Earlier this year, Minwoo Park, a veteran of autonomous driving development and commercialization at both Nvidia and Tesla, was appointed to lead Hyundai Motor Group's autonomous driving division, making him the youngest divisional president at the automaker. This appointment aims to bolster Hyundai's competitiveness in software-defined vehicles and autonomous driving software while accelerating product development, leveraging Minwoo Park's expertise to drive rapid progress in this sector.
Park inherited a unit that was fractured by internal conflicts and had fallen behind rivals like Tesla in the race to perfect self-driving cars. How poor was Hyundai's driver-assistance software? In 2023, Consumer Reports ranked Hyundai last among more than a dozen automakers in its assessment of such systems. The slow pace of improvement eventually prompted Executive Chairman Euisun Chung to bring in the 48-year-old executive to strengthen the group's autonomous driving operations.
Park now faces the formidable challenge of catching up with competitors such as Tesla and BYD, which have already launched urban navigation technologies. Falling behind in one of the industry's fastest-growing segments — estimated by Morgan Stanley to reach a market size of $200 billion by 2030 — could threaten Hyundai's position as the world's third-largest automaker, as consumers increasingly weigh driver-assistance features in their purchase decisions.
Since taking office in February, Park has implemented sweeping reforms — breaking down silos between software teams and engineers, unifying priorities, and accelerating decision-making. He notes that while shifting corporate culture takes time, he has already observed teams spending more time discussing products rather than engaging in internal strife. "Hyundai Motor Group has no shortage of technology or talent," Park said. "The challenge lies in coordination."
Born and raised in South Korea, Park earned his bachelor's degree in electrical and computer engineering from Korea University before completing master's and doctoral degrees in computer science and engineering at Pennsylvania State University. It was there that he pivoted toward computer vision — a decision he calls the best one of his life. After spending his graduate years at Penn State's Computer Vision Research Lab studying how computers extract and interpret information from images and video, he worked at Eastman Kodak Co. and ObjectVideo, developing computer vision technology to automatically determine the geographic location of images and videos.
He then joined Tesla, where he helped lead the camera-centric "Tesla Vision" initiative and won the electric vehicle pioneer's top talent award in 2016. Subsequently, he moved to Nvidia, rising to vice president and leading the autonomous driving software team covering perception, sensor fusion, and machine learning. When he decided to join Hyundai, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang offered his blessings, describing Park's new role as "extremely important for Korea's industry."
"At Tesla, I learned that real-world data is ultimately the key to improving AI," Park said. "At Nvidia, I understood that success requires not just AI models, but also the computing power, software, and infrastructure needed to deploy them at scale."
Hyundai's autonomous driving technology has never truly advanced beyond basic highway driving, failing to make the leap to complex urban streets. But that is about to change. In a video released this month showcasing the company's next-generation system, called Atria AI, Park sat in the passenger seat of an Ioniq 6 as the vehicle navigated around parked cars in the rain, executed unprotected left turns, and maneuvered through narrow alleyways in Seoul. Park personally test-drives the system weekly — similar to Tesla, it relies primarily on cameras for real-time route planning, just as human drivers do.
To close the gap, Hyundai is fundamentally changing how it builds autonomous vehicles. Instead of relying on disparate sensors and components from traditional suppliers, the automaker is transforming its vehicles into data-collection machines powered by Nvidia's top-tier AI chips. Under Park's plan, Hyundai will leverage Nvidia's systems to launch upgraded driver-assistance features by 2028. As millions of new Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis vehicles equipped with the same cameras hit the roads, they will continuously transmit real-world driving data back to the company. This vast stream of everyday road conditions will train Atria AI, paving the way for mass production of vehicles capable of navigating city streets by 2029.
KJ Hwang, head of Korea autos and industrials research at BofA Global Research, noted: "Tesla's progress on full self-driving highlights the need for Hyundai to accelerate its catch-up. We're still in the early stages, and it's too soon to draw conclusions."
Despite Hyundai's lag, Park is betting that the company's massive scale — with last year's sales exceeding those of Tesla and BYD combined — will give it an advantage in rapidly training its systems, allowing it to catch up with current leaders in autonomous driving by the time Atria is deployed in 2029. At Hyundai's CEO Investor Day last month, Park told investors and analysts that its real-world fleet data would match and eventually surpass competitors around 2033. "If we work harder, I do believe we can commercialize faster," he said at a media briefing this month. However, he also cautioned against "rushing half-baked features to market just to grab market share."
According to Seonggyun Jeong, head of Atria AI development, Park has asked engineers to focus on training the AI to handle unusual and complex road hazards rather than everyday driving scenarios, which has already significantly accelerated progress. Further down the road, Hyundai hopes to launch fully autonomous Level 4 vehicles — similar to the Waymo robotaxis operating in the U.S. — with plans to test approximately 200 Ioniq 5 units in the southwestern city of Gwangju later this year.
Of course, Hyundai is not alone in facing growing pains. General Motors' Cruise robotaxi division was shuttered after multiple high-profile safety incidents and billions in losses. Tesla's Full Self-Driving remains a misnomer, still requiring constant human supervision and under investigation following a series of fatal accidents, while its robotaxi rollout has fallen far short of CEO Elon Musk's ambitious promises. Nevertheless, some analysts appreciate the changes Park has brought and express optimism about the new energy he has injected into Hyundai's autonomous driving ambitions. Brian Lee, an analyst at CLSA Korea, remarked: "Until the end of last year, anyone asked about the company's autonomous driving prospects could hardly say anything positive. But he has sent a clear signal — there will be no more delays."
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