• Hyundai has rolled out a roadmap for its software-defined vehicles. 
• The South Korean carmaker is definitely taking a Tesla approach to things.
• Hyundai’s Connected Car Services could see up to 20 million vehicles registered by 2025.

The adage is that every business is digital in this day and age. The same goes for carmakers in particular, with electrification, entertainment and subscription models taking hold throughout the automotive industry. When it comes to Hyundai, software appears to be playing a key role.

This as the South Korean company recently unpacked a roadmap for the immediate future that seems to take a page out of the Tesla playbook. Hyundai says it plans to invest as much as $12.6 billion to transform its lineup of vehicles into software-defined offerings.

Here Hyundai announced, “a new global strategy to transform all vehicles to Software Defined Vehicles (SDVs) by 2025. The industry-leading initiative, presented during the Group’s Unlock the Software Age global online forum, will deliver an unprecedented era of mobility, giving customers the freedom to remotely upgrade the performance and functionality of their vehicles anywhere at any time.”

“The Group also shared plans to transform the customer experience throughout the vehicle’s entire lifetime and deliver a new era of mobility via constantly evolving software technology,” it added in a press release.

Hyundai is developing a Connected Car Operating System (CCOS) that it plans to run on new software and entertainment platforms within its vehicles, such as NVIDIA DRIVE both combustion engine-based and EV.

By 2025 then, technology like Over-The-Air (OTA) updates will be available on all of its cars that can support it, with it expecting to have as many as 20 million connected within the aforementioned timeframe.

It, therefore, looks like Hyundai views its future vehicles as being more like mobility platforms than the conventional modes of transport we know them as today.

“The Group will also invest heavily in software technology to integrate hardware and software technologies and enhance and internalize mobility technology capabilities. By 2030, the Group plans to invest 18 trillion won in resources, including the establishment of a new Global Software Center to bolster its software capabilities and accelerate Software Defined Vehicle development,” the press release adds.

With the brand having a solid presence in South Africa, it remains to be seen if any of those connected vehicles will be driving on local roads by 2025.

While it is an ambitious plan, should it prove successful, we will not be surprised to see other carmakers go in the same direction, as software capabilities become as important a consideration as horsepower or safety ratings.

You can watch Hyundai’s presentation on its new software-defined vehicle plan in the video below.