Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport First Reveals Performance Results of Autonomous Vehicle Pilot Zones

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 15th that it will disclose the evaluation results of the operational performance of pilot autonomous vehicle zones introduced to expand autonomous vehicle services on the 16th.

The autonomous vehicle pilot zones are a system that supports private companies to freely demonstrate autonomous driving services, and it is stipulated that the operational performance of the zones is evaluated annually and the results are published on the internet.

This year marks the first evaluation since the system was introduced, and the evaluation targets are the seven pilot zones designated until the first half of last year, including Seoul Sangam, Gyeonggi Pangyo, Chungbuk·Sejong, Sejong, Daegu Metropolitan City, Gwangju Metropolitan City, and Jeju Island. Among the seven zones, it was confirmed that a total of 11 companies (21 vehicles) in six zones including Seoul Sangam received paid transportation licenses and safety standard exceptions and provided services. Currently, paid services have been introduced in Sangam, Daegu, and Jeju, and autonomous vehicle services such as Tamna Jeju and Dalgubeol Daegu have been branded.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is currently discussing designating Yeouido in Seoul, areas near the Blue House, Incheon City, and Chungnam as pilot autonomous vehicle zones.

Looking at the operational performance by zone, among the seven zones, Sangam (2 companies/6 vehicles), Daegu (2 companies/2 vehicles), Pangyo (2 companies/4 vehicles), and Sejong (2 companies/5 vehicles), which provided paid and unpaid services, showed favorable evaluations.

In particular, Gwangju demonstrated autonomous driving technology using special vehicles such as street cleaning vehicles rather than passenger services, and Jeju aimed to activate services through a tourism-linked mobility pilot project. In Chungbuk·Sejong, it is expected that autonomous bus services within the BRT will be possible within this year through demonstrations.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to use the analysis results of the operational performance of each pilot zone to supplement the overall operational system of the pilot zones and to discover system improvement measures, thereby utilizing them as data for the efficient operation of autonomous vehicle pilot zones.

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