Kakao Mobility said Wednesday it has signed a strategic cooperation memorandum of understanding (MOU) with HD Hyundai Site Solution to build a next-generation unmanned logistics and physical artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem. In line with the industrial automation paradigm shift from hardware manufacturing to software-driven operations, the two companies plan to broaden the physical AI ecosystem and set service standards.
Through the agreement, the companies will combine Kakao Mobility's platform capabilities — including integrated control of heterogeneous vehicles, work optimization, and transportation management — with HD Hyundai Site Solution's unmanned autonomous industrial vehicles (forklifts) and logistics site control solutions. The core aim is to create an integrated system that connects equipment, platforms, and data as one. The companies plan to jointly pursue platform integration and proof-of-concept (PoC) demonstrations at actual logistics sites, and to identify new business models and global opportunities based on the resulting data.
Kakao Mobility plans to expand its platform-based integrated control capabilities to logistics sites through the partnership. Drawing on its experience operating mobility services such as robot delivery and robot valet parking, along with its advanced transportation management system (TMS), the company aims to connect various industrial vehicles at logistics sites to its platform and broaden the scope of physical AI applications.
Specifically, the company will focus on creating a "seamless work optimization environment" that spans the entire process from ordering and middle-mile road transportation to in-warehouse operations. This is expected to resolve structural limitations such as operational inefficiencies and work delays that arose from data disconnects between processes in conventional logistics environments. Starting with unmanned forklifts, the company plans to establish a standard for a next-generation logistics platform ecosystem capable of integrated management of various heterogeneous unmanned vehicles, including automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), on a single platform.
"By combining our capabilities in unmanned autonomous industrial vehicles and logistics site solutions with Kakao Mobility's platform and service capabilities, we have laid the groundwork to lead the logistics automation and physical AI ecosystem," HD Hyundai Site Solution CEO Song Hee-jun said. "Based on this cooperation, we will accelerate automation at logistics sites and provide differentiated solutions to our customers."
Ryu Geung-seon, CEO of Kakao Mobility, said, "This partnership is a meaningful starting point for expanding the heterogeneous mobility integration capabilities Kakao Mobility has accumulated through operating robot services across various fields to industrial sites as a whole. By combining Kakao Mobility's software capabilities with HD Hyundai Site Solution's industrial vehicle and logistics solution capabilities, we will advance the logistics AX model and continue to expand the scope of physical AI technology applications."
