Hyundai buys stakes in autonomous car startup Aurora

The market for self-driven cars only seems to be increasing, as startups in that sector continue to raise increasingly higher amounts of capital from some of the largest names in venture capitalism (VC). In addition to venture capitalists, some of the biggest automobile manufacturers have also poured large sums of money into startups attempting to develop autonomous car driving technologies.  According to the latest developments, Hyundai, the South Korean auto giant has purchased a stake in the self-driving car startup Aurora.

Launched in early 2017, Aurora has raised more than $700 million in capital in two rounds of funding from VCs like Sequoia Capital, Amazon, Hyundai, and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (which is Canada’s pension fund), among others.

Additional reports suggest that the startup has been working with Hyundai for the development of a platform for autonomous cars that can be fitted onto future models of Hyundai vehicles. The plans are for Aurora to develop a comprehensive stack of hardware and software, involving sensors and data analysis systems that are needed to operate an autonomous car and which could be fitted into a much broader range of Hyundai vehicles.

In addition to Hyundai, various other automakers like Honda, Volkswagen, BMW, Ford, Fiat Chrysler, etc. have been pumping large amounts of capital into the development of self-driving technologies. Moreover, ride-hailing giant Uber as well as technology titan Google has also heavily invested to develop autonomous cars. The future of automobiles is definitely self-driven.