Hyundai Motor, the nation’s largest carmaker, said Wednesday that it has opened a big data center in Guizhou, China, as part of its efforts to expand its connected car business overseas.

The information technology infrastructure in southwestern China was built to expand vehicle data processing for the development of self-driving cars and to improve customer service, it added.

“Hyundai Motor‘s know-how in big data analysis coupled with Guizhou Province’s strong push into big data will surely accelerate development in connected car technologies as well as better enable us to cater to our customer‘s needs,” said Hwang Seung-ho, executive vice president and head of Auto Intelligence Division. “By successfully operating our newest facility in China, we will set new standards in the big data industry and advance Hyundai Motor’s IT leadership among automotive manufacturers.”

The center was built at the Guian New Area, a state-designated area for the big data industry, in Guizhou Province. It will operate Hyundai Car Cloud, a cloud mapping service launched in South Korea four years ago, as well as other smart driving features such as Connected Car Operating System and Connected Car Service Platform.

On the sideline of the opening event, the carmaker also signed a memorandum of understanding with China Unicom, China’s second-largest telecommunications provider, to jointly develop a predictive analytics platform for various activities.

The opening ceremony was held 10 months after Hyundai Motor Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun signed a strategic agreement with the Guizhou provincial government.

The South Korean carmaker is the first automobile maker to enter the Chinese industrial cluster. It expects to expand further cooperation with the provincial government in setting a national standard for processing transportation data, and also to work with global IT retail giants such as Amazon and Baidu which have already set up local operations there.

The event was held amid escalating tension between South Korea and China over Seoul’s decision on deploying US anti-missile system to deter North Korea’s missile threat. Beijing has been protesting against Seoul’s decision, allegedly leading to a nationwide boycott among Chinese consumers against Korean products. Hyundai‘s sales in China plunged by half in the first half on-year, the company said.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)