[CES 2024] Hyundai Motor Company presents a human-centered future brought about by hydrogen and artificial intelligence

Hyundai Motor Company held a ‘Consumer Electronics Show (CES)’ held at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, USA on the 8th (local time) under the theme ‘Great transition to hydrogen and software: Ease every way’. ‘Media Day’ was held.

Hyundai Motor Company presented the value and future blueprint of ‘human-centered life innovation’ that will be brought to the world by the hydrogen energy ecosystem and the great transformation based on software and artificial intelligence (AI) that will be completed based on the Hyundai Motor Group’s value chain.

At this CES, Hyundai Motor Company redefined its role to go beyond ‘movement’ in terms of mobility and add comfort to everyday life through innovation for a better world.

Under Hyundai Motor Company’s brand vision ‘Progress for Humanity’, it presents a blueprint to create a comfortable and peaceful place to live by providing universal human values ​​of ‘freedom, equality, and safety’ beyond the physical utility value of technology. did.

The intention was to provide freedom of movement from various restrictions through the use of advanced software and artificial intelligence (AI), reduce environmental pollution through hydrogen energy, and harmonize society through equal opportunities in energy use. This is implicitly reflected in the CES 2024 Hyundai Motor Company theme ‘Ease every way’.

Hyundai Motor Company’s future blueprint is embodied in ▲comprehensive ‘hydrogen’ solutions that will accelerate the transition to a hydrogen society, and ▲’software’ innovation to build an optimal ecosystem by connecting people, mobility, data, and cities.

“Science and humanity are two sides of the same coin,” said Jaehoon Jang, CEO of Hyundai Motor Company. “All of Hyundai Motor Company’s technological advancements are aimed at making human life richer. We are committed to creating a hydrogen society where clean hydrogen is used as energy for everyone and everything, and can be used everywhere.” “We will expedite its realization,” he said.

“For Hyundai Motors, progress is evaluated as a practical positive impact that can be provided to humanity,” said Hyundai Motors Global Chief Operating Officer Jose Munoz. “We will continue the DNA of the challenging spirit that we have consistently maintained for the great transition to hydrogen and software,” he said.

Hyundai Motor Company has intensively developed hydrogen-related technologies since the beginning of fuel cell research in 1998. Since then, following the world’s first mass production of the Tucson ix35 hydrogen electric vehicle in 2013, the company has continued to strengthen its leadership in the hydrogen field by investing in hydrogen energy technology for over 25 years.

Hydrogen energy has the characteristics of being clean, infinite, and present anywhere in the world. Hydrogen can be produced and utilized in a variety of ways and has strengths in storage and transportation due to its high energy density compared to other energy sources. At the same time, it is possible to secure stable energy security by reducing dependence on specific energy, and has the potential to increase energy independence through local hydrogen production.

Hyundai Motor Company is continuously investing in the development of hydrogen energy based on the characteristics of hydrogen energy that can contribute to the advancement of human values.

At this year’s CES, Hyundai Motor Company declared that it would expand its existing fuel cell brand ‘HTWO’ into Hyundai Motor Group’s hydrogen value chain business brand and announced the HTWO Grid solution that will accelerate the transition to a hydrogen society.

‘HTWO’, Hyundai Motor Group’s hydrogen value chain business brand, combines the capabilities of each affiliate within the group to provide a unit solution (Grid) tailored to the various environmental characteristics and needs of customers at all stages of hydrogen production, storage, transportation and utilization. By combining, we provide an optimized customized package.

It is expected that the HTWO Grid solution will be able to drive the growth of the hydrogen business from production to utilization by connecting all value chains in the hydrogen industry.

First, Hyundai Motor Company is developing various technologies related to hydrogen production. To produce ‘Green Hydrogen 1′, the ultimate eco-friendly hydrogen, Hyundai Motor Company aims to mass produce two megawatt (MW)-level PEM water electrolyzers within a few years.

Currently, the cost of hydrogen production through PEM water electrolysis is approximately 1.5 times higher than that of alkaline water electrolysis3, but in the future, through commonization of fuel cell parts and production infrastructure for hydrogen electric vehicles, hydrogen can be produced at a competitive price compared to the current PEM water electrolysis and alkaline water electrolysis. Being able to mass produce is what differentiates Hyundai Motor Group.

