Hyundai's advanced vehicle chief to resign amid slow progress in autonomous tech

Seoul, Dec 4 Song Chang-hyeon, head of Hyundai Motor Group's Advanced Vehicle Platform (AVP) division and chief executive officer (CEO) of the group's software research arm 42dot, has tendered his resignation amid a lack of progress in next-generation vehicle technologies, industry sources said on Thursday.

In a message sent to 42dot employees, Song said he would step down from both positions following a meeting with Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung, according to the sources, reports Yonhap news agency.

Song appears to be taking responsibility for the group's limited progress in autonomous driving technologies, as Hyundai Motor Group has been viewed as falling short of expectations compared with rivals despite significant investment in the AVP division.

"We have been preparing for the future automobile market, where only software-defined vehicles (SDVs) and autonomous driving technologies will remain after global automakers have spent tens of trillions of won only to fall short," Song said in the message.

Hyundai Motor Group appears to be lagging behind rivals, including Tesla Inc., which has been strengthening its presence in South Korea by adopting its supervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) system. Other global carmakers, such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW, have already incorporated Level 3 autonomous driving capabilities into their production models.

The group aims to introduce Level 2+ self-driving features to its vehicles by 2027.

Embedding software DNA into a massive hardware-centric industry and attempting to build an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered device rather than a traditional car had been a highly challenging task, he added.

Song, who served as Naver Corp.'s chief technology officer (CTO) in 2015, left the company in January 2019 to found mobility AI startup 42dot. After Hyundai Motor Group acquired the company in 2022, he led the group's SDV division before taking charge of the AVP unit early last year.

The group is expected to reshape its leadership in future mobility technologies through upcoming executive reshuffles, which are anticipated in the next few weeks.

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