Hyundai Motor’s test-driving of autonomous Ioniq in Las Vegas

Hyundai Motor has successfully tested self-driving of its autonomous vehicles the Ioniq Electric and the Ioniq Hybrid in the Las Vegas strip.

"Hyundai Motor invited journalists on last Thursday to take for a spin in Hyundai Motor’s autonomous vehicles during the day and night,” Korea’s largest automaker said. The company prepared the media event to showcase its technological prowess as it is gearing up for the world’s largest gathering of consumer electronics businesses, Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2017, opening next month

The Ioniq Electric and the Ioniq Hybrid completed a 4-kilometer test of self-driving around the Las Vegas Convention Center without human drivers. Throughout driving, Hyundai Motor’s autonomous vehicles showed stable performance without any accidents at multiple situations, such as crossroad, underground road, crosswalk and lanes merging.

Hyundai Motor had tested self-driving of the Genesis in Seoul last November. The Genesis competed 3-kilometer self-driving from Yeongdong Boulevard in Gangnam District to the Coex without human interventions in restricted environments where traffic and traffic signals were controlled. On the other hand, in Las Vegas, the test was performed in a normal environment.

Autonomous Ioniq delivered satisfactory self-driving performance to meet the level 4 standard by Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). SAE-level 4 means high automation, while level 5 means full automation.

Hyundai Motor has been pushing for development of autonomous vehicles. The autonomous Ioniq is equipped with radar sensors and smart cruise control sensor to navigate the surrounding. A GPS antenna on top helps receive location information and determine road grade, curvature, width of lane and direction.

The company earned a license to test its hydrogen-powered autonomous Tuscan in Nevada last December, and acquired a self-driving license to test drive autonomous Ioniq in October.

Eun-Taek Lee nabi@donga.com