Photo: Hyundai
While all the eyes are on Tesla and its Autopilot suite when it comes to quasi-autonomous systems even though they haven't really shown any true self-driving potential, other companies are quietly developing their own solutions and showcasing their potential whenever they know they're ready.
The reason Tesla is making the headlines - and gets a mention in this article as well - is because of the very aggressive advertising, particularly from back in 2016. Musk claimed the Models S and X (the only ones available at that time) had the most efficient system across all production models from any manufacturer, and that's what stuck with everybody.
Other car companies, however, have a much more conservative approach. It's a well-known fact that everybody in the automotive industry these days is running some sort of autonomous driving program, even by itself or together with other fellow carmakers or technology firms, it's just that their results are being slowly introduced to new models.
In the meantime, though, they're more than willing to showcase their progress using demo cars, which is what this Hyundai Nexo crossover is. The South Korean company decided to go for a fuel cell model, showing it hasn't given up yet on this technology even though it is investing in battery-powered vehicles as well.
The event was linked to the Winter Olympics which will be held at Pyeongchang in South Korea this year. The five-car convoy (two Genesis G80 sedans, three Nexo crossovers) set off from Seoul with the Olympics' venue as its destination, which is 118 miles away (190 km).
The five cars completed their fully-autonomous highway trip with speeds of up to 68 mph (110 km/h), becoming the first Level 4 autonomous vehicles to cover such a long distance in one go. Tesla (yes, Tesla again) was supposed to perform a coast-to-coast road trip without any human intervention by the end of last year, but the feat was postponed indefinitely.
With the speed at which things are moving, we don't expect this record to last for too long, but we really can't guess who'll make the next move. Just we didn't see Hyundai pull this off, we might be expecting something from Audi or Mercedes-Benz and be surprised to see a brand that's been completely stealthy on the matter until now jump out from the shadows and grab the spotlight.
Other car companies, however, have a much more conservative approach. It's a well-known fact that everybody in the automotive industry these days is running some sort of autonomous driving program, even by itself or together with other fellow carmakers or technology firms, it's just that their results are being slowly introduced to new models.
In the meantime, though, they're more than willing to showcase their progress using demo cars, which is what this Hyundai Nexo crossover is. The South Korean company decided to go for a fuel cell model, showing it hasn't given up yet on this technology even though it is investing in battery-powered vehicles as well.
The event was linked to the Winter Olympics which will be held at Pyeongchang in South Korea this year. The five-car convoy (two Genesis G80 sedans, three Nexo crossovers) set off from Seoul with the Olympics' venue as its destination, which is 118 miles away (190 km).
The five cars completed their fully-autonomous highway trip with speeds of up to 68 mph (110 km/h), becoming the first Level 4 autonomous vehicles to cover such a long distance in one go. Tesla (yes, Tesla again) was supposed to perform a coast-to-coast road trip without any human intervention by the end of last year, but the feat was postponed indefinitely.
With the speed at which things are moving, we don't expect this record to last for too long, but we really can't guess who'll make the next move. Just we didn't see Hyundai pull this off, we might be expecting something from Audi or Mercedes-Benz and be surprised to see a brand that's been completely stealthy on the matter until now jump out from the shadows and grab the spotlight.
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