Familiar with the claim that "all cars look the same"? It’s often directed—rightly so—at the exterior design of new cars. There’s a good reason for that, which we’ve explained to you in the past. But now, with the introduction of Hyundai’s new multimedia operating system, it seems this can also be said about what’s happening inside cars.
The future challenge for car manufacturers regarding the vehicle interior and its technology is to create software that’s much more than just a user interface with the car—it’s meant to be a sort of gateway to all the vehicle’s features. In other words, while for decades we were used to maintaining a car from underneath or through the hood, the future vision is to manage all propulsion and power transmission systems, steering, braking, suspension—everything—through the car’s software.
In addition, all aspects of communication between the car and other vehicles, infrastructure, mobile devices, your garage gate, and your charging station—will all be managed by the vehicle’s software. Such a shift naturally leads to greater involvement of tech companies in car development. In other words, traditional manufacturers will provide the hardware, while software companies will breathe life into it. Manufacturers will build the cars; software will connect them on a communication level.
All of these are necessary steps for manufacturers’ vision of transferring data from the car to the manufacturer for analysis and optimization, route planning, and even, eventually, autonomous driving. Hyundai expects to showcase this as early as 2027 with Level 2+ autonomous capabilities, meaning the car will be able to recognize its surroundings using radar and cameras, allowing it to make decisions based on AI, machine learning, and a built-in decision-making strategy. In translation—hands-free driving on specific roads, including autonomous lane changes.
Hyundai is no different in this regard, and it is in the advanced stages of designing its next operating system, called “ccOS” (cc for “Connected Car”), which will use an Android OS that closely resembles the interface of mobile devices. And of course, the latest buzzword—“integrated with AI”—isn’t missing from Hyundai’s development, as a means to improve the system’s performance over time and allow it to learn user preferences.
It will be possible to create a profile for each user, not only to work with multiple drivers in the same car, but also so that if you enter a completely different Hyundai vehicle, visual or voice recognition will allow you to “import” all your preferences and settings to that car. The system is expected to launch in the second quarter of 2026, and according to the company, by 2030 it will be installed in about 30 million vehicles.
So far, this is all very theoretical—except that one image from the developer event left little to the imagination and revealed a striking resemblance. We’re talking about the image of the user interface of the new multimedia system. It’s displayed on a large, separate screen (unlike the current dual 12.3-inch screen setup), but its layout, menu structure, and data display bear an almost identical resemblance to the one used in Tesla models. From the map on the right and vehicle status on the left, to the gear display placement, shortcuts, communication icons in the top right corner, and battery/range display—everything looks nearly the same.