Hyundai commits to creating ‘transformer’ cars

Japanese car-makers have been developing robo-helpers for decades – remember Honda’s Asimo? – but Korean auto giant Hyundai is now working on a project considerably grander in scope: walking cars.

Development of a range of new Ultimate Mobility Vehicles (UMVs), whose multi-jointed ‘limbs’ provide them with far greater off-road capability than any conventional car, has kicked off in earnest at Hyundai’s newly announced New Horizons Studio in Silicon Valley, California.

Headed up by Dr John Suh, who has more than three decades’ experience in automotive and emerging technology sectors (including a stint at General Motors), the New Horizons studio looks to have been created along the lines of an advanced design centre, where car-makers push the boundaries with concepts that are never meant to reach production.

But Hyundai is deadly serious about developing and selling these bizarre-looking robotic UMVs that can transform from a conventional car to go-anywhere robo-walker.

“We aim to create the world’s first transformer-class vehicle, also known as the Ultimate Mobility Vehicle,” said Dr Suh.

Hyundai revealed the wacky Elevate concept in 2019, a transforming vehicle with unfolding legs that gave it almost go-anywhere capability.

Targeted at emergency services and rescue missions, the Elevate was shown at the world’s biggest tech show, CES, and was passed off as a sci-fi toy, a flight of fancy.

It’s now clear that Hyundai is intent on building such a vehicle, which will likely be the first product to emerge from the US-based studio.

Hyundai says its New Horizons Studio will develop products that “target customers who have a need for travel in unconventional and off-road terrain, including places where vehicles have never roamed before”.

While it’s unlikely Nissan Patrol and Toyota LandCruiser owners will be rushing to trade in their machines – especially given these new robo-walker cars are still probably decades away from commercialisation – Hyundai sees opportunities in the space.

“These vehicles will be subject to more challenging applications and environments, adaptable to changing conditions,” Hyundai said in a statement.

“Pushing the boundaries of vehicle development, the unit will reimagine how vehicles might traverse the world.”

Hyundai has also signed up Dr Ernestine Fu as director of product management at the New Horizons Studio, who formerly led research on human operator and autonomous vehicle interactions at Stanford University’s Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Lab.

Hyundai is also working on a flying car.