At an intersection in a busy district of Daegu at the end of last month. When a taxi traveling at close to 80 kph spotted a red light and braked hard, the numbers on the terminal attached to the top of the passenger seat started changing quickly. The score, which had been above 90 during steady-speed driving, fell to around 50 after several repetitions of hard stops and rapid acceleration.
In various driving situations, the terminal's score changed in real time. Each time the driver overtook quickly or made a sudden lane change, the score dropped sharply, but when the speed was reduced and normal driving resumed, it gradually rose. The driver said, "A terminal equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) and artificial intelligence (AI) technology detects traffic conditions, compliance with signals, whether pedestrians are avoided, and more, and scores in real time."
The terminal is "Bifence," a vehicle safety management platform developed by Bifence Korea, a subsidiary of domestic startup DGT Mobility. It evaluates driving conditions in real time using 11 dangerous driving behaviors selected by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT), including rapid acceleration, rapid deceleration, sudden start, hard stop, sudden lane change, rapid overtaking, sharp left-right turns, and sudden U-turns. It also detects in-vehicle air quality and reflects it in the evaluation.
Bifence's "real-time on-road driving evaluation system" has recently drawn attention as a tool to address a range of traffic problems. After the service was introduced, taxi accidents fell noticeably, and passenger satisfaction also rose significantly.
In the mobility industry, there is hope that making this service mandatory nationwide and granting incentives to drivers who maintain high scores would also help reduce safety accidents involving older taxi drivers, which have become a recent concern.
◇ Daegu sees 22% drop in taxi accidents after adopting real-time on-road driving evaluation system
Bifence Korea partnered with Daegu University's Industry-Academia Cooperation Foundation to develop Bifence. The platform combines OBD2 (On-Board Diagnostics II) and GPS to collect real-time driving data and analyzes indoor air quality, including fine dust and chemicals. Drivers and passengers can check scores in real time. Taxi companies use the accumulated information for driver evaluations and more.
Daegu's taxi sector has seen strong results since adopting the Bifence platform. A survey by the Daegu branch of the National Private Taxi Mutual Aid Association of 9,871 members showed that the total number of accidents over the five months from Oct. last year to Feb. this year was 1,810, down 12.9% from a year earlier. The gradual increase in taxis adopting Bifence appears to have had an effect. In particular, companies that applied Bifence's real-time driving evaluation system saw a much higher accident reduction rate of 22%.
As real-time driving data began to be used for taxi drivers' personnel evaluations, the number of risky safety incidents by type also dropped sharply. For hard starts, the biggest complaint among passengers, cases fell 26% after Bifence was installed, while rapid acceleration and sharp left-right turns fell 38% and 47%, respectively.
As improvements in taxi service quality and lower accident rates have stood out, the number of vehicles adopting the system has been rising quickly. Taxis using the Bifence platform increased from about 2,200 in Jan. last year to about 8,600 in Dec., roughly quadrupling in about a year.
Jeong Chang-gi, head of the Daegu Private Taxi Association, said, "When the Bifence platform was first introduced, drivers strongly resisted being evaluated in real time, but now competition to earn high scores is fierce," adding, "Passenger satisfaction with the service has increased, creating a virtuous cycle in which taxi usage is rising."
◇ Exemption from qualification maintenance tests for high scores… highlighted as a solution to older taxi driver issues
In the mobility industry, the Bifence platform is being cited as a measure to address accidents involving older taxi drivers. Older drivers must undergo qualification maintenance tests to renew their licenses, but if long-accumulated driving evaluations are good, granting incentives such as exempting them from tests would naturally push drivers to focus more on safe driving.
According to the "pilot project report on guiding safe driving by older drivers," jointly organized by the Korea Transportation Safety Authority (TS) and DGT Mobility, accidents among taxi drivers aged 65 or older affiliated with the Daegu branch of the Private Taxi Mutual Aid Association fell 32.7%, from 626 cases before the Bifence pilot to 421 after. Risky driving by type recorded a 22.4% reduction rate.
Having confirmed a marked reduction in accidents, the taxi industry recently began urging the creation of institutional measures to formally expand Bifence adoption.
Six Daegu-North Gyeongsang organizations, including the North Gyeongsang Taxi Transport Business Association and the North Gyeongsang branch of the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union, recently submitted a petition to the National Assembly calling for the introduction of a safety management system using real-time on-road driving evaluation data. The petition asks that drivers who achieve safety scores above a certain threshold through real-time driving data collection devices be exempted from, or granted a deferral of, qualification maintenance tests.
Under the current system, taxi drivers aged 65 or older are required to undergo qualification maintenance tests or medical aptitude tests conducted by the Korea Transportation Safety Authority (TS), depending on age. Those aged 65 to 69 must be tested every three years, and those 70 or older every year.
An official at the Taxi Mutual Aid Association said, "Scores accumulated over a long period through real-time driving data collection devices like Bifence can verify the abilities of older drivers far more objectively and efficiently than one-off aptitude tests," adding, "If a new method is introduced, it could also reduce unnecessary administrative expense caused by conducting qualification maintenance tests."
◇ In the age of robotaxis and full Autonomous Driving, drawing attention as a third-party verification platform
In the mobility industry, there is a view that Bifence will also be used to verify the safety of robotaxis and fully Autonomous Driving vehicles, which are set to begin operating in Korea. While robotaxis are operating in some regions in the United States and China, frequent accidents have amplified calls for rigorous safety verification.
Tesla, the U.S. electric vehicle maker regarded as being at the forefront of the robotaxi business, has seen its safety come under scrutiny after a series of recent accidents.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in May disclosed the circumstances of 17 Tesla robotaxi accidents that occurred in Austin, Texas. According to the report, the robotaxis were found to have been unable to drive properly from a standstill or, while being remotely controlled, collided with barriers and other objects. There were also crashes caused by failing to detect objects or animals crossing the road during unprotected left turns.
A mobility industry official said, "In standardized situations, Autonomous Driving vehicles possess near-perfect safety, but there is always a risk of errors and many point out their vulnerability to diverse driving variables," adding, "If platforms like Bifence that collect driving data from a third-party position become more advanced, they will be useful for performance verification of robotaxis and fully Autonomous Driving vehicles and for identifying problems in accidents."