Hyundai Motor Company also unveiled a resource-cycling hydrogen production technology that produces hydrogen using waste. The current method of producing ‘green hydrogen’ is water electrolysis, but this is difficult to realize in areas where water resources are limited or renewable energy is not readily available. To solve this problem, Hyundai Motor Company is developing a resource-cycling hydrogen production technology that converts household waste into hydrogen.

The resource recycling hydrogen production technology being promoted by Hyundai Motor Group is ▲ a method of converting organic waste into hydrogen (Waste-to-Hydrogen, hereinafter referred to as W2H) ▲ a method of converting waste plastic into hydrogen (Plastic-to-Hydrogen, hereinafter referred to as P2H) It is divided into two types.

The first method, W2H, purifies methane generated from organic waste such as food waste, sewage sludge (sediment from the water treatment process), livestock manure, etc. to create biogas and then converts it to hydrogen.

W2H is also noted as having the advantage of being able to create a hydrogen production base in the region, thereby increasing the independence of hydrogen resources by reducing the costs of the hydrogen transportation and storage process.

The second method, P2H, is characterized by enabling large-scale hydrogen production by melting non-recyclable waste plastic into a liquid state, producing synthetic gas through a gasification process, and then purifying it to produce hydrogen.

Hyundai Motor Group is developing various technologies not only for the production of hydrogen, but also for storage, transportation, and utilization. Hydrogen can be stored in liquid, gas, and solid forms, and like natural gas, it can be transported in various ways, including on land and sea. As an actual application example, a mobile hydrogen charging station (H Moving Station) is currently being operated in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, and expansion to Jeju Island and other locations is being considered in the future.

When it comes to utilizing hydrogen energy, including city streets, skies, and oceans, Hyundai Motor Group plans to provide hydrogen mobility solution packages tailored to customers’ diverse uses and scales.

In addition, Hyundai Motor Group plans to actively participate in hydrogen-related demonstration projects and spread customized HTWO Grid solutions for each project.

Typically, the HTWO Grid solution centered on the W2H production model is provided to the Indonesian government-private joint project. Indonesia is showing great interest in introducing hydrogen solutions to achieve carbon neutrality. A solution centered on the W2H production model applied to West Java, where Hyundai Motor Group’s main production base is located, will make it possible to solve regional energy self-sufficiency issues, and we plan to expand this.

The case of Indonesia, which plans to build a small-scale hydrogen production hub using locally generated waste and create an industrial complex based on hydrogen energy through Hyundai Motor Group’s W2H production model, is expected to spread as a technology to support carbon neutrality in the ASEAN region and further around the world. I’m doing it.

In addition, 30 Xcient hydrogen electric vehicles are participating in the U.S. ‘California Port Eco-Friendly Truck Introduction Project (NorCAL ZERO, Zero-Emission Regional and Drayage Operations with Fuel Cell Electric Trucks)’ to verify quality and test emissions reduction. It also participates in the ‘H2Hub4′ program, the US government’s hydrogen infrastructure construction project.

At the same time, in collaboration with global e-commerce companies, we plan to contribute to building a carbon-neutral logistics infrastructure through Hyundai Motor Company’s hydrogen electric vehicle mobility technology.

We are also pursuing a clean logistics project in the Savannah region with Georgia, where the meta plant is being built. We plan to introduce Xcient hydrogen electric truck tractors into logistics and build infrastructure such as hydrogen charging stations together with the state of Georgia. The state of Georgia predicts that it will be able to drive the expansion of the hydrogen ecosystem and is expecting job creation and overall economic effects.

In addition, to transition to a hydrogen society, Hyundai Motor Group, as an end user of hydrogen as an energy source, will increase its annual hydrogen consumption from 13,000 tons last year to about 3 million tons by 2035. Hyundai Motor Group’s efforts to increase hydrogen consumption are part of its efforts to accelerate the realization of a hydrogen society by contributing to the creation of large-scale hydrogen demand.

