Chang-Hyeong Song, head of Hyundai Motor Group’s autonomous driving division, has stepped down, the company said on Friday, following internal debate over the direction of its self-driving technology strategy.
Hyundai Motor Group confirmed the departure in a statement, saying, “President Song recently expressed his intention to voluntarily step down for personal reasons, and the company respected the decision and accepted the resignation.” The company added that, “The projects overseen by Song have been run systematically by leaders in each division, including the AVP division and 42dot, and they will continue in the same way going forward.”
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During his tenure, Song sought to steer Hyundai’s self-driving program away from a lidar-centric approach toward a vision-based system relying primarily on cameras, a strategy similar to that adopted by Tesla. He frequently promoted camera-based autonomous driving during Hyundai Motor’s annual developer conferences as part of a broader effort to transform vehicles into software-defined platforms.
However, the shift faced resistance inside the company, which has invested heavily in lidar technologies over many years. Several research projects tied to lidar were reportedly halted under Song’s leadership, triggering internal concerns that Hyundai was following rather than defining industry trends. Song later acknowledged the cultural and structural challenges of the transition, saying it was “not easy to aim to make an AI device rather than a car and implant software DNA rather than focus on hardware.”
Industry observers said Song became increasingly frustrated trying to advance a software-first strategy within a traditional manufacturing culture. His departure comes as Hyundai continues to balance investments between hardware-heavy sensing systems and data-driven approaches to autonomous driving.
Hyundai has not named a successor for Song and said the company’s autonomous driving and robotics-related units will continue operating under their existing leadership structure.