Hyundai and Kia partner 17 companies to accelerate transition to SDVs

Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Corporation have signed a multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with 17 industry-leading companies, including Hyundai Motor Group affiliates and software development companies, to form the Hyundai Motor Group Model-Based Development (MBD) Consortium. The consortium aims to boost Hyundai Motor and Kia’s competitiveness in vehicle control system development.

The development of advanced Software Defined Vehicles (SDVs) requires integrated software that controls the various electronics in the vehicle based on domain centralised architecture. In the past, control software had to be implemented to the hardware to be verified and further improved, but the MBD-based model has the advantage of maximising efficiency by verifying the algorithm through virtual simulation, thus shortening development time while improving quality.

"We aim to accelerate the Software Defined Vehicle transition through standardisation and an open development ecosystem with the close collaboration with industry-leading companies,” said Yong Wha Kim, Executive Vice President, and Head of R&D Planning & Coordination Center of Hyundai Motor and Kia. “Technology sharing and collaboration derived from the consortium will be the key factor in the enhancement of the software competitiveness. We look forward to providing a more advanced mobility experience to customers through SDV.”

HMG's MBD Consortium aims to improve investment efficiency in creating software and virtual development solutions and to promote a software-based development system through standardisation and sharing of such environments. This will contribute to a more organic integration of both companies’ control software, especially with the contributing factor of standardising software and virtual development systems.

Nineteen-member consortium

The consortium includes a total of 19 Korean and international companies with leading software and virtual technologies, including vehicle controller system developers. The participating companies consist of the Group’s affiliates, including Hyundai Motor, Kia, Hyundai MOBIS, Hyundai WIA, Hyundai KEFICO, Hyundai Transys, Hyundai NGV and Hyundai AutoEver as well as Robert Bosch, Vitesco, HL Mando, dSPACE, MathWorks, SureSoft Tech, Synopsys, IPG Automotive, ETAS, ControlWorks and Vector.

The consortium is divided into a ‘development group’ for controllers and software product development and a ‘technology group’ that supports specialised technologies to form a comprehensive collaborative ecosystem. The participants will share technology to enhance their respective competitive edge and to help accelerate the SDV transition by establishing a standardised environment for software development and virtual validation.

Hyundai Motor and Kia plan to build an open SDV development ecosystem supporting technology sharing and cooperation among participating companies and promoting the standardisation of the finalised control software development and virtual validation systems from the consortium.

In 2022, the Group announced a new global strategy to transform all vehicles to SDV by 2025 through the ‘Unlock the Software Age’ initiative. The Group hopes to deliver an unprecedented era of mobility through such an initiative, presenting customers with the freedom of movement and providing innovative user experience through software-connected, safe and comfortable mobility solutions.