“Hyundai is doing well”… ‘Martian’ Musk and Star Wars, Chung Eui-sun’s ‘moon exploration’ challenge [세상만車]

▲ Chairman Chung Eui-sun of Hyundai Motor Group, which is pushing for space expansion. [사진출처=현대차그룹]

[세상만車] “Musk, the universe is not yours.”

Elon Musk, CEO of private space companies SpaceX and Tesla, and Chung Eui-sun, chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, will compete in space beyond Earth.

In the face of Musk, who has blossomed in the electric vehicle era, Chairman Chung initially took on the challenge. Hyundai Motor Group, a latecomer, has grown rapidly in the US electric vehicle market with Hyundai Motor’s Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, and Genesis GV60.

Musk even posted a tweet on Twitter showing the victor’s leeway, but also checking it.

In a media report on the 18th of last month that Hyundai Motor ranked second following Tesla in the US electric vehicle market in the first quarter, Musk said, “Hyundai is doing pretty well.”

Hyundai Motor Group and Tesla compete in robotics

▲ Boston Dynamics’ robot dog Spot and humanoid robot Atlas. [사진출처=현대차그룹]

In the field of robotics, Chairman Chung took the lead with a huge investment. Robotics was selected as the first large-scale merger and acquisition (M&A) field following taking office as chairman.

In December 2020, it decided to acquire an 80% stake in Boston Dynamics, a global robot company, and completed the M&A in June last year at 1 trillion won.

Boston Dynamics plans to introduce Stretch, a logistics robot, to the market this year following the full-scale commercialization of Spot, a service robot.

Musk announced its entry into the robot market by unveiling the humanoid robot ‘Teslabot’ at the ‘Artificial Intelligence Day’ held in California, USA on August 19 (local time) last year.

Musk showed strong confidence, saying, “Tesla is the world’s largest robotics company.” “A robot with a certain level of self-awareness is a Tesla vehicle with wheels, and a Tesla bot can be seen as a transformation of such a car into a human form.”

However, as of the end of a year, the actual ‘Teslabot’ has not been released.

Entering space using ‘City Aviation’ as a stepping stone

▲ Hyundai Motor’s Future Mobility Vision [사진출처=현대차]

When it comes to space, Chairman Chung became a challenger once more. Chairman Chung declared a space war once morest Musk, a ‘Martian (geek)’ who is opening the era of space exploration by considering Tesla as a stepping stone for Mars exploration.

Chairman Chung’s space war was foretold three years ago. Chairman Chung declared a ‘transition to a game changer’ in his 2019 New Year’s message.

At a town hall meeting in October of the same year, he announced a specific goal for becoming a smart mobility solution company, saying, “50% of Hyundai Motor Group’s future business will be automobiles, 30% urban air traffic (UAM), and 20% robotics.” .

In May this year, Hyundai Motor, Kia, and Hyundai Mobis announced that they would invest 8.9 trillion won in future new technology development and new businesses. It is to lead the fields of robotics, advanced air mobility (AAM), connectivity, autonomous driving, mobility services, and artificial intelligence (AI).

▲ Musk and Teslabot [사진출처=매일경제DB, 테슬라]

30% of Hyundai Motor Group’s future businesses will be in charge of future urban air mobility. This is where the energy of space wars sprouted.

As you can see from the expression ‘aerospace’, aviation and space are inseparable. The eyes of Chairman Chung, who are running towards the leader of the UAM era, are already in space.

Robots, which will be responsible for 20% of the future business, cannot be left out in space exploration. This is because robots are essential in order to embark on space exploration before or together with humans. Autonomous driving technology is also applied to robots. This is also the reason why Tesla is actively developing the ‘Teslabot’.

‘Transformation robot’ Tiger reveals moon exploration video

▲ Elevate [사진출처=현대차그룹]

Chairman Chung expressed his desire for space through the Hyundai Motor Group official YouTube channel in February last year. It is through a transforming robot that can be used for exploration and transportation not only on Earth, but also on the Moon and Mars.

