Hyundai Motor Group Launches UX STUDIO in Shanghai as User-Centric R&D Hub

Hyundai Motor Group recently inaugurated its first User Experience (UX) research hub in China—UX STUDIO—in Shanghai’s Jing’an District, aiming to deeply integrate users into every stage of automotive development. Unlike conventional brand experience centers or survey-based research facilities, this new space establishes a systematic mechanism for “co-creation with users,” breaking away from the traditionally closed-loop approach to vehicle R&D. Spanning two floors, UX STUDIO features distinct functional zones: the ground-floor Open Lab is open to the public and includes UX exploration, validation, and archive areas designed to gather everyday mobility needs and generate trend insights. The second-floor Advanced Lab invites select power users to participate in targeted testing for specific R&D projects, equipped with modular prototype cockpits and a high-fidelity driving simulation platform to deliver actionable, implementation-ready optimization recommendations. Underpinning this system are two core technological foundations: a modular rapid prototyping system and a high-fidelity driving simulator. The former enables flexible adjustments of components such as steering wheels, seats, and displays to quickly simulate diverse cabin layouts across vehicle types. The latter replicates typical Chinese road conditions and weather scenarios through a dynamic motion base and large curved screens, allowing rigorous validation of Human-Machine Interface (HMI) and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) from a user experience perspective. To ensure user feedback effectively informs R&D decisions, UX STUDIO has established a three-tier translation pipeline: 1) Trend insights gathered on the first floor feed directly into the feature planning pool for next-generation products; 2) Project-specific test results from the second floor are synchronized in real time with corresponding R&D teams, enabling iterative refinements before mass production; 3) Post-launch user feedback on existing models becomes the primary input for Over-the-Air (OTA) updates, supporting rapid deployment of enhancements—from audio tuning to new scenario-based features. During its preparatory phase, the hub underwent extensive localization, identifying four key thematic directions aligned with China’s social trends: “Emotional Care,” “Self-Fulfilling Women,” “Nature-Based Wellness,” and “Health & Wellbeing.” Collaborating with Fudan University, academic research findings have been integrated into the UX exploration zone. These insights have already translated into tangible feature validations—including adjustable seating configurations, immersive sensory modes, rear-facing seat layouts, detachable tables, and NVH (Noise, Vibration, and Harshness) tuning—tailored to local mobility contexts such as business travel, family outings, and leisure activities. UX STUDIO Shanghai forms a critical node within Hyundai Motor Group’s global UX co-creation network, sharing a unified R&D methodology with hubs in Seoul, Frankfurt, and Irvine, while simultaneously feeding China-specific user insights back into the global development ecosystem. The company emphasized that this facility will not only serve the Chinese market but also act as a central incubator for global feature and service innovation, advancing a new R&D paradigm of “China Insights, Global Sharing.” This move marks the tangible implementation phase of Hyundai Motor Group’s “In China, For China, To the World” strategy, signaling its ambition to redefine automotive R&D logic in the intelligent EV era through a structured, user-driven co-creation framework.