With Hyundai Motor Company president and CEO Dave Zuchowski announcing that sweeping changes in the auto industry are causing the Korean automaker to rethink what it does, the introduction of the Autonomous Ioniq concept car during the Los Angeles auto show was particularly fitting.
Earlier this year, the company earned a licence to test its autonomous cars in urban environments. To showcase the cars in action, Hyundai will debut two Autonomous Ioniqs at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January where the cars will be found driving up and down the neon-and sunlit boulevards of Las Vegas.
It is also testing three autonomous Ioniqs and two autonomous Tucson fuel-cell vehicles at Hyundai Research and Development Center in Namyang, South Korea. Navigating Namyang for a self-driving car, says the company, is a challenge because of the more than 11,000 engineers and designers on site every day.
Hyundai’s self-driving Ioniq
Resembling the rest of the Ioniq lineup (hybrid, electric and plug-in), the autonomous model uses a hidden LiDAR system in its front bumper instead of on the roof, enabling it to look like any other car on the road and “not a high school science project.”
One goal of the autonomous concept was to keep the self-driving systems as simple as possible. This was accomplished by using the production car’s “smart” cruise control’s forward-facing radar, lane keep assist cameras and integrating them with LiDAR technology.
Hyundai is also developing its own autonomous vehicle operating system, with another goal of using a lot less computing power. This will apparently result in a low-cost platform, which can be installed in future Hyundai models the average consumer can afford.