‘New Horizons Studio’, an organization in charge of future mobility under Hyundai Motor Group, has released images and videos of the concept model ‘X-1’ of the Transforming Intelligent Ground Excursion Robot (TIGER).

The Tiger adopted a modular platform structure similar to the walking mobility ‘Elevate’, which was first unveiled by Hyundai Motor Group at the 2019 CES (International Electronics Show). Elevate is manned, Tiger is unmanned.

▲ Tiger and Elevate [사진출처=현대차그룹]

Since it is an unmanned robot, it is also small in size. The Tiger is 80 cm long, 40 cm wide, and weighs 12 kg, and is an intelligent, small unmanned mobility with four legs and wheels.

The body is designed to be suitable for multi-purpose missions that are difficult for ordinary vehicles to perform, such as △scientific exploration and research using various sensors, △transporting emergency supplies in case of emergency rescue, and △delivering goods to remote areas.

The Tiger has a symmetrical structure that can easily change direction forward, backward, left and right. Robot legs are used when there are obstacles or when you have to go through hard-to-reach terrain using wheels. On flat terrain, it transforms into a four-wheel drive vehicle.

Inside the vehicle, there is a separate cargo compartment. Because the robot legs can always be leveled, goods can be safely transported even in areas with irregular road surfaces such as rough roads and polar regions.

In a YouTube video, it combines with UAM to quickly move to a place that cannot be reached with wheels. UAM acts as a wing.

The tiger can also be used for exploration on planets such as the moon and Mars. In the video, there is also a scene where the tiger is exploring a place believed to be the moon.

In January, at ‘2022 CES’, a user who boarded a smart mobility showed a video in real time sharing the experience of a robot dog ‘Spot’ in space, once more showing its intention to enter space.

Joint research with Chul-yeon Jeong with aerospace capabilities

▲ Tiger combined with UAM. [사진출처=현대차그룹]

Finally, on the 27th, Hyundai Motor Group announced that it would jump into the development of mobility to explore the lunar surface to realize the robotics vision.

This means that Chairman Chung Eui-sun declared a space war once morest Musk, who competes in electric vehicles, autonomous driving, and robots.

Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors announced on the same day that they have decided to form a joint research council with six domestic government-funded research institutes with aerospace and space capabilities to develop lunar surface exploration mobility.

Jeong appeared in six places: Korea Astronomy Research Institute, Korea Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Korea Institute of Construction Technology, Korea Aerospace Research Institute, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, and Korea Automobile Research Institute.

The council will develop the technology required for future lunar mobility. Specific strategies and plans for operating mobility on the moon will also be reviewed.

Hyundai Motor and Kia formed a consultative body with key personnel in the Robotics Lab, which is in charge of robot development, software and hardware design, space environment response, and special equipment for exploration missions.

▲ An image of a tiger on an expedition to the planet. [사진출처=현대차그룹]

Unlike the Earth, the surface of the moon has millions of large and small craters formed by collisions with meteorites, comets, and asteroids.

The harsh environment, such as extreme weather with temperatures ranging from 130 degrees to -170 degrees below zero, and fine but sharp-edged dust, are also obstacles.

In the process of developing mobility that can be operated in such an extreme environment, the council expects to be able to innovatively improve the durability and completeness of the current technology.

Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors will also be able to increase the possibility of realizing their mobility vision in extraterrestrial areas during the R&D process through this agreement.

It can lead the way in securing future source technologies that can be applied to the mobility business.

A Hyundai Motor Group official said, “This is the first step in making the visions of robotics and metamobility that Hyundai Motors and Kia presented to customers a reality.” Furthermore, we will expand the realm of human mobility experience and contribute to human progress.”

[최기성 매경닷컴 기자]

[ⓒ 매일경제 & mk.co.kr, 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]