Hyundai, Kia drive digital upgrade for commercial vehicle safety
Hyundai Motor and Kia will develop a next-generation connected digital tachograph, or DTG, for commercial vehicles in collaboration with Korea's transport authorities to enhance convenience for drivers and road safety, the automakers said Thursday.
The automakers signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Korea Transportation Safety Authority to develop the advanced DTG system at the Hyundai Motor Group Namyang R&D Center earlier in the day.
DTG is a device that automatically records vehicle data in real time, including speed, driving distance and GPS signals. Under Korea's Road Traffic Act, the installation and regular submission of DTG data is mandatory for commercial vehicles such as buses, trucks and school transport vehicles. The authorities analyze the data to address risky driving behaviors and prevent traffic accidents.
The current DTG submission process, however, is inconvenient as it requires drivers to manually extract the data via USB for submission or subscribe to paid submission services. Calls for a more convenient solution have grown since the government expanded the DTG mandate to include heavy-duty trucks over 25 tons and special vehicles weighing over 10 tons in October last year.
For the next-generation DTG project, Hyundai and Kia will integrate their connected car services, such as Bluelink and Kia Connect, with the safety authority's driving data analysis system, eTAS, to enable fully automated data collection, eliminating the need for separate hardware or manual input.
The automakers plan to complete the development of the new DTG service by the end of this year and roll it out with new commercial vehicles to be released next year. Once the service is launched, commercial vehicles will no longer have to install standalone DTG devices, which can cost up to 400,000 won ($289) per unit.
Moreover, Hyundai and Kia will collaborate with the authorities on data-sharing projects to develop new services for their commercial vehicle management solutions — including driving pattern analysis and rest time compliance monitoring — using traffic-related big data.
'Public-private data sharing and technological collaboration are essential to build a robust mobility service ecosystem,' said Park Sang-hyeon, executive vice president at Hyundai and Kia.
'Through continuous technological exchange (with the public authorities), we will develop vehicle data-driven services that maximize convenience for commercial vehicle customers and fulfill our social responsibility for road safety.'
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