Hyundai Calls for Caution in Autonomous-Vehicle Development

(Bloomberg) -- A Hyundai Motor Co. executive called for caution in the development of autonomous cars after an Uber Technologies Inc. self-driving vehicle struck and killed a woman in Arizona.

“We don’t know other carmakers’ standards on autonomous cars, but ours are not lax,” Yoon Sung-hoon, head of Hyundai’s mid-large vehicle project, said at the sidelines of a Seoul event Tuesday. Hyundai doesn’t look into tech companies’ standards “because they are not mass-producing companies.”

Hyundai, a latecomer to autonomous driving, has been speeding up its development and expanding cooperation with tech companies and startups. The South Korean automaker, which is working on vehicles and software systems for a planned robo-taxi service with a startup called Aurora, has said it is talking to Uber and Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo for potential cooperation.

“We are already at the top of the class in terms of autonomous-related approach, but we are cautious when it comes to mass production,” Yoon said. “We are thinking about how to guarantee safety.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Sohee Kim in Seoul at skim847@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anand Krishnamoorthy at anandk@bloomberg.net, Ville Heiskanen, Sam Nagarajan

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