Hyundai has piloted a driverless car-hailing service in Gangnam, one of the most congested areas in metropolitan Seoul, South Korea.
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The ride-hailing service will use the auto maker’s IONIQ 5 battery electric vehicles, launched last year, and will be equipped with its in-house developed level 4 autonomous driving technology.
“We expect this RoboRide pilot service will be an important inflexion point that will enable us to internalise autonomous driving technology,” Woongjun Jang, SVP and Head of the Autonomous Driving Center at Hyundai, said in a statement.
The South Korea-based firm expects to collect valuable autonomous driving data through this pilot service, the carmaker said, adding that it plans to further develop the level 4 autonomous driving technology to navigate safely and flexibly in complicated urban environments.
A RoboRide vehicle can drive up to three passengers, and a safety driver, who will only intervene under limited conditions like an emergency, according to the automaker.
The first customers to test drive the RoboRide vehicle were Won Hee-ryong, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of South Korea, and Oh Se-hoon, Mayor of Seoul City. Initially, the company will operate the service with selected personnel, and then expand it to general customers.
Hyundai worked with Seoul Metropolitan Government to establish a system that can connect traffic signals with autonomous vehicles. Meanwhile, it has gathered driving data since 2019 by testing autonomous driving in the Gangnam area.
Moreover, the auto maker’s in-house developed remote vehicle assist system will monitor autonomous driving status, vehicle and route, and support with remote assist functions, such as lane change.
Hyundai has collaborated with Jin Mobility, a Korean startup operating the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered car-hailing mobility platform ‘i.M.’, for running its two IONIQ 5 RoboRide units on the latter’s i.M application.
