Uber, Hyundai to collaborate on self-driving cars in Korea

Uber is reportedly in South Korea exploring a potential autonomous vehicle partnership with the country’s largest automaker Hyundai Motor which could lead to huge car orders in the future.

Maeil Business News Korea reports that autonomous car researchers from US ride-sharing service Uber are visiting Hyundai’s Namyang research and development facility in Hwaseong.

The visit will enable the two firms to explore potential collaboration on the development of self-driving ride sharing technology.

Uber previously revealed plans that it intends to launch a driverless taxi service by 2020. To achieve this ambitious date, it has been actively seeking partners with advanced autonomous vehicle technology.

And Hyundai has certainly not been asleep at the wheel, when it comes to self-driving car technology.

Automobile industry watchers say that Hyundai has incorporated advanced autonomous innovation into its new line of Genesis sedans. Specifically autonomous car technology such as highway driving assist and the autonomous emerging braking system were incorporated into the design of the last year’s EQ900 as well as the G80, which is slated for release this month.

Hyundai was the first Korean company to get the green light from government to trial its self-driving Genesis sedans on public roads this March.

Uber interested in a 2019 Hyundai model

Speculation has emerged that Uber is interested in a future G80 model that Hyundai has scheduled to launch in 2019, which will be equipped with fully autonomous driving capability.

Uber is currently operating in 300 cities in 58 global cities. Should Hyundai be picked for a partnership, it could translate into huge sales orders of self-driving cars to feed the appetite of the rapidly expanding ride-sharing company.

But Hyundai isn’t the only carmaker that Uber is cozying up to. ReadWrite previously reported that Uber is rumored to be planning to purchase – or may have already placed an order for – thousands of Mercedes-Benz self-driving vehicles. One report said that Uber placed a huge order to buy 100,000 of the carmaker’s S-Class, with a total price tag of nearly $12 billion.

This follows another report that Fiat was in talks to provide self-driving cars to both Uber and to Amazon.

Hyundai is building an 'Iron Man' suit

Inside Iron Man's suit is just a man. Sure, a man with a tiny arc reactor in his chest, but otherwise just a flesh-and-blood person who's made super strong and virtually indestructible thanks to a mechanized suit of gold-titanium alloy.

If one guy can build such a suit, surely an entire car company can do it, too, at least that's Hyundai's perspective.

The company posted a series of photos and some scant information about a wearable robot it's building on its blog on Wednesday.

The Hyundai exoskeleton has considerable lifting power

IMAGE: HYUNDAI

The exoskeleton looks nothing like Stark's suit, but the Marvel superhero is clearly an inspiration. 

In the page announcing the project, Hyundai repeatedly references Iron Man's suit, more or less wondering if people realized that the wearable robot they've only seen in movies is actually being developed by Hyundai.

Hyundai's wearable robot is being designed to work in a variety of scenarios, including manufacturing, where Hyundai believes it can help increase productivity, while lowering the incidence of injuries.

Like the Iron Man suit, Hyundai's exoskeleton will give the wearer super-lifting strength. Hyundai wrote that it can lift "hundreds of kilograms," would could translate to 600 pounds of lifting strength.

Since the entire suit weighs roughly 50 kilograms (110 pounds), it could be useful in defense, where pilots can "move quickly over long distances."

Unlike Tony Stark's suit, you don't so much wear the Hyundai exoskeleton as strap it on.

IMAGE: HYUNDAI

It's also being developed to help paraplegics walk again, and aid the elderly become more mobile and even stand for longer periods of time. 

Beyond the photos and Hyundai's slightly hyperbolic promises, significant questions remain. When will it come to market? How's the battery life? And, perhaps most importantly, how much does it cost? We've contacted Hyundai for details and will update this post with its response.

What Hyundai does promise is that "wearable robot development of the Hyundai Motor Group will eventually lead to the free movement of people and things," and lead to something it's calling "Next Mobility."

It's probably a future Tony Stark would love.