Hyundai and Aurora to develop autonomous FCEVs

After VW announced a collaboration with Aurora to bring autonomous EVs to cities as Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) fleets, Hyundai is the next company to sign a contract with the U.S. start-up. Both companies agree on jointly launching autonomous vehicles until 2021.

Hyundai’s cooperation deal comes just a couple of days after VW’s similar announcement. However, in Hyundai’s case the focus is on fuel cell vehicles: The car maker’s newest H2 model – due to be presented at CES in Las Vegas next week – will be the first, engineers of both companies will work on. Related test processes are to start this year. The fuel cell powertrain provides “an ideal platform for autonomous driving tech”, according to Hyundai. Dr. Woong Chul Yang, Vice Chairman of Hyundai states: “We know the future of transportation is autonomous, and autonomous driving technology needs to be proven in the real-world to accelerate deployment in a safe and scalable manner. Combining our advanced vehicle technology that embeds the latest safety features with Aurora’s leading suite of Level 4 autonomous technology will advance this revolution in mobility with Hyundai in a leadership position.”

Hyundai started testing autonomous vehicles in 2015 in Nevada, USA. Two years later, the car manufacturer put its first Ioniq with self-driving tech on display at the last year’s CES.
greencarcongress.com (Aurora), hyundainews.com (fuel cell vehicle)