January 7th local time, at the Hyundai Motor booth in the ‘2019 Consumers Electronics Show(CDS)’ taking place in Las Vegas, U.S. As the front lights brighten up, people turned towards a lone robot on stage.

Hyundai Motor revealed its name to be ‘Elevate’. It is a novel autonomous concept car that can use its four legs to effortlessly move in narrow spaces and rugged terrain that normal cars cannot enter.


On the 7th(local time), David Byron, manager of the industrial design consultancy Sundberg-Ferar, is explaining the functions of Elevate at the ‘CES2019’ held in Las Vegas, U.S.

On normal roads, Elevate moves on wheels like normal cars, but when it enters a narrow alley, it walks with its four legs. Hyundai Motor announced that when development is later finalized by making use of such strengths, Elevate will also be used in product delivery service.

Recently in the global car market, companies are trying in earnest to launch various new businesses that use autonomous driving technology. Goods delivery business is gathering the most interest. The goods delivery market, which is rapidly growing each year after online shopping has become the general trend in the distribution market, is rising as a new business model for automobile companies with autonomous car technology.

There have been outstanding advances in autonomous car technology, but many argue that more time is necessary for an era to come when passenger safety can be a hundred percent guaranteed. This is why the car industry is taking more interest in offering service with unmanned autonomous vehicles instead of commercializing completely autonomous cars with safety concerns still unresolved.

‘Amazon Scout’, an unmanned autonomous delivery robot developed by Amazon /Amazon homepage

Distribution companies are welcoming this opportunity to apply autonomous car technology to unmanned delivery service and to significantly save on labor costs. According to Wall Street Journal, Ford predicts that the market for delivery services using autonomous vehicles will be worth 130 billion dollars by 2026.

General Motor’s Cruise Automation, a company developing autonomous car technology, is teaming up with DoorDash to launch a food delivery service using autonomous vehicles. In some regions in the U.S., Cruise Automation is already testing out a car sharing service with autonomous cars and has predicted that food delivery service will grow to become a key revenue model.

The autonomous car sharing service offered by GM Cruise Automation. Starting this year, Cruise Automation plans to test out a food delivery service using autonomous cars./Cruise Automation Youtube Channel

In upcoming March, Cruise Automation and DoorDash looks to launch the food delivery service in San Francisco and later expand this to stores distributed over all of U.S.A.

Along with GM, Ford has also aggressively invested in autonomous vehicle technology over the last few years. It has cooperated with Postmates and Domino’s to start a delivery service with autonomous cars. In Miami, Ford has also teamed with Walmart and is experimenting with delivery service of various products including groceries.

Not only automobile companies but also IT and online distribution companies that have studied autonomous vehicle technology are recently launching experiments in unmanned delivery.

The word’s largest electronic commerce company Amazon announced its development of an autonomous robot called ‘Amazon Scout’. Amazon will operate an unmanned delivery service test in parts of the Washington State in the U.S. by using the Amazon Scout which moves on six wheels and operates on electric batteries.

Delivery service provided by Amazon Scout/Amazon Youtube Channel

Continental, an automotive component company, also revealed ‘RoboDog’ in this year’s CES. The robot is shaped after a dog and uses autonomous vehicle technology. Continental has previously revealed the autonomous shuttle ‘Cube’ in 2017. Through videos, Continental demonstrated how Cube would transport a large quantity of goods to a particular area and how several Robodogs would deliver these to individual addresses.

Continental revealed an autonomous shuttle cube and ‘Robodog’ for delivery /Continental homepage

Domestic distribution companies are also kicking off pilot programs of unmanned delivery service using autonomous car technology. Last month, E-mart partnered with ThorDrive, an autonomous car developing start-up, and announced that it will test-run autonomous delivery services.

ThorDrive is a company founded in 2015 by SNU ECE Professor Seung-Woo Seo and researchers. It started an autonomous delivery test service last year in San Francisco, U.S.A. E-mart will select stores to test this out and will begin the delivery in the second half of this year. With the development of Elevate, E-mart and Shinsegae are also reviewing ways to cooperate with Hyundai Motor in unmanned delivery service.

ThorDrive’s delivery car is parked in front of a store in Palo Alto, California, U.S.

A source from Hyundai Motor said, “With the delayed development in the global market for fully autonomous cars, several companies have recently begun developing new businesses that utilize autonomous vehicle technology. They hope to find more business models with less concerns related to human injury but with greater profits in a shorter time period.”

Source: http://ee.snu.ac.kr/community/news?bm=v&bbsidx=48451
Translated by: Jee Hyun Lee, English Editor of Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, jlee621@snu.ac.kr