Facility Advancement for Developing 'Fully Autonomous Vehicles'... Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport "Active Support"

On the 29th of last month, the "2021 Hyundai Motor Group Autonomous Driving Challenge," co-hosted by Seoul City and Hyundai Motor Company, was held at the autonomous vehicle pilot zone in Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, with six teams (Keimyung University, Sungkyunkwan University, Incheon National University, Inha University, Chungbuk National University, KAIST) participating. The participating vehicles are moving to the starting point. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Transportation Safety Authority announced on the 19th that they have completed the second phase of the advanced upgrade project by establishing state-of-the-art testing facilities to support the development of fully autonomous driving technology at 'K-City' in Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do, a domestic autonomous vehicle exclusive test site (testbed).

Fully autonomous vehicles refer to vehicles that drive by themselves without human intervention, responding to driving situations independently. Level 4 autonomous driving, which operates autonomously under specific conditions, and Level 5, which operates autonomously in all situations, are considered fully autonomous driving technologies.

The development of fully autonomous vehicles at Level 4 or higher requires securing technologies that enable vehicles to respond to more complex driving environments such as various weather conditions and congested traffic situations. For this, repeated and reproducible experiments on these situations are essential.

Established in 2018, K-City was the world's first to build a 5G communication network and reproduces five basic autonomous driving test environments such as highways, urban areas, and parking lots, providing testbed infrastructure to small and medium-sized enterprises and academia.

However, there have been many criticisms that it is insufficient to repeatedly test driving in harsher and more complex situations necessary for the development of fully autonomous driving technology.

(Data provided by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport)

Accordingly, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Transportation Safety Authority have been gradually promoting the testbed upgrade project since 2019 to support the development of Level 4 or higher technologies at K-City.

The newly completed facility is the first outcome of the testbed upgrade project and reproduces three types of harsh environments: weather conditions such as rain and fog, GPS and communication interference situations occurring in tunnels or building forests, and congested driving situations where cars coexist with bicycles and pedestrians.

The facility will be available from the first half of next year. Companies and research institutions wishing to use it can apply online through the Korea Transportation Safety Authority Automobile Safety Research Institute website.

Discounts and other fee support policies will be prepared so that not only large companies but also small and medium-sized enterprises, universities, research institutions, and public organizations can use it widely.

Additionally, starting next year, the third phase of the upgrade project will begin, constructing more diverse facilities such as multi-level intersections, alleyways, and parking buildings, and plans to link with adjacent driving test sites.

Kim Jeong-hee, Director of Automobile Policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, emphasized, "K-City, the nation's top autonomous vehicle testbed, will play an important role in accelerating the commercialization of fully autonomous driving," adding, "We will spare no effort to actively support it so that it can become the world's best autonomous vehicle evaluation environment facility."

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