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Hyundai Motor Group recruits former NVIDIA executive to lead autonomous driving division
Sunday, February 1, 2026 at 08:23 PM
Hyundai Motor Group has appointed a former NVIDIA executive to lead its autonomous driving technology development, signaling a strategic focus on internalizing AI software and hardware integration for its future vehicle platforms.
Context
Hyundai Motor Group has appointed Park Min-woo, a former NVIDIA Vice President, to lead its autonomous driving software development as the new head of the Advanced Vehicle Platform (AVP) division and CEO of 42dot. Park, who previously designed the "Tesla Vision" system at Tesla and spent 10 years at NVIDIA, succeeds Song Chang-hyun. This high-profile recruitment in January 2026 signals a strategic "reset" as Hyundai aggressively pivots toward software-defined vehicles to close the competitive gap with industry leaders.
The move significantly deepens the Hyundai-NVIDIA alliance, which recently announced plans to build a massive "AI factory" in South Korea equipped with 50,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs. By leveraging Park’s expertise in camera-based deep learning and NVIDIA’s physical AI stack, the group aims to accelerate the training and validation of its autonomous models. These investments are critical for meeting Hyundai’s targets for SAE Level 3 automation and the commercial launch of paid robotaxi services via Motional by 2026.
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