Hyundai Motor Group Expands Into Physical AI, Partners With Waymo on Autonomous Driving

According to Chosun Daily, at the San Francisco AI Summit, Hyundai Motor Group announced plans to expand into physical AI including autonomous driving, robotics, and AI factories. Chairman Chung Eui-sun outlined a three-stage approach: first enhancing vehicle and robot intelligence, then deploying AI factories, before integrating systems at city infrastructure level.

Hyundai's autonomous driving strategy builds on its 2024 partnership with Waymo, integrating the Waymo Driver into Ioniq 5 sport utility vehicles for the Waymo One fleet. The company's Boston Dynamics unit, in collaboration with Google DeepMind, is enabling Atlas humanoid robots to perform industrial tasks. Hyundai plans annual U.S. robot production capacity of 30,000 units by 2028.