Self-driving Bus
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure & Transport announced on January 5 that a self-driving electric shuttle bus will be put into service late this year in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province. The bus is scheduled to carry up to 12 passengers along a 2.5 kilometer-long one-way route between Pangyo Station and Pangyo Creative Economy Valley.
The bus is to be imported from abroad but the devices and technology used in it are to be supplied by South Korean firms. The ministry is planning to revise laws and regulations so that the bus can be put into service while organizing detailed road maps and applying the Cooperative Intelligent Transport System (C-ITS) to the bus.
“During our tests that started in February last year and covered 26,000 km, the self-driving vehicle caused no accident although it sometimes had to be switched to the conventional driving mode,” the ministry explained, adding, “The vehicle is unlikely to cause safety problems in Pangyo because its maximum speed will be limited to 30 km per hour and an engineer will be in the vehicle just in case.”
In the meantime, the ministry and Hyundai Motor Company are planning to operate similar buses for passengers in general at the venue of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics scheduled for February 9 to 25, 2018. On the opening day, driving demonstration will be provided between the Seoul Toll Gate and the venue located in Gangwon Province