Hyundai Motor invests in Israeli chipset maker

Hyundai Motor is teaming up with Israeli chipmaker Autotalks to develop connected car technology, the Korean automaker said Tuesday.

Hyundai Motor said it made a strategic investment in Autotalks but did not disclose the amount.

The two companies will first focus on developing communication chipsets optimized for connected cars being developed by Hyundai.

A chipset is like the brain of a connected car. It enables cars to communicate with nearby vehicles and infrastructure like traffic lights and roads via the internet. The so-called vehicle-to-everything technology - cars being connected to everything via the internet - is necessary for autonomous cars to avoid obstacles themselves.

The Israeli company, founded in 2008, is recognized worldwide for its connected car chipsets, which comply with international standards. Even before Hyundai, the Israeli company had attracted investments from other carmakers and tech giants like Samsung and Toyota for its technology.

Hyundai hopes to apply vehicle-to-everything chipsets developed with Autotalks in a range of businesses including autonomous driving and smart city projects.

The automaker described a smart city as a city with internet of things technology where everything in the ecosystem - cars, roads, buildings and people - can actively communicate based on internet connections.

Hyundai’s auto part affiliate Hyundai Mobis and automotive electronics affiliate Hyundai Autron will also be involved in the cooperation. Korea’s largest automaker said it plans to expand partnerships with other global tech firms to come up with a cutting-edge connected car.

In 2013, the Seoul-based automaker established a big data center in Korea, and last September, it set up its first overseas data center in Guizhou, China, to build up expertise in data analysis. Diverse data sets like traffic data, weather data and map data are key to connected car technology.

The carmaker is also developing its own platform called connected car Operating System (ccOS) that will help the car process massive amount of data transmitted to the car. The automaker has plans to unveil ccOS-installed cars by 2020.

“Connectivity is a technology that can be applied to various businesses of the future like autonomous driving, infotainment and smart city projects,” a spokesperson for Hyundai Motor said.

BY KIM JEE-HEE [kim.jeehee@joongang.co.kr]