Hyundai Motor Group announced on the 13th that it will appoint Dr. Park Min-woo, a global technology leader, as Head of the AVP Division and CEO of its subsidiary 42dot, in order to strengthen its competitiveness in autonomous driving and SDV (Software Defined Vehicle). This personnel move is assessed as part of building the core leadership that will drive the Group’s future technology strategy.

The newly appointed President Park is an expert who has led the entire process of autonomous driving technology, from research to commercialization, at Tesla and NVIDIA. At the early stage of the development of Tesla Autopilot, he designed and implemented the “Tesla Vision” framework, building a camera-based artificial intelligence (deep learning) system.

Through this, he laid the foundation for shifting the focus of autonomous driving technology from hardware-centric to software-centric architectures, and his work is regarded as a representative case of advancing technology that had remained at the research level to the actual mass-production stage.

Subsequently at NVIDIA, he led the Perception and Sensor Fusion technology organization and promoted commercialization projects in collaboration with major automakers such as Mercedes-Benz. His experience in advancing autonomous driving platforms to a level suitable for real-road application aligns with Hyundai Motor Group’s emphasis on “technology commercialization capabilities.”

At 48 years old, President Park is the youngest president within Hyundai Motor Group and is regarded as a symbolic figure of its performance- and capability-centered personnel policy. Within the Group, there is also an expectation that younger leadership will serve as a catalyst to enhance organizational dynamism and innovation.

President Park majored in electrical and electronic engineering at Korea University and earned his Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University in the United States, building a technology-development-focused career on the global stage. In particular, his case of being hired at Tesla with the highest recruitment score at the time, and his receipt of the “Tesla Top Plant Award” from CEO Elon Musk, attest to his technological capabilities.

The industry is also paying attention to the background behind Dr. Park Min-woo’s move from global semiconductor giant NVIDIA to a complete vehicle manufacturer group. His career transition is based not on a simple job change but on a clear direction to directly lead the “process by which technology is translated into products.”

Having experienced the actual application of autonomous driving technology at Tesla and the building of technology platforms across the industry at NVIDIA, he has stated that “the fact that Hyundai Motor Group is focusing on technology internalization and execution capabilities over the mid to long term was a major attraction.”

President Park presented his vision, saying, “Hyundai Motor Group is a company capable of practically realizing capabilities not only in SDV and autonomous driving but also in robotics and Physical AI. It will lead the next generation of Intelligent Mobility and set the standard for global innovation.”

Following its earlier appointment of President Manfred Harrer as Head of R&D, Hyundai Motor Group has now completed its core leadership structure in future technology by bringing in President Park Min-woo as head of the AVP Division and 42dot. Through this personnel move, the Group is expected to accelerate its transition into a “software-centric mobility company” that links development and commercialization across next-generation mobility fields including SDV, autonomous driving, and robotics.

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