A Hyundai WIA parking robot transports a vehicle at Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA) in Georgia. [Hyundai WIA]
A Hyundai WIA parking robot transports a vehicle at Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA) in Georgia. [Hyundai WIA]

Hyundai WIA said Monday it will launch South Korea's first parking robot pilot program in a residential apartment complex, working through a consortium with Hyundai Motor and Hyundai E&C at Hillstate The Wave City in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province.

The project will proceed as a smart demonstration project under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's smart city regulatory sandbox. Through the pilot, Hyundai WIA plans to verify the operational stability, space efficiency and user convenience of parking robots in a residential setting.

The company's parking robots operate in pairs, sliding beneath a vehicle, lifting its wheels and carrying it to a designated space. Designed at just 110 millimeters in height to accommodate vehicles with low ground clearance, the robots can approach a car from any direction. Equipped with LiDAR sensors, they precisely detect the size and position of a vehicle's wheels and can transport SUVs weighing up to 3.4 metric tons at 1.2 meters per second.

Under the pilot, Hyundai WIA will deploy two sets of parking robots across 53 parking spaces. When a driver leaves a vehicle in a designated drop-off zone, the robot automatically detects it and moves it to an available space. Retrieval works in reverse, with the robot returning the car to the drop-off zone on demand. The company also plans to link the robots to wall-pad home control panels installed in living rooms, integrating the system with the building's residential platform.

Hyundai WIA says the robots can accommodate 20 to 50 percent more vehicles than a conventional self-parking garage, maximizing parking efficiency.

The company has also developed its own "smart parking control system" — now at version 2.0 — which routes robots along optimal paths and efficiently dispatches multiple units simultaneously. The current system can control up to 50 robot sets at once. Hyundai WIA is developing a next-generation version capable of managing more than 100 sets simultaneously, enough to operate roughly 4,000 parking spaces on a single floor.

Hyundai WIA has built up a substantial body of pilot data from complex manufacturing environments. The company first supplied parking robots to Hyundai Motor Group's Singapore Global Innovation Center (HMGICS) in November 2023, and has since deployed them at Hyundai Motor Group's Alabama plant (HMMA), Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA), Hyundai Motor's new GP plant in Ulsan and Kia's factory in Gwangju.

Drawing on data and operational expertise accumulated at mobility manufacturing sites, Hyundai WIA intends to tailor its service for everyday living spaces. The company has already tested the robots in private buildings, including Hyundai Motor Group's headquarters and the Factorial Seongsu office building. It also plans to deploy parking robots at the Apgujeong District 2, 3 and 5 apartment reconstruction projects, which Hyundai E&C is handling.

Hyundai WIA said it plans to expand the robots' reach beyond residential complexes to transportation hubs, commercial facilities, officetels and public buildings. "This residential pilot is an important project for confirming the operational stability and user convenience of parking robots in a real living environment," a company official said. "We will use the data and operational know-how accumulated at production sites and various locations to expand our parking robot-based mobility solution business across residential and diverse living spaces."

Hyundai WIA will hold a parking solution customer showcase for construction companies and contractors at Hyundai Motor Group's Uiwang Research Center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, on Aug. 19 and 20. The company plans to present the technology and implementation options required to introduce parking robots in residential complexes.

Meanwhile, Hyundai WIA is stepping up investment in new businesses to drive sustainable growth. The company plans to invest about 1.7 trillion won ($1.2 billion) over three years through 2028 in new ventures including an integrated thermal management system and mobility solutions. The planned annual average investment of 566.3 billion won represents a roughly 69 percent increase from the 335.8 billion won annual average recorded between 2023 and 2025.


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