Kakao Mobility said it was selected as a Seoul Metropolitan Government Autonomous Driving passenger transport operator and will run the "Gangnam late-night Seoul Autonomous Car" service starting on the 16th based on its own Autonomous Driving technology.
The company said this project follows Kakao Mobility's selection in 2024 as an integrated transport platform operator and is another case that proves its competitiveness in Autonomous Driving technology. It noted the service will run in the Gangnam area, where road conditions are complex and unexpected variables are frequent, which is meaningful in that it verified both platform operating capability and Autonomous Driving technological prowess.
Kakao Mobility has advanced the core technologies of Autonomous Driving vehicles based on data accumulated in urban areas such as Pangyo and Gangnam. In particular, it has developed "AI Planner," which handles decision-making and route planning for Autonomous Driving vehicles, as the center of "end-to-end (E2E) Autonomous Driving" technology, in which a single artificial intelligence model performs the entire process from perception to control.
This service applies key technologies such as an "AI data pipeline" that trains and validates Autonomous Driving AI with data and a modular sensor structure "AV-Kit." The vehicles recognize surrounding environments such as traffic lights and pedestrians through a Deep Learning-based "urban-specialized perception core model," and are designed to operate stably even in complex urban environments by combining AI-based decision-making with rule-based driving.
It will also run an "intelligent Autonomous Driving integrated safety management platform" that uses operating data accumulated through the Kakao T platform. This will enable real-time analysis of vehicle data and support responses when unexpected situations occur.
Inside the vehicle, a visualization device, "AVV (Autonomous Vehicle Visualizer)," shows passengers surrounding obstacles and the vehicle's travel path in real time. The company said this reduces the anxiety that can be felt when using an Autonomous Driving vehicle and increases trust in the service.
"Gangnam late-night Seoul Autonomous Car" will operate from 10 p.m. on weekdays to 5 a.m. the next day in the Gangnam-gu Autonomous Driving pilot operation zone. Users can request a vehicle by selecting the "Seoul Autonomous Car" menu in the Kakao T app or through the general taxi-hailing function.
The service is currently free and, under Seoul's Autonomous Driving transport service policy, is scheduled to switch to a paid service starting in Apr.
Ryu Geung-seon, CEO of Kakao Mobility, said, "This is a crucial moment to secure independent competitiveness in Autonomous Driving technology in the domestic mobility market," adding, "We will strengthen competitiveness in Autonomous Driving based on our accumulated mobility data infrastructure and operating capabilities and move forward as a physical artificial intelligence-based corporations."