Corporation in Autonomous Driving Sector
North Gyeongsang Province announced on August 10 that it has agreed with the British government to share technologies and know-how in the autonomous driving sector ranging from the development of self-driving vehicles and high-precision maps to safety management.
The IT Convergence Institute of North Gyeongsang Province and Westfield Sportscars of the U.K. signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at the North Gyeongsang provincial government building on the 10th to cooperate in the driverless car sector.
The MOU signing ceremony was attended by 20 people, including governmental officials, such as North Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Kwan-yong, British deputy minister for international trade Mark Garnier and counselor of the British embassy in South Korea, and five other domestic company representatives.
The MOU is a follow-up to the partnership agreement to introduce autonomous vehicles signed in November last year. Under the latest agreement, the two sides will share not only technical sectors including self-driving cars and high-precision maps but also systematic know-how like safety management and insurance.
As the leader in the autonomous driving industry, the U.K. has experience in running more than 3 million kilometers of autonomous ULTra pods at Heathrow Airport in London with nearly 75 million passengers passing through the terminals a year.
An autonomous vehicle integrates core technologies of the fourth industrial revolution such as artificial intelligence, sensor, big data, Internet of Things and 5G, showing an annual average growth rate of 29 percent.
According to North Gyeongsang Province, about 880 car component manufacturers are based in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province and 24 of them are in the list of the nation’s top 100 car component producers.
Under the partnership agreement with the U.K., North Gyeongsang Province will introduce and start test running the Korea-U.K. driverless car in Ulleung Island in March next year for the first time in the domestic industry.
North Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Kwan-yong said, “North Gyeongsang has been preparing for the fourth industry revolution methodically and proactively in order to secure its future growth engine. We have a great potential in the global market as well. We expect that both countries can make a new leap in the autonomous car sector with the latest agreement.”