Approval of 7 Smart Services Including AI Traffic Lights and Demand-Responsive Buses

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Eases Total of 32 Regulations in Smart City Regulatory Sandbox After 1 Year and 4 Months

Conceptual Diagram of Transportation and Location Information Analysis Platform Service Based on Transportation Card Data

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo Gang-wook] Seven smart services, including AI traffic lights and demand-responsive buses, have received regulatory sandbox demonstration exceptions for smart cities.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 22nd that at the 14th National Smart City Committee held from the 16th to the 21st, seven new projects for smart services aimed at solving urban problems in five regions including Busan, Daegu, and Jeju were approved after a written review as agenda items for the smart city regulatory sandbox.

The smart city regulatory sandbox is a system that grants special exceptions allowing new products and services using new technologies to be exempt from current regulations under certain conditions (period, location, scale), enabling market launch, testing, and verification. When a company receives a demonstration exception under the smart city regulatory sandbox, it can experiment with innovative services in the designated area during a demonstration period of up to four years according to the approved business plan without being restricted by related regulations.

At this committee meeting, six demonstration exceptions and one case of no regulation were approved, totaling seven new projects. The Ministry explained that since the system's implementation 16 months ago, a total of 32 regulatory difficulties related to smart city technologies and services have been resolved.

Looking at the main contents of the seven approved projects, in the transportation sector, Suwon City will proceed with the "Transportation Big Data Platform Project" (Soul Infotech) under a demonstration exception. This service places personal mobility stations where many public transportation users get off based on transportation card data and analyzes commercial district locations centered on floating populations.

In Sejong City, the "AI Traffic Light" (Autovision) received a demonstration exception to test its performance and effectiveness over 24 months. This aims to improve the fixed traffic light system that changes signals at set time intervals regardless of traffic volume. The "AI Traffic Light" uses video recognition to detect the number of vehicles at intersections and pedestrians at crosswalks in real time, analyzes this data, and generates optimal signals.

In Daegu (G&T Solution) and Sejong (Fortytwo Dot), demand-responsive buses received demonstration exceptions to operate in urban areas. Demand-responsive buses change routes in real time according to passenger demand. When passengers call via a platform (App), AI algorithms analyze passenger locations and routes to derive the optimal route. This service, demonstrated in Sejong and Incheon, reduced bus waiting and travel times by over 40%, resulting in high resident satisfaction. With the regulatory sandbox approval, it will expand to other regions.

In Busan, a lifestyle and safety service, the "Drone-based Flood Prediction System" (Sejung I&C), was approved for demonstration exception. This service uses drones to build 3D terrain data and predicts flooding based on rainfall or alerts for disasters such as floods in advance.

In Daegu, the "3-minute Smart Water Purification Technology," which reduces the existing water purification system time from about 300 minutes to 3 minutes to produce potable water, will be demonstrated. The demonstration project will be conducted for 24 months at the Daegu National Water Industry Cluster.

The approved smart city regulatory sandbox projects this time are the first approvals since the system's regional scope was expanded nationwide from being limited to five smart regulatory innovation zones including national pilot cities (Sejong and Busan).

Demand for demonstrating smart city services in new regions such as Jeju, Suwon, and Daegu was reflected. For demand-responsive mobility demonstration projects with precedent regulatory exceptions, a fast track was applied to simplify procedures and expedite regulatory exception approval. The approved projects will start in the second half of the year after reviewing liability insurance subscriptions and the appropriateness of demonstration project costs. The demonstration period is within four years with one possible extension, and up to 500 million KRW per project will be supported for demonstration costs.

Yoon Euishik, Director of Urban Economy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "We are conducting online continuous applications and pre-consultations so that companies wishing to experiment with new innovative services can conveniently use the smart city regulatory sandbox," adding, "We also operate a 'Regulatory Rapid Confirmation System' that confirms within 30 days whether a company's intended business violates regulations."

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