Hyundai Wia debuts fully autonomous forklift at Kia factory

Hyundai Wia, the auto parts and industrial machinery manufacturing arm of Hyundai Motor Group, said Monday that it has developed an autonomous forklift capable of loading cargo entirely on its own — a first for a Korean company. The self-operating vehicle will begin logistics duties in May 2027 at Kia’s AutoLand Hwaseong assembly complex in Gyeonggi Province. The forklift navigates factory floors independently using lidar — a sensor that maps surroundings with laser pulses — along with vision sensors and safety scanners. Hyundai Wia said it drew on its experience mass-producing autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), wheeled robots that move through warehouses and plants without fixed tracks, to develop the technology. The system also relies on "digital twin" technology, a virtual replica of the factory, to calculate optimal routes. The company said it focused most heavily on loading and unloading, the most technically demanding part of forklift operation. Vision sensors pinpoint each pallet's exact position, accounting for a truck's slight sinking under weight and shifts caused by uneve