Hyundai, Cisco unveil high-speed car network

Hyundai Motor Group announced Tuesday that it will take the first step toward creating a hyperconnected car by the end of 2019 in partnership with Cisco, an American networking giant.

Hyundai Motor said on Wednesday in a press release that the company and Cisco decided to reveal the core technologies of the in-car network system that they have been co-developing at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The in-car network system controls the flow of data through the vehicle, critical in autonomous vehicles that rely on an array of sensors and cameras. The system is the first step toward creating hyperconnected cars, or vehicles that communicate directly with each other. Hyundai and Cisco’s new system uses high-speed data cables to increase the flow of information around the vehicle.

Hyundai explained in the press release that the volume of data created within a vehicle and transmitted outside will increase exponentially, which means the network currently used will not be able to handle the information properly. The current system can transmit data at 125 to 500 kilobytes per second. In comparison, as much as 1 gigabyte of data can pass through Hyundai’s cables every second. Data capacity and transmission speed is crucial for so-called “future vehicles,” such as autonomous vehicles, as they must be able to send and receive various real-time data collected by sensors without delay.

Another system that Hyundai and Cisco are developing is a software-based control unit. Currently, every system in a car that creates data is run by its own control unit. The network that Hyundai and Cisco are developing will control all data from one centralized unit in order to make the process faster and more efficient.

Hyundai have been collaborating with Cisco since last year.

BY CHOI HYUNG-JO [choi.hyungjo@joongang.co.kr]