Hyundai Motor and NVIDIA Stress Urgent Need for Public Demand and Infrastructure Support to Nurture Physical AI

Physical AI Policy Debate Hosted by Assemblyman Jaejun Woo
Expanding Public Sector Demand and Building Simulation Infrastructure
Proposal for Joint Development of RFMs by AI, Manufacturing, and Component Companies

Hyundai Motor Company and Nvidia have called on the government to foster the domestic Physical AI industry by creating an initial market and establishing learning and verification infrastructure. They emphasized that national-level support is needed, not just for individual corporate technology development, but also for expanding public demand, improving regulations, and building a data ecosystem.

On September 3, at the Physical AI Policy Forum hosted by Assemblyman Woo Jaejun at the National Assembly Members' Office Building, stakeholders from the manufacturing, robotics, and autonomous driving sectors participated to discuss policy tasks aimed at securing industrial competitiveness.

Participants of the Physical AI Policy Forum hosted by Assemblyman Woo Jaejun are taking a commemorative photo. Photo by Kim Pyunghwa.

Song Hoduk, Head of Robot Business Planning at Hyundai Motor Company (Executive Director), stressed, "The framework of the domestic robotics strategy must be shifted to a government-led approach." He explained that, as China is quickly building its entire value chain with government backing, it is difficult to compete with only the capabilities of individual companies. He said, "The most important thing is to increase public demand," and urged the government to expand pilot projects from manufacturing and logistics to agriculture, healthcare, and public safety to secure high-quality data.

Seo Wan-seok, Senior Director at Nvidia Korea, called for the expansion of simulation infrastructure for Physical AI learning and verification. He explained that while it is necessary to establish a 'data flywheel'—collecting data in the field, then training and verifying it in virtual environments, and finally feeding back into real-world robot performance improvements—domestic companies are struggling to implement this system.

Seo emphasized the need to strengthen the ecosystem of companies with data generation and utilization technologies, naming simulation infrastructure as the precondition. He suggested, "It would be helpful if the government builds simulation infrastructure and allows companies to utilize it."

Yoo Min-sang, Senior Director at Autonomous A2Z, called for bold regulatory exemptions for a certain number of autonomous vehicles to speed up industrialization. He also said that a mutual recognition system should be introduced to support companies expanding overseas and securing self-sufficiency by reducing the burden of meeting different standards required by export destinations.

Park Tae-won, Director of SL Robotics Lab, identified high investment costs and securing reliability as key challenges for Physical AI adoption. He argued that "AI companies, robotics companies, and manufacturers should join forces to develop specialized Robot Foundation Models (RFMs)." He emphasized that government support should be designed not just as one-time pilot projects but in a way that helps companies build their own capabilities for technical operation and improvement, while reflecting field requirements and data from the early stages of development.

In a keynote speech, Professor Jang Young-jae of KAIST proposed fostering a new industry by building unmanned autonomous manufacturing plants based on Physical AI technologies and exporting these overseas. Usuyeon, a reporter from The Asia Business Daily, reviewed the competitiveness of Korea's Physical AI sector through the Hyundai Motor Company case, stressing that, in order to connect corporate technological strength to national manufacturing competitiveness, institutional readiness needs to keep pace with the speed of technological development.

In his closing remarks, Assemblyman Woo stated, "We must strengthen national-level incentives considering the contributions of Physical AI companies to the manufacturing ecosystem. To raise acceptance among labor groups, we should consider solutions that promote automation, starting with sectors facing severe labor shortages."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.