Hyundai Motor Group appointed a former Nvidia vice president and Tesla‘s first computer vision engineer, to lead the Korean automaker’s autonomous driving and software-defined vehicle programs, the company said Tuesday.
Park Min-woo will serve as chief executive officer of 42dot, the group’s software research subsidiary.
“Hyundai Motor Group is a company with the optimal foundation to rapidly realize physical artificial intelligence competitiveness encompassing not only SDV and autonomous driving but also robotics,” Park said in a statement.
“I will contribute to the company leading the next generation of intelligent mobility and becoming a global innovation standard,” the executive added.
Park spent more than eight years at Nvidia, rising from senior director of engineering to vice president of autonomous driving software with promotions approximately every two years.
Most recently, he served as vice president responsible for bridging Nvidia Research and autonomous vehicle development since June 2025.
Previously, he led perception, fusion, and machine learning foundations for Nvidia’s autonomous vehicle division from June 2023 to June 2025.
During his tenure, Park developed autonomous driving artificial intelligence technology into software applicable to mass-production vehicles and created deep learning models and visual algorithms enabling vehicles to recognize their surrounding environment.
At Nvidia, Park was among the 20 to 30 select executives at Nvidia who communicated directly with CEO Jensen Huang.
Tesla Origins
Before joining Nvidia, Park spent more than two years at Tesla from May 2015 to June 2017, where he described himself as “the first official computer vision engineer at Tesla.”
He rose from staff computer vision engineer to senior staff engineer and ultimately manager of visual perception for Tesla‘s Autopilot program.
His work contributed to the development of Tesla Vision, the camera-based perception system underlying the company’s driver assistance technology.
Leadership Vacuum
Park’s appointment fills a vacancy created when predecessor Song Chang-hyeon resigned abruptly in early December amid criticism over limited progress in next-generation vehicle technologies.
The new chief will oversee autonomous driving and software-defined vehicle development across the group, including accelerating vehicle software technology commercialization and establishing strategies for mobility technology integration.
Software Strategy
Hyundai introduced its software brand Pleos in March 2025 and outlined plans for a software-centric “Cloud Mobility” ecosystem at the Pleos 25 developer conference.
The group unveiled a proprietary vehicle operating system designed to boost SDV performance and scalability.
Its Pleos Connect next-generation infotainment system is scheduled to launch in the second quarter of this year and will be applied to more than 20 million vehicles by 2030.
Competition Intensifies
At CES earlier this month, Nvidia unveiled “Alpamayo,” which CEO Jensen Huang called the world’s first “thinking, reasoning autonomous vehicle AI.”
The platform will launch on US roads later this year, starting with the Mercedes-Benz CLA.
Hyundai’s Boston Dynamics unit also debuted a new all-electric Atlas humanoid robot at the show, positioning the group to compete with Tesla’s Optimus in the emerging robotics market.
