CES 2024: Hyundai transitions to hydrogen-powered, software-driven transformation to ease every way
8 minute read
Here at Hyundai, we’re dreaming of a safe, free, and fair tomorrow for humanity under our vision of ‘Progress for Humanity’. At CES 2024, we are presenting a blueprint for a hydrogen-powered society and our constantly evolving software that will change our lives forever.
Bringing ease into your every day
What will our lives look like tomorrow?
We believe that we will all have satisfying daily lives filled with comfort free from the stress of living in crowded and polluted cities.
With our hydrogen energy solutions, energy can be produced anywhere and everywhere. This means that there will be greater equality in the access to, and use of, energy. Just imagine a world where everyday waste is made into clean energy making our living spaces safe, clean, and free from pollution.
We are working on software that is optimized for users and guarantees free movement by connecting mobility options and the city in one place. Based on the data that is accumulated, our software can then proactively protect everyone even in dangerous situations.
Hyundai is making this world a reality with our hydrogen energy and software solutions.
Our passion for hydrogen energy
Hydrogen energy is not a new thing for us. We have always held the belief that hydrogen energy is essential for the future. In fact, here at Hyundai, we have been developing hydrogen vehicles since 1998. That’s 26 years of expertise already.
In 2013, we commercialized the world's first mass-produced Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV), the Tucson iX35 FCEV. We followed this with the launch of the NEXO in 2018 and achieved the top spot worldwide for sales of hydrogen vehicles.
With the launch of our hydrogen-powered heavy-duty truck XCIENT Fuel Cell in 2020, we have further verified the excellent quality of our hydrogen mobility. Since 2020, our XCIENT Fuel Cell heavy-duty trucks in Switzerland has accumulated 8.7 million kilometers of cumulative driving in real-life customer operation.
Our preparation for the future, which began with the development of hydrogen vehicles, has now expanded across our entire company. Our next goal is to provide comprehensive hydrogen-related solutions across the entire hydrogen value chain.
What’s more, to accelerate the transition to a hydrogen society, we need to start using hydrogen on a larger scale. To this end, we will increase our hydrogen consumption to 3 million tonnes per year by 2035 and use this to propel a major transformation.
The HTWO Grid, end-to-end hydrogen solution
Transitioning from fossil fuels to a hydrogen energy ecosystem requires a comprehensive solution that is tailored to the different needs of everyone who needs to use it.
Our answer is HTWO Grid, an end-to-end hydrogen solution where the capabilities of every affiliate intersect at all stages of hydrogen production from storage and transportation to utilization. This will even offer customized solutions optimized for various environments and physical characteristics through its organic combinations and connections between each technology.
We already have different hydrogen solution packages in the United States and are under discussion with Indonesia on a waste-to-hydrogen production focused solution package. Especially, the Clean Logistics Project that will officially launch in the second half of 2024 is expected to drive a hydrogen society in Georgia. We plan to provide our solution to different regions, thus accelerate the transition to a hydrogen society in the future.
Turning everyday waste into energy
The best-known method of producing clean hydrogen is water electrolysis, which produces hydrogen by splitting water. However, the availability of water is different from region to region. So, we became interested in ways to turn waste generated in everyday life into hydrogen.
Waste-to-energy technology, which we introduced at CES 2024, is a technology that converts sewage, food waste, livestock manure, and plastic waste that is concerned as a headache to all countries.
Waste-to-energy technology is largely divided into two types. Firstly, waste-to-hydrogen technology is a method that decomposes organic waste with microorganisms to generate biogas and convert this into hydrogen. Secondly, plastic-to-hydrogen technology is a method of obtaining hydrogen by gasifying the molten plastics and producing hydrogen by removing unnecessary elements. Hyundai Motor Group is already in action to produce hydrogen from biogas in Chungju city in Korea.
Both technologies have a double positive effect (win-win) as they fix two problems: they can obtain clean hydrogen energy while reducing the waste around us.
Providing freedom to move through software and AI
Beyond vehicles, we are also expanding into SDx which means “software-defined everything”. This means redefining vehicles, fleets, transportation system and beyond, with software and AI.
We aspire to create a user-centred, safer, and more convenient mobility ecosystem through software and AI, because they allow everything to be connected without the constraints of time and space.
The first thing we’ve been working on is a shift in development. When a “software-defined” approach is applied to automobiles, all features can be designed and updated based on user’s mobility journey.
Software can quickly improve the vehicle's user experience and safety features, driving performance, and app services. It can even define a vehicle’s entire identity.
So through software and AI, we want to connect mobility, logistics solutions with devices and city operations systems, and transform the way the world moves. Hyundai see movement as a new source of knowledge and innovation.
The whole SDx journey is driven by the values of convenience and safety, which have always been a priority for Hyundai Motor Group. Using software to fulfill our “Service-defined, Safety-designed” philosophy will help us strengthen and evolve these values even more.
