Kakao Mobility Launches Consortium to Build Urban Air Mobility... Targeting Commercialization by 2025

On the 10th, representatives from each company attended the business agreement ceremony held at LG Science Park in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, and took a commemorative photo. From the left: Lee Sang-yeop, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Executive Director of LG Uplus; Yoo Seung-il, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Kakao Mobility; Kim E-bae, CEO of Jeju Air; Park Il-pyeong, President of LG Science Park; Jang In-young, Vice President of GS Caltex; Eduardo Dominguez Puerta, Chief Commercialization Officer (CCO) of Vertical; Kim Young-jun, CEO of Pablo Aviation.

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Kakao Mobility is launching a consortium by partnering with leading companies in various industries to expand the urban air mobility (UAM) business.

Kakao Mobility announced on the 11th that it has launched a consortium for the commercialization of 'K-UAM' together with five companies: the UK-based Vertical Aerospace, LG Uplus, Jeju Air, GS Caltex, and Pablo Aviation, and signed a memorandum of understanding to participate in the “Korean Urban Air Mobility Grand Challenge (hereinafter K-UAM GC)” demonstration project.

The ‘K-UAM GC’ is a demonstration project led by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to expand the domestic UAM business and establish a public-private cooperation system. It aims for the domestic commercialization of UAM by 2025 by integrating and operating tests on the safety of flying vehicles and traffic management functions. Over two years from this year to 2024, the first phase of the project will be conducted, selecting participants and conducting demonstration flights in open areas to verify operational infrastructure and communication relay platforms.

On the 10th, the six companies held a business agreement ceremony at LG Science Park in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, officially launching the consortium to establish a foundation for the commercialization of domestic UAM services and promote the growth of the related industrial ecosystem. According to the agreement, each company agreed to mutually cooperate in various fields, including ▲establishing Korean-style UAM standards ▲conducting individual demonstrations to accelerate service commercialization ▲jointly exploring additional business opportunities related to the UAM industry in the future.

Accordingly, the companies will share roles based on their expertise and know-how in leading various industries such as aircraft, communications, operations, and infrastructure networks to jointly participate in the first phase of the ‘K-UAM GC’ project. The goal is to organically cooperate to secure high reliability for the service and establish a safer service commercialization foundation.

Kakao Mobility plans to support seamless user mobility by ▲calculating estimated time of arrival (ETA) for ground transportation such as autonomous vehicles based on mobility data analysis ▲ensuring stable linkage between flight and traffic control systems and platforms ▲building a vertiport solution implementing automatic check-in and security screening functions. Through this, it will be possible to propose optimized takeoff and landing sites tailored to different environments depending on the type of UAM aircraft and vertiport locations, laying the groundwork for a UAM service optimized for Korea.

Vertical Aerospace, a manufacturer of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, will produce the UAM aircraft to be used in this consortium. LG Uplus will provide traffic management systems and communication services for stable UAM operations, and Jeju Air will be responsible for safe and reliable flight services based on its accumulated aviation operation know-how, including aviation professionals and flight-related systems.

GS Caltex will utilize its nationwide gas station network, including urban areas, to provide UAM vertical takeoff and landing facilities, and Pablo Aviation, a drone solution and service specialist, will leverage its expertise in developing the smart mobility integrated control system (PAMNet) to build the UAM integrated flight control system.

Yoo Seung-il, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Kakao Mobility, said, “The MaaS platform operation know-how and data possessed by Kakao Mobility are the key to securing the most important user service accessibility when UAM is actually commercialized, and securing solutions through the platform will be the most differentiating point from other consortia. We will strive to accelerate the commercialization of domestic UAM.”

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