Hyundai Motor Group announced on the 13th that its autonomous driving joint venture, Motional, has appointed Laura Major as president and chief executive officer (CEO).
Laura Major, who worked as chief technology officer (CTO) since the establishment of Motional in 2020, has been serving as the interim CEO of Motional since last September.
Laura Major, as the CTO of Motional, led the development of the Ioniq 5 RoboTaxi, one of the world's first unmanned autonomous vehicles to receive certification from the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS), and has been building a machine learning-based autonomous driving software stack.
Before joining Motional, Laura Major worked at the non-profit research and development organization Draper Laboratory and the drone specialist company Aria Insights, where she developed autonomous driving and AI solutions related to astronautics and national security.
She is also a co-author of the book "What to Expect When You’re Expecting Robots: The Future of Human-Robot Collaboration," which discusses the future of coexistence between humans and robots.
Laura Major remarked, "We aim to collaborate with Hyundai Motor Group to introduce 'Embodied AI' into transportation and bring great benefits to society as a whole. Based on our deep expertise in building fully autonomous driving systems and the agility to quickly implement cutting-edge AI technological innovations, we will strongly realize a future where safe autonomous vehicles become a practical part of everyday life."
[OSEN]