Dreaming of a new mobility ecosystem with our vision for SDx
Our vision for SDx begins with SDV (software-defined vehicle). For this, we plan to incorporate software development practice into vehicle development, allowing independent updates and advancement of software and hardware. This increases agility and scalability of vehicle development, enabling faster updates of user-centric features and continuous improvement of device.
With the spread of SDVs in the market, data and platforms will be increasingly connected therefore management of large-scale fleets will become easier and more efficient. Hyundai will expand its software solutions to business customers and provide insights, by enabling optimal operation and management of vehicles, and real-time data analytics to issues for fleet operators.
As vehicles and fleets get defined and developed by software, they will eventually become AI-defined. The Group envisions vehicles evolving into ‘AI machines’ that continuously learn to better serve customers. Through automated and autonomous development, improvement and updates of devices and solutions, mobility in general will become efficient and accessible, adding value for users.
Hyundai is dreaming where HMG's various software technologies and platforms are combined to lay the foundation for a ‘Cloud Transportation’, where an entire self-operating urban transportation system is connected and run through software and AI.
Users will be provided with transportation-as-a-service, all any mobility and logistics solutions needed in time. With all software-defined HMG devices, from vehicles to AAM, robotics to smart factories, all connected within the mobility ecosystem seamlessly.
Opening up infinite possibilities with Hyundai’s future mobility
At CES 2024, we introduced our future mobility concept with roots in hydrogen, software fused with robotics technology to ease our lives in every way. We are expanding “movement” beyond limitations, here are some of the things you can look forward to seeing from us in the future.
DICE (Digital Curated Experience)
Software combined with AI technology offers a whole new mobility experience. For example, DICE is a personal mobility concept that delivers a personalized curated experience, which makes the time spent moving more valuable.
DICE linked with AI recognizes you anytime, anywhere, and provides optimized services. It can also be connected with a personal device to create a customized environment. DICE’s three-sided Transparent OLED create immersive personalized experiences. The ring pad controller, a kinetic interface that is an evolved form of the ‘fixed interface’ dashboard of existing vehicles, allows you to communicate with AI and adjust the environment of DICE. DICE can process individual preferences and movement environments to deliver a continuous curation of optimized content even while you’re enroute.
SPACE (Spatial Curated Experience)
The development of software technology has opened a wide spectrum of possibilities for space within mobility. SPACE, social mobility concept, is based on inclusivity and circularity. It embraces diverse needs with inclusive and social value, providing free movement and customized spatial experiences for all.
SPACE – Mobility: This multi-seater public mobility system gives everyone, including people with mobility impairments, unrestricted access to travel experiences. The interior space is reinterpreted as a personalized space supported by autonomous driving, AI and ‘Adaptive Seat’ stored within the walls. Boarding height control allows easy boarding of wheelchairs and provides the perfect solution for last mile mobility for you, your pets and any other guests.
SPACE – Pavilion: Obsolete SPACE modules are reinterpreted as architectural elements and reassembled into the shape of a pavilion, offering inclusive usability even to disadvantaged areas. It features a Hologram Interface for communicating with the software environment. The hydrogen energy system supports portable battery slots and various charging modules, providing smart farms and air-cleaning algae modules using water by-products. The seats provide a space to rest. SPACE-Pavilion is a physical hub connecting people with the city, robots, and mobility.
CITY POD
We also offer future logistics that grant mobility solutions that go beyond the limits of the current logistics system and move freely and organically at every stage. CITY POD is capable of a digital twin control that was systematically organized both above and below ground utilizing AI. It also offers logistics within the city, leveraging future technologies such as Crab walk and autonomous driving to maximize efficiency. It provides a diverse range of uses not only in logistics but also in future life and industrial sites, including public transportation, industrial material and waste transportation, hydrogen energy transportation, and automatic refueling support.
Stretch
Stretch is our versatile, autonomous robot for safer and more efficient warehouse operations. Today, Stretch is out in the real world, unloading floor-loaded trailers and shipping containers on behalf of humans. In the next few years, Stretch will become a multi-purpose case-handling robot that will enable the lights-out warehouse of the future. Soon after, Stretch may be able to handle a variety of manipulation tasks, even outside of the warehouse. These robots are exceptional, intelligent machines that enrich people’s lives by protecting humans from dangerous, repetitive, and physically challenging activities.
The dawn of a new world
Although both hydrogen energy and software are invisible, they are like the air that exists all around us. Here at Hyundai, we are bringing positive changes to the world by combining the capabilities of our companies and realizing the full potential of hydrogen and software.
This new pathway will make all our lives more comfortable, and it will make our world cleaner and safer. We are more than a mobility company. We are changing the environment in which we live in and bringing ‘Progress for Humanity’. Join us on our journey and get ready for the future by following @hyundai on Instagram.