Hyundai, Kia unveil factory AI agent E-FOREST Polaris

Hyundai Motor and Kia unveiled E-FOREST Polaris, an AI agent built for manufacturing, at a media preview on October 16, according to ZDNet Korea. The preview was held ahead of E-FOREST Tech Day 2026 at the Hyundai/Kia Uiwang Research Institute.

E-FOREST Polaris can analyze manufacturing data, generate images and provide work know-how. It also visualizes items such as radio-wave signal strength in a virtual lab space when given natural-language commands.

The companies said they consolidated previously separate factory data and IT systems into a single standard platform, with a core system and manufacturing apps running on top. A pilot run of E-FOREST Polaris began last month at the Ulsan EV plant.

Robots and virtual commissioning

Hyundai and Kia also presented a standardized logistics-robot platform that cut robot production costs by about 30% and shortened development time. It is being applied at Kia's Hwaseong EVO West plant and at the Ulsan plant.

With Nvidia, the automakers are developing physics-AI-based virtual commissioning, or Sim-to-Real technology, planned for introduction in new-car production commissioning at the Ulsan EV plant. They are also developing automated weld-path generation software, targeting completion in June next year, after a demo in which a welding robot regenerated its path to about 1,700 weld points once the car body was moved. A separate demonstration covered automated weatherstrip installation using an industrial robot and a dedicated gripper with high-speed servo control and vision inspection.

The companies aim to apply humanoid robots and full-scale autonomy in new factories after 2032. E-FOREST Tech Day 2026 will present about 200 manufacturing technologies.