Hyundai's DAL-e Is an Adorable Customer Service Robot for Showrooms
In late January 2021, Hyundai Motor Group unveiled DAL-e, an automated artificial intelligence-based robot that offers personalized services to customers in a showroom, with plans to deploy it in various operational environments.
The robot boasts language processing, facial recognition and automated mobility capabilities for continuous services during the coronavirus pandemic. The pilot program began at a Hyundai car showroom in Seoul for further optimization, updates and improvements.
This high-tech customer service robot communicates with people on its own, using precise recognition capabilities and mobility features. The bot's name is an acronym for "Drive you, Assist you, Link with you-experience". Designed to pioneer automated customer service, DAL-e is equipped with advanced AI facial recognition technology and an automatic communication system based on a language understanding platform.
“DAL-e is a next-generation service platform that can offer automated services to customers at any time. It is expected to become a messenger capable of delivering consistent messages to customers in a more personal way than ordinary robots. Through constant updates and improvements, DAL-e will offer our valued customers fresh and pleasant experiences in a contactless environment. Our goal is to enable DAL-e to communicate with customers seamlessly and engagingly and provide them with valuable services”
On January 25, 2021, the company announced that DAL-e had appeared at a Hyundai Motor showroom in southern Seoul, where the robot began its pilot operation. It is expected to then be used in various areas requiring daily interaction with customers, such as other showrooms of Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Corporation.
Thanks to its truncated humanoid body that radiates welcoming appeal, DAL-e is significantly lighter and more compact than other customer service robots, weighing 80 kg and measuring 1160 x 600 x 600 mm.
The robot has friendly and emotive physical features for close interaction with customers. If a buyer enters the showroom without a mask (we must not forget about the coronavirus pandemic), the robot recognizes this and advises them to put on a mask. As for communication capabilities, it can hold automated and smooth conversations with customers, providing useful information about products and services, and responding to voice commands and touchscreen commands.
DAL-e can move freely and escort customers to designated locations using four multidirectional wheels. It also provides entertaining information, such as explanations of vehicles and technologies, by connecting wirelessly to the showroom's large screen. The robot invites visitors to take photos with it and provides feedback through gestures with its movable arms.
In the showroom where it is in pilot operation, DAL-e eases staff workload and offers practical help to customers, including those who prefer not to rely on human staff amid the coronavirus pandemic, and those who visit the showroom at peak times (for example, on weekends).
Hyundai Motor Group plans to continuously update DAL-e based on data from pilot operations, improving its operational capabilities as an advanced android robot.
It's worth recalling that in December 2020, Hyundai Motor Group and SoftBank agreed on the main terms of a deal under which HMG became the owner of 80% of Boston Dynamics shares, while SoftBank, through one of its affiliates, retained 20%. The company expects to use robotic technologies to introduce automation at its car factories, as well as to develop autonomous vehicles such as self-driving cars, drones and delivery robots.
Hyundai's decision to acquire Boston Dynamics is based on the "growth potential and broad range of capabilities of the robot maker," as stated in the company's press release. Spot robots are planned to be deployed at the automaker's factories, and over time the company wants to expand its presence in the humanoid robot market.
Hyundai is also investing in its own robots. A few years ago, the company unveiled the MEX exoskeleton to help patients with lower limb paralysis, as well as the VEX and CEX exoskeletons designed to reduce the load on workers doing physical labor. Hyundai is funding a pilot program to produce robots for hotel services.
According to South Korean media, the company's attention to the robotics sector has grown in recent years. By 2025 alone, Hyundai plans to invest about $1.4 billion in this segment. The first significant step in this direction was the DAL-e robot.
