Hyundai Mobis will conduct a field test of its self-driving car ‘M.Billy’ in the United States. Currently, the company has three test cars but plans to increase the number to over 10 by the end of this year. There are also plans to increase the number of researchers in their autonomous driving sector by more than 15% every year.
Hyundai Mobis plans to conduct M.BILLY vehicle evaluations for the development of level 3 and level 4 autonomous driving systems in Michigan, USA from the middle of this month. Level 3 is a partial autonomous driving system that requires intervention in special situations. Level 4 is an autonomous driving stage that requires no driver intervention.
The term 'M.BILLY’ relates to ‘mobility’ from the technology development vision of Hyundai Mobis, ‘New Mobility Experience’.
The test car was equipped with an autonomous driving system based on Kia’s K5. The vehicle evaluation will take place on their testing grounds (test track), which simulates public roads, in order to conduct preliminary functional inspections and safety evaluations. Afterwards, the test will be conducted on real roads.
In 2016, Hyundai Mobis acquired an M-plate license from the government of Michigan to operate their autonomous driving test cars. ‘M.BILLY’ will undergo driving tests in the U.S., Korea, and Germany simultaneously. For this purpose, Korea will get its driving license for autonomous driving test cars next month, and Germany will get one beginning in June.