Hyundai taps Tesla, Nvidia veteran Park Min-woo to head advanced driving units

Hyundai Motor Group has tapped a veteran of Tesla and Nvidia to lead its push into software and AI.

Park Min-woo, the newly appointed head of Hyundai Motor Group's Advanced Vehicle Platform division. [YONHAP]

Hyundai Motor Group has tapped a veteran of Tesla and Nvidia to lead its push into software and AI.

The group said Tuesday that it appointed Park Min-woo, a former vice president at Nvidia, as head of its Advanced Vehicle Platform (AVP) division and chief executive of 42dot, its autonomous driving software affiliate. The move comes as Hyundai deepens cooperation with Nvidia and accelerates its shift toward software-defined vehicles.

Park, 48, has worked on autonomous driving technologies at Tesla and Nvidia and has now become the youngest president in Hyundai Motor Group’s history.

Park graduated from Korea University and earned a doctoral degree from Pennsylvania State University before joining Tesla, where he contributed to the development of the Autopilot system. He later moved to Nvidia and led efforts to mass-produce and commercialize autonomous driving software.

He led work on perception and sensor-fusion technologies and played a key role in making Nvidia’s autonomous driving platform applicable to real-world vehicles.

He also received Tesla’s Top Talent Award in 2016, which the company grants to its top technical performer. After joining Nvidia in 2017, he rose to vice president within six years.

“Hyundai Motor Group has the optimal foundation to rapidly turn physical AI capabilities into reality across software-defined vehicles, autonomous driving and robotics,” Park said. “I will contribute to helping Hyundai Motor Group set the global standard for innovation."

The AVP division head position remained vacant for about a month following the resignation of Song Chang-hyeon.

“The main reason we appointed Park was his proven performance as a leader,” a Hyundai Motor Group representative said. “The decision to name a president in his 40s serves as a symbolic example of our commitment to selecting talent strictly based on ability and performance.”

Park’s arrival is also expected to deepen cooperation between Hyundai Motor Group and Nvidia.

A Nvidia logo appears in this illustration taken on Aug. 25, 2025. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who met last year at an informal dinner known as the “chicken meeting” — held at a Kkanbu Chicken restaurant on the sidelines of the APEC summit and attended by Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong — met again recently at CES 2026 earlier this month to discuss cooperation.

Hyundai Motor Group has maintained a close partnership with Nvidia, including plans to use 50,000 of Nvidia’s Blackwell AI chips to develop autonomous driving and robotics technologies.

Industry analysts say Hyundai Motor Group may pursue a two-track strategy by working with Nvidia’s autonomous driving platform while continuing to develop its own in-house technologies.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom. BY NAM YOON-SEO [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]