Listen to this article

South Korea, which already has the world’s highest robot density, is getting more service robots. Hyundai Motor Group last week announced the deployment of the DAL-e Delivery robot from Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp., as well as Hyundai WIA’s Parking Robot.

The partners said the robots will deliver beverages and provide parking services, respectively, at Factorial Seongsu, a smart building owned by IGIS Asset Management.

“With DAL-e’s full-fledged delivery service, we aim to make Factorial Seongsu the first building to apply our Robot Total Solution,” stated Dong Jin Hyun, vice president and head of the Robotics LAB of Hyundai Motor and Kia. “We plan to expand our robotics services to more buildings, making these technological enhancements a major criterion for space innovation.”

Parking Robot moves cars, Dal-e delivers drinks

At the building, DAL-e Delivery will autonomously navigate to provide quick and efficient delivery services, said Hyundai Motor. It is equipped with AI face-identification technology developed by Robotics LAB that Hyundai claimed is 99.9% accurate. 

The autonomous Parking Robot can maneuver into tight spaces, increasing parking space utilization compared with human parking, the company said. Hyundai WIA has also developed a Smart Parking Control System that can manage up to 50 parking robots simultaneously. 

Hyundai already has plans to expand this deployment in the coming months. Starting in Q3, the Parking Robot will work alongside Hyundai Motor and Kia’s Automatic Charging Robot (ACR) to serve electric vehicles (EVs). 

Hyundai said it is working toward a proposed “Robot Total Solution” development plan. This plan involves using various robots and facial recognition systems in smart buildings, starting with Factorial Seongsu.

The company added that it hopes to develop an integrated control system for managing multiple delivery robots within the Robot Total Solution. 

Hyundai invests in other robotic ventures

In addition to its office robot deployment, Hyundai has been investing in other robotics ventures. In 2020, it acquired Boston Dynamics, which has been developing and commercializing the legged Spot and Atlas robots.

Last month, Aptiv PLC and Hyundai Motor Group completed their ownership restructuring transitions for Motional AD LLC. Earlier this year, Aptiv said it would stop funding Motional after incurring millions of dollars in losses.

Aptiv had forecast a non-cash equity loss of about $340 million in 2024. Aptiv has sold an 11% common equity interest in the autonomous vehicle developer to Hyundai for about $448 million of cash consideration.

The mobility software company also exchanged 21% of its common equity in Motional for a like number of Motional preferred shares. This news came just weeks after Hyundai announced a $475 million funding round for Motional. With the funding, these transactions have resulted in the reduction of Aptiv’s common equity interest in Motional from 50% to just 15%.