Application of automotive verification platform… Expectations for autonomous boat safety
Plan to proceed with development and quality verification with the goal of mass production after 2025

Hyundai AutoEver and Avicus, HD Hyundai’s company specializing in autonomous ship navigation, are joining forces to realize autonomous driving on the sea.

Hyundai AutoEver and Avicus held a signing ceremony at the HD Hyundai Group Global R&D Center on the 4th and signed a development contract for the application of a next-generation autonomous driving platform to ships.

The two companies are collaborating to apply Hyundai AutoEver's vehicle software platform 'mobilgene' to 'NeuBoat,' an autonomous navigation solution for leisure boats developed in-house by Avicus.

Avicus's NeuBoat goes beyond monitoring and warning functions equivalent to navigation assistance, providing navigation and docking information and including navigation control and assistance functions.

Both companies plan to proceed with development and quality verification with the goal of mass production after 2025.

The main market is the North American leisure boat market. The United States has the largest leisure boat market, accounting for more than 50% of the world, and it is estimated that over 400,000 autonomous navigation solutions could be installed annually on new or existing boats from 2024 to 2030.

The global market for new and retrofitted leisure boats reaches 2 million vessels annually, and with the market growing rapidly—including a more than 40% increase in boat construction since the pandemic—the autonomous navigation solutions market is also expected to grow rapidly.

Based on the know-how in the shipbuilding sector of HD Hyundai, the world's No. 1 ship manufacturer, and the experience accumulated in the vehicle domain of Hyundai AutoEver, we plan to provide advanced autonomous navigation solutions for future mobility to leisure boat users.

The reliability of autonomous mobility software is critical because even minor errors can lead to major accidents.

In May of last year, Avicus succeeded in the world's first autonomous ocean crossing of a large vessel by equipping it with HiNAS 2.0, a Level 2 autonomous navigation solution.

Hyundai AutoEver's mobilgene is a software platform developed based on the global development standard AUTOSAR, and its stability has been verified as it is applied to more than 200 types of controllers mass-produced by the automotive industry.

Hyundai AutoEver plans to apply this to autonomous ship navigation and provide core solutions for future mobility in various fields, including robotics, AAM (Advanced Air Mobility), and defense.

Compared to autonomous vehicles, autonomous boat operation started late and the market is just beginning to open; however, due to the characteristics of leisure boats, which have many novice drivers and low price elasticity, rapid adoption is expected.

By applying high-reliability hardware and software platforms proven in the automotive industry, it is expected that market competitors can be overwhelmed, especially for autonomous vehicles With the application of advanced functional safety and cybersecurity technologies, the quality and stability of boat autonomous navigation technology are expected to be enhanced.

Autonomous boat navigation basically uses technology similar to autonomous driving for vehicles, but there are differences in the method of application.

Boats are particularly difficult to control because they are sensitive to external influences such as wind or currents, and Avicus is advancing this technology based on the experience accumulated over 50 years by HD Hyundai Group.

Lim Do-hyung, CEO of Avicus, stated, “We look forward to the synergy between Hyundai AutoEver’s robust software platform and Avicus’s top-tier autonomous navigation technology. We want to usher in a new paradigm of autonomous boat navigation together.”

“Starting with this contract, we expect to be able to expand our vehicle software platform to other industrial sectors such as ships, robotics, and AAM,” said Lim Yang-nam, Head of Hyundai AutoEver’s Convergence Solution Center. “We will strive to create new value in the mobility sector by generating synergy through the combination of diverse industries.”