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Hyundai Motor and Kia held their first internal in-vehicle app development competition, the “24H Code Race,” on August 20–21 at Pangyo Tech One. From more than 220 submitted ideas, 25 teams and roughly 100 employees advanced to the finals, where they had 24 hours to build working prototypes. The grand prize went to “TaleSync,” an interactive audio story service developed by the SyncLab team that syncs real-time vehicle driving data with a child’s reactions so the story concludes exactly when the vehicle reaches its destination. Excellence awards went to services focused on parenting and everyday convenience, including “Baby Sweet Sleep Drive,” which helps babies fall asleep, along with “Majung” and “AcciT.” The company plans to explore in-vehicle deployment and commercialization of the winning entries and to accelerate expansion of its app market ecosystem.
Key Elements
Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) and Kia (000270.KS) have uncovered a wave of ideas reflecting parenting and family mobility experiences at their in-vehicle app development competition built around the next-generation infotainment system “Pleos Connect.” A significant share of the grand prize and excellence award winners were services that translate the frustrations and needs felt while traveling with children into apps—an indication, observers say, that the in-vehicle app ecosystem has room to expand from real-life experiences.
Hyundai Motor and Kia announced on August 24 that they held the internal hackathon “24H Code Race” from August 20 to 21 at Pangyo Tech One in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. A hackathon—a portmanteau of “hacking” and “marathon”—is a development competition program in which participants turn ideas into actual services within a limited time. This event was the companies’ first in-vehicle app development competition, organized to energize the open app market based on Pleos Connect and to spread a software-centric organizational culture.
From more than 220 in-vehicle app ideas submitted in July, 25 teams were selected to advance to the finals. A total of roughly 100 employees—from R&D to general staff roles—formed teams and spent 24 hours developing vehicle-specific apps, turning their ideas into prototypes that could actually be demonstrated. The developed app services were evaluated on four criteria: originality, customer value, marketability, and completeness. After a first-round online evaluation and a second-round presentation review by a panel of internal executives and external experts, one grand prize team and three excellence award teams were selected.
The grand prize went to “TaleSync,” developed by the SyncLab team. TaleSync is an interactive in-vehicle audio story service that links real-time vehicle driving data with a child’s response information so the story concludes precisely when the vehicle arrives at its destination. The combination of content immersion with travel time in situations involving children earned high marks for customer value and originality.
The excellence awards went to ideas grounded in everyday life. “Baby Sweet Sleep Drive” from the “Jae-woo GO, Dad GO” team puts baby sleep and the parenting travel experience front and center, starting with its name. In addition, “Majung” from the “WayU” team and “AcciT” from the “Memora” team also received excellence awards for ideas that enhance vehicle utility and everyday convenience.
The lineup of winners reflects a broader shift toward viewing the vehicle not merely as a means of transportation but as an everyday space for families. The hackathon also incorporated vibe coding using the company’s internal generative AI tools. Participants proposed a wide range of app services connecting the vehicle to customers’ daily lives—spanning safety, healthcare, entertainment, and gamification—and even produced one-minute service introduction shorts to demonstrate their development results.
Hyundai Motor and Kia plan to review commercialization options for the winning entries, including potential in-vehicle deployment, and will actively encourage developer participation to continue expanding the range of in-vehicle app services. Since the employees who best understand the vehicle proposed services directly from the customer’s perspective, the companies expect the expansion of the app market ecosystem to gain momentum.
Park Min-woo, head of Hyundai Motor and Kia’s AVP Division, said, “We were able to see the creative ideas and spirit of challenge from our employees, grounded in their field experience and expertise,” adding, “This hackathon will serve as a starting point for app services that innovate the customer experience and for the expansion of the Pleos ecosystem.”
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