Decades of Car Crash Data Connected with AI for Safety Design

Hyundai Motor Group is revolutionizing its vehicle safety design by connecting decades of accumulated crash safety data with artificial intelligence. The group has developed an "AI Safety Assistant" system to address the challenge of utilizing vast amounts of collision test results, images, computer-based analysis, and past research effectively.

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How can all researchers easily utilize the collision safety know-how accumulated over decades of smashing cars?

Previously, this crucial data was scattered across multiple systems, and reliance on experienced engineers' knowledge often made it difficult to quickly find similar cases and improvement measures. The new AI system connects this data, enabling researchers to efficiently identify and analyze similar collision conditions, vehicle structures, injury causes, and corresponding countermeasures. Hyundai reports that this process has reduced the time spent on case exploration and data review by approximately 90%, allowing engineers to focus more on high-value tasks like analysis interpretation, design improvement, and test strategy planning.

The application of AI extends beyond safety design into production and maintenance. In manufacturing, an "AI Automated Recognition Service" uses cameras to identify vehicles on production lines, cross-referencing information with registered vehicle data in real-time. This service, implemented in 70 operational sites across Hyundai and Kia plants globally, is estimated to save 5.24 billion won annually. For maintenance, the "Maintenance Support AI Service" analyzes vehicle error codes or symptoms entered in natural language, referencing manuals and past repair records to suggest causes and solutions, reportedly shortening response times by about 42%.

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The time spent on case exploration and data review has been reduced by about 90%.

These AI integration efforts are part of Hyundai Motor Group's broader "Physical AI" vision, championed by Chairman Euisun Chung. This concept aims to enable machines like robots, autonomous vehicles, and manufacturing equipment to make judgments and operate intelligently based on AI. The group has been standardizing and connecting data across its value chain, from R&D and production to quality and sales, since initiating its digital transformation in 2019. The core of this strategy involves creating a cyclical structure where data from development, production, and maintenance fields trains AI models, which are then applied to services, and the resulting field data is used to further improve the systems.

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The goal of Hyundai Motor Group is not to be the company that uses AI the most, but to become the company that utilizes AI the most properly in the world.