Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Corporation announced a strategic technology partnership with Samsung Electronics to enhance the integration between software-defined vehicles (SDVs) and smartphones, aiming to secure a leading position in the mobility service ecosystem.
Hyundai Motor and Kia are gearing up for the SDV era, anticipating a variety of in-vehicle services. To that end, they are working on a next-generation infotainment system and an open mobility ecosystem, in collaboration with Hyundai Motor Group’s global software center, 42dot. This development aims to provide a user-centered vehicle environment, enhancing the connectivity of the infotainment system set to be unveiled in 2026.
“Our goal is to enrich Hyundai Motor and Kia customers’ mobility experience by offering personalized services that extend beyond transportation, seamlessly integrating vehicles with smartphones,” said Chang Song, President and Head of Hyundai Motor Group Advanced Vehicle Platform (AVP) Division.
As a result of the agreement, Hyundai Motor and Kia will develop technology to organically link SDVs and the smartphone ecosystem using Samsung Electronics’ ‘SmartThings’. By integrating with the global Internet of Things (IoT) platform, they aim to enrich customers’ mobility experiences, seamlessly connecting the entire process of vehicle use to smartphones and accelerating the transition to true SDVs.
“Through our collaboration with Hyundai and Kia, customers will experience the convenience of SmartThings not only at home but also in their vehicles, transcending space,” said Paul (Kyungwhoon) Cheun, President, CTO of DX Division at Samsung Electronics and Head of Samsung Research. “We will continue to expand the SmartThings ecosystem, offering new lifestyles and value to even more customers.”
Through this strengthened connectivity, Hyundai Motor, Kia and Samsung Electronics will introduce a service for vehicle location verification. It will be expanded and advanced through integration with ‘SmartThings Find,’ offering a global vehicle location tracking service. The service is accessible via a crowdsourced network of hundreds of millions of Samsung Galaxy devices that use the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology to report their location, without restrictions related to cellular coverage.
Customers can easily check their vehicle’s location through the Connected Car Service app in unexpected situations, such as forgetting where they parked or in case of theft. Even Hyundai or Kia customers whose vehicles aren’t registered with the Connected Car Service can check the location through the Samsung SmartThings app.
Hyundai Motor and Kia will also simplify the new member registration process by linking user accounts with Samsung Electronics. In the future, they plan to provide services optimized for customers’ lifestyles and tastes, such as healthcare, pet care and vehicle interiors, and continue to cooperate with Samsung Electronics to provide new mobility experiences.
Hyundai Motor and Kia, together with 42dot, plan to continuously develop services for convenient and enjoyable mobility experiences by sharing vehicle data application programming interfaces (APIs) and software development kits (SDKs) with various business partners, including Samsung Electronics, through the next-generation infotainment system based on an open ecosystem.
Hyundai Motor and Kia also intend to hold the ‘2025 Developer Conference’ in the first half of next year and announce plans to build an SDK, where external developers can directly participate and develop ‘killer apps’ as well as a vehicle app market for SDVs.
