SOCAR said on the 27th that on the 24th, Governor Wi Seong-gon of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province and Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Lee So-young visited the "SOCAR Terminal" near Jeju Airport and discussed ways to build a city specialized in future mobility.
The SOCAR Terminal is an offline hub of about 2,400 pyeong (7,898 square meters) that opened in Dec. last year. Inside the three-story building are amenities such as a waiting room for car-sharing service users and a work lounge, as well as an automatic car wash system, a maintenance shop, 15 bidirectional chargers for a V2G demonstration project, and dedicated parking spaces.
At the event, SOCAR and Apex Mobility CEO Park Jae-uk presented to Governor Wi and Rep. Lee plans to develop Jeju into a base for Autonomous Driving technology. In his presentation, Park added, "Jeju Special Self-Governing Province has a unique demonstration environment where the needs of residents and tourists overlap, so if we foster the Autonomous Driving industry through open institutional design, we can achieve all three goals of reducing carbon emissions, solving mobility challenges in areas with poor transportation, and revitalizing tourism."
To that end, Park proposed a three-step roadmap of transitioning to electric vehicles, expanding Autonomous Driving car-sharing services, and scaling up Autonomous Driving ride-hailing and robo-buses. The gist is to use incentives to encourage replacing internal combustion engine cars with eco-friendly electric vehicles, and to address problems in areas with poor transportation by using Autonomous Driving car-sharing vehicles, ride-hailing, and robo-buses while also developing them into experiential tourism products.
In the discussion, Rep. Lee said, "The expansion of self-driving cars will accelerate the transition to electric vehicles, providing environmental benefits, and it also offers significant social benefits, such as reducing traffic accidents and closing transportation gaps," and noted, "While addressing safety concerns about Autonomous Driving, which can feel like a fully developed technology, we will work to expand its adoption."
Governor Wi added, "I think Autonomous Driving is essential, but in the introduction process, efforts must also be made to consult with various stakeholders, coordinate opinions, and enhance social acceptance."
They also toured the site of the ongoing V2G demonstration project at the SOCAR Terminal. V2G is a technology that allows the power in an electric vehicle battery to be exchanged bidirectionally with the power grid, using electric vehicles as a means of transportation and at the same time as a "mobile energy storage device." SOCAR has been carrying out the project since early this year by using a regulatory sandbox demonstration exception jointly approved by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources, the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
Park said, "We plan to continue related investments, including technology development centered on building a data pipeline, so that we can also contribute from here to the development of the AI-based tourism industry that Jeju Special Self-Governing Province aims for."
Meanwhile, in May, SOCAR established Apex Mobility, an Autonomous Driving joint venture worth 150 billion won. SOCAR and Apex Mobility plan to build a training data pipeline capable of securing 1.1 million kilometers of driving data per day and to operate "full sensor kit" vehicles equipped with lidar and cameras to develop a Korea-style Autonomous Driving foundation model.