Test Bed for World's First 5G Convergence
Sangam Digital Media City (DMC) in Seoul will become a testing ground for cooperative driving of autonomous vehicles.
On May 13, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, announced that it would build a cooperative intelligent transportation system (C-ITS) in downtown Seoul in cooperation with the Seoul Metropolitan Government.
The city government has selected Sangam DMC as the venue of the C-ITS construction project and will build a test bed needed to develop five-level autonomous driving technology by 2019.
Sangam DMC is suitable as a test bed for cooperative driving of autonomous vehicles as the area has various road forms such as tunnels and roundabouts.
Seoul will provide opportunities to demonstrate various communication technologies on actual roads by building the world's first 5G vehicle telecommunication network. First of all, the city will provide autonomous cooperation drive services between vehicles and vehicles and infrastructure by building a WAVE network, which has been used in advanced countries such as the United States since 2004.
Beginning next year, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Seoul City will build a cellular-V2X (mobile telecommunication-type vehicle communication) network based on a mobile telecommunication network and a 5G communication network. Seoul City aims to create an environment in which Korean companies can develop various connected car services and equipment such as infotainment in addition to support for autonomous cooperation driving through the networks.
Prior to the full-scale commercialization of an autonomous cooperation drive, an autonomous drive bus without a driver will also run in the test district. The Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to commercialize unmanned buses in areas with poor public transportation in the form of a “bus called with mobile phones” in connection with the development of technology for autonomous cooperation drives when the demonstration of the driverless bus is successfully completed. People can use the autonomous driving bus free of charge. The bus will start from Digital Media City Station (Subway Line No. 6) and pass main stops in Sangam DMC two or three times a day.