Hyundai Motor spins off four in-house start-ups
Hyundai Motor has spun off its four in-house start-ups with what it deems to be more promising business ideas, like autonomous driving.
They were part of Hyundai’s ZERO1NE Company Builder program, which the automaker has been running since 2000 to help its employees to establish start-ups not only in the automotive sector.
The four start-ups include Mobinn, a company that develops self-driving delivery robots.
Mobinn’s delivery robots will be able to deliver customers’ orders to their steps. The robots' wheels are made of lightweight rubber to freely navigate even stairs.
LiDAR sensor, a remote sensing system that uses a pulsed laser to accurately detect objects, will allow the robots to make deliveries both during the daytime and nighttime.
Aplayz is an AI-based music service that automatically suggests music to users based on their location, mood, personality and even the weather and time.
The other two start-ups are Surff Company, a real-time brokerage service for logistics firms, and CaREDIT, a service that predicts vehicle expectancy and management cost.
Each of the selected start-ups will be offered 300 million won ($230,000) in aid from Hyundai Motor. The start-ups will have one year to develop their business until the automaker then decides whether to leave them as spinoffs or subordinate them to one of the carmaker’s departments.
Employees will be able to be rehired to Hyundai for three years, in order to reduce their burden, Hyundai said.
“Hyundai Motor has fostered a total of 76 teams so far, and, of them, 30 have been spun off,” a Hyundai spokesperson said. “We will endeavor to raise more innovate and creative start-ups through expanding open innovations.”
BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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