Hyundai Motor (005380) and Kia (000270) will showcase a wide range of technologies under development for smart factories — covering robotics, artificial intelligence and digital twins — at E-FOREST Tech Day 2026, running from the 19th to the 21st. The automakers aim to rapidly validate and deploy new technologies through an integrated platform that connects data and systems across their manufacturing sites, and to build an autonomous operating system by 2032.
Hyundai Motor and Kia held a media event tied to E-FOREST Tech Day at their Uiwang research center on the 16th, where they outlined their future vision for a shift to a software-defined factory, or SDF. The two companies will consolidate the technologies and systems that individual plants have operated separately into a single standardized manufacturing platform. Through this, they plan to strengthen capabilities across the entire supply chain, from new vehicle development to production planning, plant operations and market quality.
Choi Young-tae, head of the E-FOREST Center at Hyundai Motor and Kia's manufacturing solutions division, said the goal goes beyond simply raising the level of automation. "Our goal is to realize an autonomously operated factory that judges, learns and evolves on its own," he said. "Through this, we will improve safety on the floor and create an environment where workers can focus on areas that generate high added value."
At the E-FOREST Tech Day exhibition visited that day, the major SDF technologies Hyundai Motor and Kia are developing were on display. The most striking was a physical AI-based "virtual plant" being built in collaboration with Nvidia. The digital twin technology replicates and predicts conditions on the factory floor in a virtual environment, shortening the preparation process for introducing new vehicles. Simulations run in the virtual plant allow robots and equipment to be trained while minimizing costly and time-consuming physical trial runs.
Polaris, a manufacturing-specific AI agent developed by Hyundai Motor and Kia, understands the technology verification process reproduced in the virtual plant and supports workers by searching and analyzing the information they need to carry out tasks efficiently. Asked about the status of test operations underway in the virtual plant this week, Polaris displayed the progress of each process on a monitor and explained the details.
Automation technologies aimed at improving manufacturing quality were also unveiled. They include intelligent control technology for hand grippers that assemble and disassemble parts using devices that mimic the human hand; tunnel-type vision inspection technology that examines a vehicle's exterior through three-dimensional simulation as the car passes through a tunnel-shaped device; and robot teaching technology that automatically analyzes and sets movement paths for more than 1,700 welding points. Hyundai Motor and Kia plan to accelerate validation of these technologies and apply them to mass production in phases as early as next year.
"Automotive processes involve parts of varied shapes and positions and are complex, so conventional automation methods had limits in handling highly difficult tasks or areas with significant risk," Choi said. "To address this, we are applying technology that uses physical AI to let robots recognize their surroundings and target objects, judge according to the situation and work with precision."
Hyundai Motor and Kia will continue developing new technologies for smart factories and plan to validate and roll them out at their Singapore technology innovation center, which serves as a testbed. Fully verified technologies will be applied to the new Ulsan electric vehicle plant, which begins mass production this month, as well as to future plants, with the goal of achieving full-scale automation by 2032.
E-FOREST Tech Day 2026 will also feature a competition for presentations on innovative manufacturing technology and a seminar for suppliers. The competition will share cases of new technologies that improve the competitiveness of global production plants. The supplier seminar will cover topics including physical AI and data-driven manufacturing innovation, with the aim of raising technology standards and strengthening competitiveness across the industry.
An official at Hyundai Motor and Kia said the event carries significant meaning because it allows the group to present the quality and practicality of the manufacturing technologies it has developed to the industry and its suppliers. "We will continue working to further expand and apply new technologies at our production plants," the official said.