Hyundai, Kia employ virtual reality technologies in developing new cars

[Photo provided by Hyundai Motor Group]

South Korean auto giant Hyundai Motor and its sister Kia Motors have begun employing virtual reality solutions in designing and testing out concept vehicles, which can dramatically save them time and costs in new car development.

The conglomerate announced Wednesday it has kicked off the virtual development process that utilizes VR technology to bring innovative changes to the process of developing vehicles. Virtual development is an advanced technology to use digital data to develop car models in a virtual space to increase the level of perfection and reduce costs.

Hyundai and Kia’s new VR system improves design quality and efficiency by reducing vehicle development time by 20 percent and annual development cost by 30 percent, they said in a statement.

Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors invested 15 billion won ($12.9 million) to create virtual lab at the Namyang Research and Development (R&D) Center in March, enabling up to 20 engineers to work on the simulations at one time.

The new facility helps the designers to more efficiently review a multitude of design concepts earlier in the developmental process. The system simulates interior and exterior design elements, lighting, colors and materials, and even virtual environments themselves.

[Photo provided by Hyundai Motor Group]

Hyundai and Kia are planning to establish remote VR design assessment system that will enable real-time virtual collaboration between design centers in Korea and their advisers in Europe, America, China and India, with the implementation of augmented reality.

Meanwhile, Hyundai and Kia established a new design quality verification system using VR in March. It utilizes three-dimensional computer aided design (CAD) data collected from every stage of the vehicle development process to assess the quality of each design in a variety of simulated environments and situations like highways, urban roadways, hills, tunnels and low-lighting conditions.

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