Blockchain-Enabled Autonomous Vehicles to Undergo Test Runs in Sejong Next Year

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Autonomous vehicles equipped with blockchain technology are expected to undergo test runs in Sejong as early as next year.

Sejong City announced on the 8th that it has been selected for the Ministry of Science and ICT and Korea Internet & Security Agency’s ‘2020 Blockchain Public Leading Pilot Project’ and has launched the ‘Blockchain-based Autonomous Vehicle Trust Platform Construction Pilot Project.’

The Blockchain Public Leading Pilot Project aims to innovate public services and create an initial blockchain market by introducing and applying blockchain technology in the public sector. There are a total of 10 pilot projects.

Previously, in December last year, the city was selected as a pilot project participant along with five local governments including Busan and Gangwon, public institutions such as Korea Expressway Corporation, and four government ministries including the National Police Agency, Rural Development Administration, Ministry of Health and Welfare, and Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

Among these, Sejong is focusing on enhancing security by preventing forgery, tampering, and hacking of autonomous vehicles, thereby improving the completeness of the regulatory free zone through the blockchain-based autonomous vehicle trust platform construction pilot project.

This project focuses on strengthening the security of information transmitted and received between vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-control center, and vehicle-to-service by utilizing a blockchain-based decentralized identity (DID) authentication system.

The pilot project is conducted by LG CNS as the lead operator, forming a consortium with RaonSecure, Unmanned Solution, and RaonWhiteHat. The project budget is 1 billion KRW, including 600 million KRW from the national government and 400 million KRW from the private sector.

The city aims to complete technology development by the end of this year and enable autonomous vehicles equipped with blockchain technology to undergo pilot operation in Sejong starting next year.

Additionally, leveraging this blockchain public leading pilot project, the city plans to take the lead in introducing and applying blockchain technology in the public sector to drive innovation in local public services and expand blockchain use cases.

Lee Chun-hee, Mayor of Sejong City, stated, “We will enhance the completeness of the autonomous driving demonstration project by building a blockchain-based trust platform,” adding, “We will also focus on solving security issues and securing reliability of autonomous vehicles by establishing Korea’s first DID authentication system for vehicle-to-everything communication as a foundation.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.