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Following the news that Hyundai Motor Group plans to invest US$35bn in mobility and other auto technologies by 2025;

Animesh Kumar, Director of Automotive Consulting at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:

“Hyundai has been regularly and aggressively investing in new automotive technologies. The South Korean automotive giant recently entered into a joint venture with an autonomous driving tech company Aptiv for the development and commercialization of L4 and L5 self-driving vehicles. Hyundai has already invested in US-based startup Aurora Innovation Inc to co-develop a self-driving fuel-cell vehicle. The company is also investing in shared mobility players such as Grab, Ola and Revv in key markets and plans to supply electric and self-driving vehicles to shared mobility service providers.

“These investments place Hyundai among the top companies in the automotive industry such as Volkswagen (VW) and Toyota in terms of investments in future technologies. Toyota has invested in Uber, DiDi and Grab. VW plans to launch self-drive ride hailing services. BMW has partnered with Daimler to offer SHARE NOW, a car-sharing company. Ford has partnered with Lyft for self-driving shared mobility services.

“Though several such investments and partnerships may appear to be for shared mobility but majority of them encompass two or more components of Connected, Autonomous, Shared, Electric (CASE). The developments fit into GlobalData’s hypotheses that in the long-term, cars will cease to remain a product and would become a service. They also indicate that auto manufacturers across the globe are increasingly looking at new avenues and technologies for long-term growth and to hedge against an uncertain future.

“However, Hyundai needs to be prudent as the development of self-driving vehicles involves risks in terms of high costs for acquiring technologies, and safety and regulatory concerns around the use of self-driving vehicles on public roads.”