Hyundai Motor Group is accelerating its push into autonomous driving through an expanded partnership with NVIDIA that spans from consumer vehicles to robotaxi services.
Announced on March 16, the collaboration will integrate NVIDIA's Level 2 and above driver-assist systems into select Hyundai and Kia models while advancing Level 4 capabilities through the companies' joint venture Motional.
The Korean automaker group aims to internalize proprietary driving AI using data collected from its global vehicle fleet as a central competitive advantage. By combining Hyundai's software-defined vehicle architecture with NVIDIA's DRIVE Hyperion platform, the partnership establishes a unified learning pipeline for continuous improvement across real-world data collection, AI model training, and production deployment.
"The expanded partnership with NVIDIA marks an important milestone in realizing Hyundai Motor Group's vision for safe and reliable autonomous driving technology," said Heung-Soo Kim, Executive Vice President and Head of Global Strategy Office of Hyundai Motor Group. "Based on a unified, Group‑wide collaborative framework. We will strengthen our differentiated technological competitiveness , from Level 2 and above autonomous driving technology to Level 4 robotaxi services."
Through Motional, Hyundai will use new NVIDIA technologies to enhance its robotaxi capabilities while accelerating service deployment. The joint venture currently operates autonomous vehicles in multiple markets and plans further expansion of its commercial services.
NVIDIA's automotive vice president Rishi Dhall noted the collaboration combines "Hyundai Motor Group's leadership in vehicle engineering with NVIDIA's accelerated computing and AI to build safe, intelligent autonomous driving systems."
The expanded partnership comes as NVIDIA broadens its automotive ecosystem with multiple new agreements announced this week. The chipmaker revealed additional partnerships with Nissan Motor, Isuzu, Chinese automakers BYD and Geely for its Drive Hyperion platform. These collaborations focus on developing Level 4 autonomous systems capable of operating without human input under specific conditions.
Uber also confirmed it is expanding its robotaxi partnership with NVIDIA, planning launches in Los Angeles and San Francisco in the first half of 2027 before expanding to 28 cities across North America, Europe, Australia and Asia by 2028. Those deployments will use NVIDIA's Alpamayo AI models featuring reasoning capabilities for complex driving scenarios.
