South Korea

Intelligence for Better Decision Making

Hyundai Launches Domestic AI-Driven Autonomous Vehicle Initiative for 2028 Commercialization

Jan. 13, 2026 | Technology & Innovation

Hyundai Motor and its partners are developing a domestically engineered AI-driven autonomous vehicle set for commercialization by 2028.

**Hyundai aims to integrate a homegrown AI autonomous driving model to manage core vehicle functions, narrowing the technological gap with global automakers and boosting its competitiveness.**
LG Electronics, Hyundai Mobis and HL Mando will jointly build the ADV platform—combining vehicle architecture and software—by the end of next year, while HL Clemoove and Kakao Mobility develop a specialized AI model for software-defined vehicles by 2027. Additional partners including Naver will support data integration and AI infrastructure.

**Mass production of the ADV is scheduled to begin in 2028, with broader applications rolling out by 2030 to strengthen South Korea’s AI mobility ecosystem.**
Hyundai plans to announce key milestones at the K-AI Future Car Alliance signing ceremony in January 2026. Chairman Chung Eui-sun has stressed the strategic shift toward in-house AI development to position Hyundai as a world-class automaker and reduce reliance on external solutions.

**In parallel, Hyundai is expanding its AI capabilities through collaborations in robotaxi and robotics.**
Partnerships with Motional and Boston Dynamics will foster AI expertise transferable across mobility and robotics ventures. Naver will extend mobility services by integrating AI agents, infrastructure and data to support future vehicle ecosystems.

**Gwangju city will serve as South Korea’s first autonomous driving testbed, hosting around 200 AI-equipped robot vehicles from mid-2026.**
Backed by a 62.2 billion won national investment, these vehicles will collect urban driving data in snow, rain, congestion, construction zones and narrow alleyways to refine autonomy algorithms and enhance performance.

**The K-Autonomous Driving Collaboration Model in Gwangju pairs large corporations developing vehicle control platforms with startups providing autonomous driving software.**
The downtown area will act as a demonstration zone, leveraging an existing national AI data center and a major driving simulator in Advanced Industrial Complex 3. Plans call for a triangular industrial belt linking Jingok, Bitgreen and the Future Car Industrial Complexes, later expanding citywide to mirror global autonomous driving hubs.

**Government support includes regulatory easing within designated autonomous driving pilot zones to encourage industry participation.**
These measures align with the national Master Plan to Foster the Future Car Materials, Parts, and Equipment Industry and aim to build a sustainable ecosystem that drives long-term local economic growth.

Motional advances full driverless robotaxi rollout in Las Vegas for 2026

Jan. 13, 2026 | Transportation & Logistics

Fully driverless Level 4 robotaxi services promise to redefine urban transportation in major cities.

**Motional, a majority Hyundai Motor Group joint venture, plans to launch fully driverless Level 4 robotaxi services in Las Vegas by the end of 2026.**
Since early 2026, the company has run pilot services with modified Hyundai IONIQ 5 vehicles alongside ride-sharing platforms such as Uber and Lyft to validate safety, driving quality, and customer experience before full commercialization.

**The company’s autonomous driving efforts began in 2018, with pilot programs in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and Singapore.**
Motional chose Las Vegas for its dense traffic and high tourist volume, creating rigorous test conditions. To date, it has provided more than 130,000 public rides and logged over 2 million autonomous miles without any at-fault incidents. A fleet of 109 vehicles operates under daily monitoring by a central control team based in Las Vegas.

**Motional follows a safety-first approach, meeting US NHTSA Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and earning validations from German testing and certification bodies.**
Its robotaxis integrate 29 sensors—including cameras, radar, and LiDAR—for multimodal redundancy. On January 8, 2026, a 35-minute Level 4 test drive in Las Vegas demonstrated the vehicle’s advanced perception and decision-making: it detected a flying plastic bag, stopped, activated hazard lights, and smoothly navigated commercial districts, tourist areas, hotels, and the busy Strip. The only issue noted was noticeable computer fan noise inside the cabin, which the team will resolve before commercialization.

**Motional is shifting from a modular autonomous architecture to an end-to-end AI and machine learning system that unifies perception, decision-making, and control into a single model.**
This new approach aims to boost performance in complex settings, reduce software complexity, speed up updates, and support global scalability. Current pilot vehicles operate both architectures in parallel to gather data and refine the end-to-end system.

