new Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis vehicles equipped with the same cameras hit the road, they will continuously transmit real-world driving data back to the company. This massive daily stream of road-condition data will train Atria AI, paving the way for mass production by 2029 of vehicles capable of navigating city streets. KJ Hwang, head of Korea automotive and industrials research at Bank of America Corp Global Research, said: "Tesla, Inc.'s progress in full self-driving highlights the need for Hyundai to accelerate its catch-up efforts. We are still in the early stages, and it is too early to draw conclusions." Despite Hyundai's lag, Minwoo Park is betting that the company's sheer scaleits sales last year exceeded those of Tesla, Inc. and BYD Company Limited combinedwill give it an advantage in rapidly training its system, allowing it to catch up with the current leaders in autonomous driving by the time Atria is deployed in 2029. At Hyundai's CEO Investor Day last month, Minwoo Park told investors and analysts that its real-world fleet data will match and eventually surpass competitors around 2033. At a media briefing this month, he said: "If we work harder, I do think we can achieve commercialization faster." But he also cautioned against "rushing half-baked features to market just to grab share." According to Seonggyun Jeong, head of Atria AI development, Minwoo Park has asked engineers to focus on training the AI to handle unusual, complex road hazards rather than everyday driving footage, which has greatly accelerated progress. Looking further ahead, Hyundai hopes to roll out fully autonomous Level 4 vehiclessimilar to the Waymo robotaxis operating in the U.S.and plans to test about 200 Ioniq 5s in the southwestern city of Gwangju later this year. Of course, Hyundai is not alone in facing growing pains. General Motors Company's (GM.US) Cruise robotaxi unit was shut down after a series of high-profile safety incidents and billions of dollars in losses. Tesla, Inc.'s Full Self-Driving is a misnomer, still requiring constant human supervision and under investigation following a series of fatal accidents; its robotaxi rollout has so far fallen far short of CEO Elon Musk's ambitious promises. Still, some analysts appreciate the change Minwoo Park has brought and are optimistic that he has injected new life into Hyundai's autonomous driving ambitions. Brian Lee, an analyst at CLSA Korea, said: "Until the end of last year, anyone asked about the company's autonomous driving prospects could hardly say anything positive. But he has sent a clear signalthere will be no more delays."