AI competition takes center stage in auto industry

"We want to give more people freedom of movement with the software-driven auto paradigm shift,” he said during a recent speech at the Hyundai Motor Group (HMG) Development Conference. "Software and AI will display an infinite possibility of growth in the mobility industry.”

Hyundai and Kia are two frontrunners seeking to advance their autonomous technologies with the continued investments in software, AI and other data-powered technologies. Hyundai released a video clip showing its remote parking pilot technology during the latest developer event.

Experts said AI technologies are developing at an alarming pace, and the level of autonomous driving is getting more and more sophisticated.

"A completely self-driving vehicle will be available sometime in the not-too-distant future, as relevant AI technologies are developing faster than expected,” Kim Kyung-joong, professor of computer engineering at Sejong University, said. "Tech development is not a big issue, but a tougher hurdle will be how to resolve regulatory obstacles due to lingering safety concerns.”

Other global automakers are also set to embrace generative AI in their infotainment systems to enhance drivers’ experiences by teaming up with leading AI players. Generative AI is one of the most popular types of AI with the rise of ChatGPT, a language model-powered chatbot.

In June, Mercedes-Benz reached a partnership with OpenAI, the operator of ChatGPT, to help drivers engage in voice control with their vehicles. The German luxury automaker aims to make its Mercedes-Benz User Experience (MBUX) Voice Assistant’s Hey Mercedes service more intuitive by adding ChatGPT. MBUX is Benz’ advanced multimedia infotainment system.

Drivers can easily access the service via the Mercedes me app, or they can also use the voice command by saying "Hey Mercedes.” An optional beta program for the service started in June in the United States, targeting more than 900,000 vehicles with the MBUX system.

Local AI specialists also expressed hopes for wider usage of generative AI in other parts of the auto industry.

"Generative AI can be used to create a dataset that would be hard to collect in the real world,” Park Chan-ju, a tech lead at Upstage, said. "For instance, such a dataset can help develop better and more accurate autonomous driving technology which has to take into consideration a complex set of driving conditions in bad weather and heavy traffic,” Park added.

"It is realistically hard to collect all such datasets in our daily lives, but we can do so by utilizing synthetic data, which refers to information artificially generated,” he said. "This will help build more effective and diverse driving simulation models, which will improve learning data for autonomous driving technologies.”

General Motors (GM) is also jumping on the global AI bandwagon by partnering with Google. Both companies have decided to equip GM vehicles with Google Cloud’s conversational chatbot. GM’s in-vehicle concierge, OnStar, is operated by recognition algorithms using Google’s conversational AI ever since 2022. The two companies are advancing their tech ties, so drivers receive rapid responses to typical queries used for such cases as navigation assistance.

BMW Group is taking somewhat fresh attempts for its state-of-the-art digitalization using AI.

Last year, the automaker unveiled its next-generation production strategy called BMW iFACTORY. Under the roadmap, the company aims to make all of its manufacturing processes connected with latest technologies by using data science and AI.

"The approach will bring all our planning for production lines and employees’ work processes to a higher level,” an official at the automaker said. "For example, we can check how our imaginary products are manufactured in a factory at its infancy, and this step will help streamline our overall planning by a huge margin. This will also help optimize our investments and improve design process efficiency, thereby guaranteeing our manufacturing stability until we launch new products.”

Top executives at Renault Group are rushing to visit Korea to check the status quo of the connectivity systems of Renault Korea vehicles.

In September, Renault’s Chief Scientific Officer Luc Julia visited Renault Technology Korea in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province and reviewed Renault Korea’s latest achievements in the in-vehicle Internet of Things (IoT) and other connectivity technologies. The Renault executive is a renowned AI tech expert, most famous as a co-developer of Apple’s voice assistant Siri.

Coupled with the visits to Korea by the top executives, Renault Korea is stepping up its R&D efforts to launch hybrid and electric vehicles (EV) equipped with advanced in-vehicle infotainment systems.