Hyundai Motor Company and Unity, a platform for creating and operating real-time 3D (RT3D) content, announced a partnership to design and build jointly a new “metaverse roadmap” and platform for Meta-Factory.

The companies held a virtual Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signing ceremony with Youngcho Chi, President and Chief Innovation Officer of Hyundai Motor Group, Hong Bum Jung, Senior Vice President and CEO of Hyundai Motor Global Innovation Center in Singapore (HMGICS), Jules Shumaker, Senior Vice President, Revenue, Create Solutions, Unity and Dave Rhodes, Senior Vice President of Digital Twin, Unity, participating.

Through this MOU, Unity becomes a strategic partner to Hyundai, supporting its vision of becoming the leader in future mobility solutions. The MOU pertains to the fields of smart manufacturing, AI training and study as well as autonomous driving simulation.

The partnership will realize Hyundai’s vision of becoming the first mobility innovator to build a Meta-Factory concept, a digital twin of an actual factory, supported by a metaverse platform. The introduction of a Meta-Factory will allow Hyundai to test-run a factory virtually in order to calculate the optimized plant operation, and enable plant managers to solve problems without having to visit the plant physically.

The partnership will also culminate in a real-time 3D and virtual platform which will reach a broad group of Hyundai customers, offering them a more comprehensive range of services across sales, marketing, and customer experience. Consumers will be able to trial, test and engage various auto-related solutions digitally, long before choosing which to transfer to physical vehicles.

Hyundai plans to first apply the Meta-Factory concept to the HMGICS facility, supporting the Group’s initiative to create an open innovation hub for research and development.

Due to be completed at the end of 2022, HMGICS will study many advanced technologies and mobility services. At HMGICS, Hyundai and Unity’s partnership will further accelerate innovation in the field of intelligent manufacturing, integrating AI, 5G and other advanced technologies into a next-generation smart factory platform.

Beginning with the MOU, Hyundai and Unity will seek ways to expand the partnership in order to realize breakthrough innovations in metaverse-based digital-twin factory, while also expanding collaborating in the fields of AI training and study as well as autonomous driving simulation. Hyundai will also continue to pursue active partnership opportunities with other global partners such as Microsoft in order to further accelerate advancement of smart factory.