Jung-hee Kim, Gounee Yang

Global Economic News

HYUNDAI Motor’s Level 5 self-driving model Ionic 5 is being used to delivery food in California, the United States.

Motional, a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and the U.S. autonomous driving company Aptive, said Tuesday that it has launched an autonomous food delivery service with Uber Eats in Santa Monica, California.

The Level 4 autonomous driving system can recognize and judge the driving situation, and even can handle the emergency by itself without driver’s intervention. This is the first time that Motional’s self-driving cars are used for food delivery services.

In December last year, Motional signed a partnership with Uber to target the self-driving delivery market.

Motional reinvented Ionic 5 as a self-driving delivery vehicle, and conducted extensive testing in the Los Angeles area.

Uber Eats partner restaurants will receive notification when a self-driving delivery vehicle arrives, and load the food in specially designed backseats.