HD Hyundais’ CES 2024 keynote shares how cutting-edge technologies will transform the way humanity builds the future
What will construction sites of the future look like? With robotics, digital technologies, and AI developing at a rapid pace, there are a lot of possibilities. HD Hyundai‘s Vice Chairman and CEO Kisun Chung shared one of those possibilities with his “Xite Transformation” keynote address at CES 2024 held in Las Vegas, Nevada.
With his keynote speech, Chung shared that AI, digital technologies, and robotics, will go beyond improving construction sites and equipment to fundamentally transform the way humanity builds the future. That’s the premise behind HD Hyundai’s “Xite Transformation” vision.
HD Hyundai refers to Xite as an expanded concept for construction job sites. It incorporates the goal to bring innovation in building smart construction sites with autonomous, digital twin, eco-friendly electrification and more future construction equipment technologies.
“The construction industry has laid the foundation for human civilization, and yet it remains one of the slowest today when it comes to technology and innovation,” shared Chung. “We are here today to share HD Hyundai’s vision for changing the future course of humanity by changing the future of the construction industry, which we are calling Xite Transformation. This solution utilizes the latest technology to create a more sustainable future for humanity by solving pressing challenges such as safety, security, supply chain issues, and climate change.”
Chung continued to present the company’s three main innovation goals: enhancing safety with digital technologies, delivering productivity with site autonomy, and decarbonizing and building an energy value chain. He also revealed X-Wise and X-Wise Xite which are two technologies that will be key in achieving its three goals.
What is X-Wise?
X-Wise is an AI platform that looks to maximize safety and efficiency in fleet management to reach the ultimate goal of site autonomy. This platform will be applied to all of HD Hyundai’s industrial solutions as a base technology going forward. X-Wise Xite is an intelligent site management program developed for the production of infrastructure by connecting all construction equipment applied with X-Wise in real-time.
Following Chung’s opening speech, partnering companies specified how they plan to collaborate with HD Hyundai to actualize Xite Transformation. Winta Bereket, the marketing manager at HD Hyundai Infracore North America, introduced HD Hyundai’s AI technology applied to construction equipment that will enhance safety and productivity, advancing the realization of site autonomy.
Prof. Marco Hutter from Gravis Robotics shared how his research on quadrupedal robots grew into developing autonomous excavators, and outlined the key features of robotic construction equipment. Vice President of Google Cloud, Philip Moyer, and Aerin Jungmin Lee from HD Hyundai presented the roadmap that the two companies are mutually working on with generative AI.
President and CTO of HD Hyundai XiteSolution, Dong-wook Lee, shared the blueprint of how the company plans to realize a fully autonomous site solution by combining intelligent construction equipment and X-Wise Xite. HD Hyundai will introduce the technological capability to create an environmentally friendly ecosystem.
The last speaker was Ghadah Alhamoud, international relations advisor at the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resource, Saudi Arabia, who shared his expectations for Xite Transformation, especially on how it will contribute to NEOM and the Saudi Vision 2030.