Hyundai to invest $13 bln to develop its car software

Hyundai Motor Group revealed Wednesday that it will invest 18 trillion won ($13 billion) to implement advanced software software on all of its vehicles and provide regular software update services to its customers.

According to “Yonhap Agency”, Hyundai said that it has decided to make the huge software investment to launch most of its new vehicles as “Software Defined Vehicle (SDV)” (SDV) in global markets starting from 2025, according to the company stated in statement.

The group aims to regularly upgrade the performance and functionality of all its vehicles to be sold globally from 2025 as it seeks to become a mobility solutions provider of the future.

A Hyundai official said, “Currently, customers need to visit after-sales service centers to update their vehicle software. But remote update services will be available for SDF vehicles, and their residual value will remain high.”

As part of related efforts, Hyundai Motor Group will push for all vehicles to be launched from 2023, including those with combustion engines and all-electric models, to receive software updates, the official said.

Among the planned investments, Hyundai will spend some on developing self-driving technology, improving connectivity services and building a massive data center, the statement said.

The company expects the number of vehicles registered in its connected car services to jump to 20 million in 2025 from about 10 million at the end of this year.

The statement said that it will analyze the cumulative data from the connected car service and use it to provide customized software services to car owners.