South Korea’s leading automaker Hyundai Motor Co. will make a strategic investment in Swiss-based technology company Wayray to develop holographic augmented reality (AR) navigation system, the company announced Wednesday.

Although the car maker did not disclose the exact amount of its investment, it aims to install the AR navigation system to its vehicles starting 2020. The global market for hologram displays, which create a virtual three-dimensional image of an object, is projected to grow by 30 percent per year to reach $3.6 billion by 2020.

Founded in 2012, Zurich-based Wayray is the world’s top AR firm and also boasts outstanding aerospace technology. It runs a research and development center in Russia as well. It showcased its holographic head-up display (HUD) at CES held in Las Vegas in January this year.

Hyundai Motor plans to apply the holographic AR navigation system to be jointly developed with Wayray to its head-up displays, designed to project driving data onto the windshield in a three-dimensional way. “The partnership would not only help the development of the navigation system but also our projects for smart city and smart building,” said an official from Hyundai Motor.

On Wednesday, shares of Hyundai Motor fell 1.17 percent to close at 126,500 won

By Lee Seung-hoon and Choi Mira

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