Hyundai Mobis has started a software training program at a cost of 1.4 billion won ($1.2 million) at its research center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, to beef up its automotive software professionals by five times by 2025, according to the firm on Sunday.

The auto parts unit of Hyundai Motor Group said it has widened the role of its research and development centers in India and Vietnam to serve as a global base to analyze information collected by the firm’s self-developed automated vehicle.

“In the age of autonomous driving, we need software that functions properly in extreme conditions and protects vehicles from hacking, which is why Mobis has invested in the new program,” Hyundai Mobis said.

Through the software training program, the firm expects to produce about 4,000 automotive software professionals by 2025 from the current 800.

Automotive software developers will also receive mechanical training to design optimized self-driving software, the company noted.

Vehicles are now controlled by software to the tune of about 10 percent, with the remaining relying on hardware, and the ratio will have increased to 30 percent in 2030, according to global consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

Utilizing R&D centers in India and Vietnam, Mobis has been seeking to grow as a global player in developing autonomous driving software.

The role of Mobis’ research center in Hyderabad, a growing tech hub in India, was established in 2007 to test automotive software and has been expanded to put together software for automated driving along with multimedia software, the company said.

Besides analyzing data collected by Mobis’ autonomous car model M.Billy, the research center will also factor in local road conditions to the autonomous driving simulation created there, it added.

The research branch in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, established jointly with a Vietnamese company last year, will categorize the information M.Billy gathers by automobile, pedestrian, or facility, among others.

To mass produce a self-developed level three self-driving system by 2022, Mobis is test-driving three units of M.Billy in Korea, the US and Germany.

It plans to conduct test runs on 20 units of M.Billy next year.

Mobis’ research center in Yongin acts as the headquarters of overseas research centers in North America, Europe, China and India, as well as the R&D branch in Vietnam.

Last month, Mobis hired Carsten Weiss, a former executive of Continental AG, who had been in charge of developing software platforms and overseeing cyber security to bolster its software division. 

By Kim Bo-gyung (lisakim425@heraldcorp.com)