Hyundai Motor and Kia to Launch Autonomous Driving Demonstration Project in Gwangju in the Second Half of This Year

MOU Signed on May 13 to Establish an Autonomous Driving Demonstration City
Hyundai Motor and Kia Begin Autonomous Driving Demonstration Project in Gwangsan-gu and Other Districts
Supplying Autonomous Vehicles, Operating Service Platform, and Conducting Technology Demonstration
Advancing Technology Based on Proprietary 'Atria AI' System

Hyundai Motor and Kia are participating in Gwangju Metropolitan City's autonomous driving demonstration project, leveraging their accumulated expertise in autonomous driving technology. Through this project, autonomous vehicles equipped with Hyundai Motor and Kia's autonomous driving solution, Atria AI, will be deployed across Gwangju Metropolitan City for demonstration purposes.

On May 13, Hyundai Motor and Kia announced that they had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the establishment of an autonomous driving demonstration city at the Kim Daejung Convention Center in Gwangju. The agreement was made in collaboration with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Gwangju Metropolitan City, Korea Transportation Safety Authority, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, Autonomous A2Z, and RideFlux.

Participants from the public sector included Minister Kim Yoon-deok of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Mayor Kang Gi-jung of Gwangju Metropolitan City, and President Jung Yong-sik of the Korea Transportation Safety Authority. From the private sector, Minwoo Park, Head of AVP Division (President) of Hyundai Motor and Kia, as well as officials from Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, Autonomous A2Z, and RideFlux also attended.

A captured screen from the Ioniq 5 RoboTaxi driver's license challenge campaign video. Hyundai Motor Company

Public-Private Partnership Forms 'Korea Autonomous Driving Team'

The purpose of the agreement is to further advance autonomous driving technology developed by the private sector by conducting a demonstration project in Gwangju Metropolitan City, which features a variety of road conditions. The public sector and private companies involved in the agreement will form a consultative body called the 'Korea Autonomous Driving Team' to promote large-scale vehicle operations, data collection, and technology verification.

The demonstration project will first be carried out in selected areas of Gwangsan-gu, Buk-gu, and Seo-gu in the second half of this year. Next year, the scope will expand to include the remaining areas of Seo-gu, as well as Nam-gu and Dong-gu, ultimately covering all five districts of Gwangju Metropolitan City.

For this purpose, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will oversee the project, supporting administrative tasks such as policies and institutional foundation for autonomous driving. Gwangju Metropolitan City will provide infrastructure support, including office space for companies, parking lots, and charging facilities. The Korea Transportation Safety Authority (TS) will offer overall administrative support for efficient project operation and verify the technical performance.

Hyundai Motor and Kia will produce approximately 200 autonomous vehicles based on existing mass-production models for the demonstration. In addition, Hyundai Motor and Kia will operate an autonomous driving service platform using their AI-based mobility platform, Shucle, and will also participate in technology demonstration by deploying their proprietary solution, Atria AI, thereby playing three main roles in the project.

In the private sector, autonomous driving startups such as Autonomous A2Z and RideFlux will use Hyundai Motor and Kia's demonstration vehicles and operational platform to conduct technology demonstration. Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance will establish emergency response systems for accidents and develop insurance products for autonomous driving.

Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Yangjae Headquarters. Hyundai Motor Company and Kia

Hyundai Motor and Kia to Supply Autonomous Vehicles and Operation Platform, and Participate in Technology Demonstration

The demonstration will serve as a process to verify the autonomous driving capabilities Hyundai Motor and Kia have developed to date, under various road conditions in Gwangju Metropolitan City.

The demonstration vehicles provided by Hyundai Motor and Kia will be based on existing mass-production models. Each vehicle will be equipped with eight cameras and one radar dedicated to autonomous driving as standard, allowing them to handle diverse situations. The possibility of adding extra sensors during the demonstration phase is also under consideration.

The current plan is to supply approximately 200 vehicles in total.

The operational platform for the demonstration will utilize Shucle, Hyundai Motor and Kia's proprietary AI-based mobility platform. Through this, Hyundai Motor and Kia will directly operate Gwangju's autonomous vehicle service, managing customer ride requests and the overall dispatch and monitoring of vehicles in operation.

Hyundai Motor and Kia plan to implement intelligent dispatching that takes into account the unique features of autonomous driving technology and real-time traffic conditions, using their accumulated AI route optimization technology.

The demonstration will also involve Atria AI, Hyundai Motor and Kia's proprietary solution.

Atria AI is characterized by its 'E2E (End to End)' approach, which integrates the entire process of perception, judgment, and control into a single AI model. This enables comprehensive learning from real-world driving data and allows the system to respond to complex traffic scenarios more effectively than traditional rule-based methods that rely on pre-programmed rules and scenarios.

Hyundai Motor and Kia expect that this demonstration will validate Atria AI’s ability to respond in real road environments and lay the groundwork for further advancement of the technology.

Minwoo Park, Head of AVP Division (President) of Hyundai Motor and Kia, stated, "This demonstration project will serve as an important milestone in advancing domestic autonomous driving technology. Through this demonstration, we aim to provide customers with a high-level autonomous driving experience and, in the long term, establish a foundation to secure leadership in autonomous driving technology."

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