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Hyundai Motor, Kia plan 2026 self-driving test in Gwangju
Hyundai Motor and Kia said they will begin testing autonomous driving in Gwangju in the second half of 2026 under a pilot backed by South Korea’s transport ministry and the city government.
The trial will initially cover parts of Gwangsan-gu, Buk-gu, and Seo-gu before expanding across all five districts of Gwangju in 2027.
The automakers plan to deploy more than 200 self-driving vehicles based on existing models with eight cameras and one radar, and use their Shucle platform and Atria AI software in the trial.
Autonomous driving startups Autonomous A2Z and RideFlux will conduct technical verification using the test vehicles and operating platform.
Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance will develop accident response and insurance products, while the Korea Transportation Safety Authority will review the results.
🔗 Source: The Chosun Daily
🧠 Food for thought
Implications, context, and why it matters.
Gwangju’s pilot draws on earlier mobility trials
- The Gwangju test brings together two Hyundai Motor Group tools already in use, Atria AI driving software and the Shucle mobility platform 1.
- Shucle has handled vehicle dispatch in South Korea since 2021 2.
- A 2025 pilot in Hungary cut average dispatch waits from 60 minutes to six 3.
- South Korea trials also used Shucle to reach riders with limited transit in Dongtan and to run hotel shuttles in Seoul 45.
Hyundai is building more of its software in-house
- The pilot puts Hyundai Motor Group’s in-house software plan to work, including end-to-end autonomous driving, as it tries to narrow the gap with Tesla and Huawei, the Chinese technology company 6.
- The stack also covers Pleos Vehicle OS, Hyundai’s vehicle operating system, and Gleo AI, its large language model 6.
- The group plans to invest 50.5 trillion won (US$35 billion) in new growth areas and an AI factory in South Korea with 50,000 Nvidia Blackwell graphics processing units, or GPUs 7.
- If the plan works, other established automakers may need to build more of their own software instead of leaning on partners, or face selling hardware with little room to stand out 6.
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