Gyeonggi Province to Launch Nation's First Pilot of Quantum Cryptography Communication in Autonomous Vehicles

Gyeonggi Province will launch a pilot project from July to apply quantum cryptography communication to autonomous vehicles for the first time nationwide.

On June 26, Gyeonggi Province was selected as the final project operator in the "2025 Demand-Based Quantum Technology Demonstration and Consulting" competition, organized by the National Information Society Agency (NIA) under the Ministry of Science and ICT.

As the demonstration and commercialization of autonomous vehicles in Korea have recently gained momentum, ensuring security and stability in driverless environments has emerged as a key challenge. As seen in cases of remote control hacking demonstrations on some overseas vehicles, threats to communication network security are a fundamental risk factor for autonomous driving. Therefore, the application of quantum cryptography communication is an essential technology for ensuring the safety and reliability of autonomous driving systems.

This project will be carried out in the form of a public-private-academic consortium, with participation from Gyeonggi Province, the Next Generation Convergence Technology Institute, SK Broadband, and other quantum technology companies.

Gyeonggi Province will be responsible for providing the autonomous vehicle demonstration environment and administrative support. The demonstration demand institution is the Gyeonggi Autonomous Driving Center (Convergence Institute) in Pangyo, and the demonstration vehicle is the "PantaG Bus," which is currently operating on actual roads.

The core of the demonstration is to enhance security and reliability by actually applying quantum cryptography communication technology to the real-time communication network between autonomous vehicles and the control center. In particular, the simultaneous application of quantum key distribution (QKD) and post-quantum cryptography (PQC)-based security modules, which are core quantum encryption technologies, is an advanced technological attempt not only in Korea but also globally.

Gyeonggi Province will launch a pilot project from July to apply quantum cryptography communication to autonomous vehicles for the first time nationwide.

Quantum cryptography communication technology is characterized by its resistance to hacking even by next-generation high-performance quantum computers, which can drastically reduce security risks such as hacking of autonomous vehicles that collect and transmit large volumes of data. The technology can also be expanded in the future to sensitive fields such as smart cities, healthcare, and finance.

In addition, by linking with the open quantum testbed established and operated by the National Information Society Agency between Seoul, Pangyo, and Daejeon, a foundation will be created for local small and medium-sized enterprises to directly utilize and receive training on demonstration technologies.

Gyeonggi Province plans to vitalize the local quantum industry ecosystem through collaboration with equipment manufacturers, telecommunications companies, research institutions, and quantum technology companies.

In particular, Gyeonggi Province will promote this project as a leading case for the commercialization and early dissemination of quantum technology by leveraging the province's top-level quantum research demonstration infrastructure and public-private cooperation networks, in line with the new government's policy focus on strengthening R&D support for the development and commercialization of quantum ICT, a key area for fostering new industries such as AI.

Kim Kibyung, Director of AI at Gyeonggi Province, stated, "This project is a leading example of the convergence of AI and quantum technology, combining Gyeonggi Province's research infrastructure and business foundation with the outstanding technical capabilities of participating private companies. Through close cooperation between the public and private sectors, we will foster Gyeonggi Province as a hub for the convergence industry of AI and quantum technology."

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