“The investment is aimed at gaining stable control of Motional, actively leading the research and development of autonomous driving technology, and keeping the core technology in its own hands,” Hyundai Motor said.

Motional is a joint venture between Hyundai Motor and Aptiv, an Irish-American automotive technology company, launched in March 2020. Hyundai Motor will pay $488 million and an additional $456 million for Aptiv’s 11 percent stake in Motional. After the completion of the investment, Hyundai Motor’s total stake in Motional will reach 66.8 percent.

“The additional investment will enhance Motional’s technological competitiveness by setting a direction for technological development and lay the foundation for expanding synergies among the group’s autonomous driving divisions,” Hyundai said.

In January, Aptiv announced it would stop investing in Motional and seek to reduce its ownership stake because of the company’s huge operating losses over the past three years. According to a business report from a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Group, Motional has a total operating loss of $1.47 billion.

In March, Motional demonstrated its autonomous driving technology using Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 autonomous taxi in the United States. Motional’s autonomous driving technology has also passed the U.S. standard driver license test using the Ioniq 5.