Sejong Conducts Pilot Test of 'Autonomous Large Electric Bus' on BRT Route

At the large electric bus driving demonstration based on autonomous cooperative driving held in Sejong on the 2nd, the vehicle driver is observing the bus's driving situation without holding the steering wheel. Provided by Sejong City

[Asia Economy (Sejong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] A demonstration of large electric buses based on autonomous cooperative driving was conducted in Sejong.

According to Sejong City and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on the 3rd, autonomous cooperative driving is a technology that enables autonomous vehicles and regular vehicles to cooperate with infrastructure to implement road driving, with the core being the operation of autonomous vehicles on actual roads where regular buses operate.

Currently, related services are provided on a 600 km section in areas such as Seoul and Jeju nationwide. In Sejong, a demonstration of autonomous cooperative driving was held the day before.

During the demonstration held on a 6 km section of Sejong City's Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) route, services such as autonomous driving mixed with regular vehicles, precise bus stop stopping, communication between buses and infrastructure, and boarding and alighting reservation notifications were showcased.

In particular, the city emphasized that the demonstrated autonomous driving technology is at Level 3, capable of operating large autonomous buses on routes where other buses run, unlike last year’s demonstration on roads with low vehicle traffic using medium-sized buses.

Level 3 means that the responsibility for driving lies with the autonomous driving system, and passengers play a supporting role in managing the operation in emergency situations. For this reason, the vehicle’s autonomous driving system must be able to simultaneously recognize vehicle control and the driving environment.

The city and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plan to focus on developing a complex transfer system based on autonomous cooperative driving next year, which will allow passengers to transfer from large buses operating on main routes to medium-sized buses that operate up to their doorstep.

The transfer service will be developed as a demand-responsive system where passengers can reserve boarding and alighting via a mobile app at locations other than bus stops, and the autonomous bus will change its route in real time to pick up or drop off passengers.

Previously, the city and the Ministry have been conducting research and development since 2018 to enable autonomous driving-based public transportation operation in urban environments.

This is a demonstration project for an autonomous driving-based public transportation system involving 12 organizations including the Korea Transport Institute, Seoul National University, and SEST Co., Ltd., with a total project cost of 13.44 billion KRW to be invested by December next year.

Lee Chun-hee, mayor of Sejong City, said, “Sejong will continue to lead the commercialization of autonomous driving by utilizing autonomous vehicle pilot zones designated by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.”

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