**Hyundai Motor Group will integrate Motional’s Level 4 operational know-how and safety systems with 42dot’s software-defined vehicle platform to strengthen its autonomous driving capabilities.**
Having invested approximately $3 billion in development, Motional is also evaluating service expansion into South Korea and other markets based on insights gained from its US rollout.

Monitored Intelligence for South Korea - Jan. 14, 2026

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MS, 공공 SaaS 진입 가시화되나…업계 "외산 솔루션 확산은 아직 더뎌"

MS, Public SaaS Entry Becoming Visible…Industry Says Spread of Foreign Solutions Still Slow

ZD Net Korea | Local Language | News | Jan. 14, 2026 | UndeterminedTech Development/Adoption

Microsoft (MS) is advancing efforts to enter the public Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market in South Korea with its Microsoft 365 (M365) offering. The company is reportedly pursuing the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) Cloud Security Assurance Program (CSAP) "Ha" grade certification for M365. Achieving this certification would mark MS as the first global tech giant to actively seek entry into the public SaaS market, enabling M365’s introduction in public institutions even in network-isolated environments.

Despite this progress, industry experts note that institutional certification does not guarantee rapid market adoption. While foreign cloud services such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and MS Azure have obtained certifications in the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) domain, actual penetration in the public sector remains limited. SaaS, which involves direct linkage of public institution work data to external services, poses greater security and accountability challenges than IaaS, making adoption more cautious and slow.

A domestic cloud industry official pointed out that although major IaaS providers have secured procurement registrations and partial market entry, contract wins or practical usage within public institutions have been negligible. This official suggested that even if M365 secures its Ha grade certification in the SaaS domain, similar slow uptake can be expected.

The push for SaaS Ha grade certification by MS is seen as a strategic move following Azure’s earlier attainment of the IaaS Ha grade, which helped establish an institutional foundation for public sector entry. However, MS and KISA have declined to confirm details about the application or assessment process. Industry insiders emphasize that beyond certification, actual use cases and trust are critical factors for foreign SaaS solutions to gain meaningful traction in the public sector, predicting that broad adoption will require significant time even after regulatory approval.

김윤덕 국토 "자율차 우리는 초등생, 미국은 대학생…2028년 레벨4 상용화"

Kim Yoon-duk on Transportation: We Are Elementary Students in Autonomous Cars, the US Is at College Level… Level 4 Commercialization by 2028

ZD Net Korea | Local Language | News | Jan. 14, 2026 | UndeterminedTech Development/Adoption

Kim Yoon-duk, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, announced plans to expand autonomous driving demonstrations in South Korea, aiming to launch Level 4 autonomous vehicles in 2027 and commercialize them by 2028. Demonstrations will focus on Gwangju, with deployment of 200 vehicles this year, reflecting urban and rural area characteristics. Minister Kim compared South Korea's current autonomous driving status to being at an elementary school level, while the United States is at a college level.

Commercialization of urban air mobility (UAM) faces delays due to certification issues with imported U.S. aircraft, pushing potential commercialization to 2028 for public sector use in tourism, logistics, and emergency services. South Korea is preparing vertiports and considering direct involvement in UAM development, while Hyundai aims for private and public sector commercialization of UAM around 2030.

The Ministry also plans to address regional decline by preparing to relocate public institutions within the year, aiming for execution next year. The relocation is intended to stimulate regional economies by connecting anchor companies, industrial complexes, and research institutes to foster job creation and industrial growth outside the capital area.

Coupang's CEO fails to comply with 1st police summons

Yonhap | English | News | Jan. 14, 2026 | Corporate Corruption or Fraud

Harold Rogers, interim CEO of Coupang Corp., has failed to appear for the police's first summons amid an investigation into a large-scale data leak. After his absence, a second summons was issued, which Rogers has indicated he intends to comply with. The police are considering imposing an exit ban on Rogers.

The data leak involves the personal information of 33 million users, though Coupang initially reported only about 3,000 individual cases affected. The police suspect the extent of the leak to be much larger and are continuing their analysis. Rogers is being investigated for obstruction of official duties and business related to the company’s internal investigation into the leak.

A special task force has been formed to probe all matters related to Coupang and is focusing on a suspect, a former Coupang employee of Chinese nationality. Efforts are underway with Interpol to repatriate the suspect from China. Additionally, the police will investigate whether Rogers’ testimony to the National Assembly was truthful, following a complaint filed against him for violating laws governing testimony before parliament.

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