Minwoo Park, Ex-Tesla Autopilot Lead, Drives Hyundai Motor Group’s AI and Autonomous Driving Commercialization
Minwoo Park, a founding member of Tesla’s Autopilot team and former NVIDIA VP, is leading Hyundai Motor Group’s push to commercialize AI, autonomous driving, and SDV technologies at scale.
- 2016
- February 2026
- ~250,000
What Happened
Hyundai Motor Group has appointed Minwoo Park as President and Head of its AVP Division and CEO of 42dot, effective February 2026. Park, a former foundational member of Tesla’s Autopilot team who led the design of Tesla Vision and received the Tesla Top Talent Award in 2016, also served as Vice President of NVIDIA’s autonomous-driving perception division. He is now tasked with transforming AI, autonomous driving, robotics, and SDV technologies into scalable, production-ready solutions.
Received Tesla Top Talent Award for work on Autopilot and Tesla Vision.
Served as Vice President of NVIDIA’s autonomous-driving perception division, collaborating with global automakers including Mercedes-Benz.
Joined Hyundai Motor Group as President and Head of AVP Division and CEO of 42dot.
“The future isn't won by whoever innovates first. It is determined by who can bring that technology to market faster, more safely, and with greater reliability—scaling it into a solution that achieves public trust.”
Park emphasizes an execution-first mindset: Hyundai Motor Group must focus on commercializing autonomous driving through strategic global partnerships, sensor standardization, and a "Data Union" that pools driving data across subsidiaries including 42dot and Motional. He believes the winner in the SDV race will be the one that scales technology into mass-production vehicles with speed, safety, and reliability. Park also stresses breaking down silos between hardware, software, R&D, and production teams to foster seamless collaboration.
~250,000
employees worldwide
Why this matters
Hyundai Motor Group is accelerating its transition from R&D to production-ready mobility solutions. Under Park's leadership, the company aims to scale autonomous driving and AI technologies with speed and reliability. This could bring safer, more capable self-driving features to Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis vehicles sooner, impacting consumers and the competitive landscape.
Terms in This Story
- SDV
- Software-Defined Vehicle: a vehicle whose features and functions are primarily enabled through software, often updated over-the-air.
- ADAS
- Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems: electronic systems that help the driver in driving and parking, increasing safety.
- AVP Division
- Autonomous Vehicle and Platform Division: Hyundai Motor Group’s unit responsible for autonomous driving and related platform technologies.
- Data Union
- An initiative to pool autonomous-driving data across subsidiaries and partners to accelerate AI model training and improvement.
Summarised from the linked release; details can be imperfect — always verify against the original source.