Hyundai Motor Company announced that it plans to launch a successor model to the NEXO by 2025 to strengthen its market leader position in the passenger fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) field.

As a ‘smart mobility solution provider,’ Hyundai Motor Company provides mobility services and various technologies beyond simple vehicles. At this CES, Hyundai Motor Company emphasized the importance of software and artificial intelligence (AI) to build a ‘user-centered’ optimized mobility ecosystem beyond the physical constraints of time and space, and announced the group’s mid- to long-term strategy SDx (Software) for a software-centered transformation. -defined everything) was announced.

Hyundai Motor Group’s goal of SDx is for all mobility solutions and services to be automated, autonomous, and seamlessly connected. Through this, users can experience the most optimized and free movement according to their individual needs and purposes.

SDx starts from SDV (Software-defined vehicle), which transforms the software-centered vehicle development system. This means decoupling hardware and software to build a ‘software-centered architecture’ that allows for individual development and updates.

The software-centered development transition increases the flexibility and expandability of the vehicle development system, providing a safer and more convenient user experience while always maintaining the latest vehicle status.

In this way, movement data is accumulated with software-defined vehicles and fleets (groups of vehicles for transportation/logistics/distribution, etc.), and expanded into various movement solutions by combining with artificial intelligence (AI), and then used for logistics and city operation. The goal of Hyundai Motor Group SDx is to build a future mobility ecosystem connected to systems, etc.

Hyundai Motor Group also announced plans to strengthen the infotainment system to increase user convenience. First, by establishing a vehicle app market, a ‘Software Development Kit (SDK)’ is shared so that external developers can directly participate and develop killer apps.

We plan to implement a user experience (UX) that allows users to interact with vehicles more safely and conveniently by applying a voice assistant and AI navigation based on the self-developed Large Language Model (LLM)5.

If the SDV development method is spread and applied throughout mobility, fleet business solutions can be strengthened. Efficient vehicle management is possible by checking the exact location and status of the vehicle in real time through transparent and sophisticated data.

In addition, connectivity with external data such as traffic and transportation infrastructure has increased, enabling immediate decision-making based on the latest data when a problem occurs. This allows business partners to respond quickly to situations, optimize vehicle operations, and reduce the burden of vehicle management and supervision.

By converting overall mobility, including vehicles, to software-centered, not only can a variety of AI functions be implemented, but it is also easy to apply machine learning processes (MLOps) that run continuously from data collection to pre-processing, model learning, evaluation, and distribution.

Vehicle technologies and services that apply machine learning processes have automated system maintenance and updates, allowing you to always integrate and manage the latest data and trends, predict and prevent potential problems, and resolve issues immediately when they occur.

This process leads to the stable and efficient operation of mobile devices, mobility, logistics, and the overall city system.

In ‘Cloud Transportation’, the final goal of the SDx strategy, a future mobility ecosystem where people, devices, and city infrastructure are connected is built.

By redefining urban transportation based on software and AI, users will be able to recognize and understand various situations, environments, and contexts in their daily lives, such as the user’s location and movement, so they can use mobile devices and services at the right time. This will allow anyone to enjoy easy and convenient transportation. You can enjoy freedom.

Hyundai Motor Group operates future mobility services such as demand-responsive shuttles, self-driving taxis, and call platforms in various cities in Korea and is expanding the region, accumulating data assets to implement ‘cloud transportation’.

“The core of SDx is user-centered implementation,” said Song Chang-hyeon, head of Hyundai Motor Company’s SDV division. “Our goal is to use all movements in the world as a source of knowledge and innovation, and create and provide optimized mobility devices and solutions that anyone can use.” He said.

At CES on this day, Hyundai Motor Group also announced the group’s software development philosophy, “Service-defined, Safety-designed,” for the first time. He revealed that the most important thing in the software development process is to always start from the user’s needs and design with safety first. Likewise, he emphasized that the values ​​of ‘safety’ and ‘convenience’, which have been considered top priorities since its founding, will remain unchanged in all processes of promoting the SDx vision.

Sangjin Lee daedusj@autodiary.kr