Korean auto major Hyundai Motor Company is showcasing future technologies from across the Hyundai Motor Group (the Group) at CES 2024 in Las Vegas under the theme ‘Ease every way’.
The company says the showcase is a redefinition of its role in creating a more comfortable everyday life, focusing beyond mobility to innovate a human-centered life through the completion of a hydrogen energy ecosystem and a shift toward software-driven approaches.
At the CES 2024, Hyundai Motor announced that it would expand HTWO, its existing fuel cell brand, into the Group’s hydrogen value chain business brand, and announced a ‘HTWO Grid’ solution that will accelerate the transition to a hydrogen society.
HTWO harnesses the capabilities of each affiliate within the Group to offer an optimised, customised package that integrates unit solutions (‘Grid’) to meet the diverse environmental characteristics and needs of customers at every stage of hydrogen production, storage, transportation and utilisation.
It provides visitors with an understanding of its Plastic-to-Hydrogen (P2H) and Waste-to-Hydrogen (W2H), and a green hydrogen process.
P2H involves melting waste plastics that cannot be recycled, such as contaminated plastic and vinyl waste, which can be transformed into clean hydrogen energy. It can be achieved by combining liquefaction technology developed by Hyundai Engineering and the gasification technology of the global oil and gas company, Shell.
W2H is a process that converts biogas from organic waste, such as livestock manure and food waste, into hydrogen. Group entities Hyundai Engineering & Construction (E&C) and Hyundai Rotem are collaborating to enhance the technological development of this process.
Visitors can also learn about green hydrogen that is produced by electrolysing water. Electrolysis plants operate on renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar and hydropower. As green hydrogen is produced by a carbon-free energy source, it neither emits polluting gases during combustion nor production, gaining attention as the ultimate clean energy source of the future.
SDV to SDx (Software-defined Everything)
At CES 2024, Hyundai Motor showcases exhibits and videos introducing core ‘software-defined vehicle’ (SDV) technologies under development by the Group’s global software center, 42dot, emphasising the importance of software (SW) and AI in becoming a smart mobility solutions provider.
The Korean major aims to redefine everything from vehicles to all surrounding environments with SW and AI, promoting the expansion from SDV to SDx (Software-defined Everything). Its CES exhibit highlights the Group’s current practical software-defined mobility services alongside technologies fostering the extension of SDx.
The SDV Electrical/Electronic (E/E) Architecture represents the core hardware structure of SDV, showcasing the operational framework and functional structure where the vehicle’s cameras, radars and sensors gather driving environment data, enabling autonomous driving through the integrated controller, a high-performance vehicle computer (HPVC) embedded within the vehicle. This exhibit illustrates how the vehicle’s hardware structure gets simplified through the transition toward SDV, providing a more intuitive view.
Based on driving scenes in Pangyo, South Korea played on the display in the front of the exhibit, actual road scenarios, such as left and right turns, are staged to illustrate the data flow where the HPVC and zone controllers for autonomous driving are activated according to the road environment. This flow is visualised through LED lights. Moreover, it’s possible to observe the operation of a ‘fault-tolerant’ function within SDV safety features, where even if one controller malfunctions, another controller takes over to ensure safe driving.
The HPVC exhibited alongside the SDV architecture serves as the integrated hardware consolidating core SDV technologies. It controls all other controllers within the SDV, functioning as the brain of the SDV, enabling the application of software technologies in the vehicle. The HPVC aids in driving assistance and acts as a gateway between data generated within the vehicle, facilitating the application of software technologies in the vehicle. It plays a significant role, vastly enhancing the vehicle’s performance, safety and convenience.
Hyundai is showcasing two HPVC models developed by 42dot, which differ in their cooling methods: one uses air cooling, dissipating heat through air, while the other utilises liquid cooling with water.
The company is also displaying a video on software-defined mobility services in motion equipped with advanced technologies operated by various companies within the Group. The video features the on-demand shuttle ‘Shucle’, autonomous mobility platform ‘TAP!’ and Motional’s IONIQ 5-based autonomous taxi service ‘Robotaxi’.
Air taxi
Hyundai Motor Group’s Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) company unveiled S-A2, its electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle product concept.
The pilot-plus-four-passenger vehicle marks the latest milestone in Supernal’s roadmap to commercialise safe, efficient and affordable everyday passenger air travel.
The S-A2 builds on the concept, S-A1, which debuted at CES 2020, bringing together aerospace engineering and Hyundai Motor Group automotive aesthetic design to create a new mode of transportation to get people in urban areas from point A to point B faster.
The company says S-A2 is a V-tail aircraft designed to cruise 120 miles per hour (193kmph) at a 1,500-foot altitude to meet typical city operation needs of 25- to 40-mile (40-65km) trips, initially. It features a distributed electric propulsion architecture and has eight all-tilting rotors. At entry into service, Supernal’s vehicle will operate as quietly as a dishwasher: 65 dB in vertical take-off and landing phases and 45 dB while cruising horizontally.
Supernal will achieve commercial aviation safety levels and enable affordable manufacturing of its vehicles as it prepares to enter the market in 2028.
