Gyeonggi Province Launches Trial Operation of Cooperative Autonomous Bus in June

Trial operation of a cooperative autonomous bus with autonomous driving technology will take place in Pangyo Techno Valley, Gyeonggi Province.

‘Autonomous driving’ is one of the hottest topics in auto industry.

Automated driving without a person behind the wheel makes you imagine a futuristic city. This is an area in which both the auto industry and the IT industry have a lot of interest. Related investments have grown around the globe and there is momentum for autonomous driving test operations in Korea.

Gyeonggi Province has disclosed data collected by the Autonomous Driving Center in February and opened its doors so that the public can easily access the data being collected by the Autonomous Driving Center through a web portal.

Image data extracted from intelligent CCTV systems and processed through object recognition technology is expected to provide significant assistance to companies seeking to develop autonomous driving-related technologies. Furthermore, this data has also been applied to public transportation, establishing an opportunity for related technologies to grow.

In light of this trend, Gyeonggi Province began trial operation of a cooperative autonomous bus in Pangyo Techno Valley in June. This September, cooperative autonomous buses will begin operation on general roads, marking the first time such buses will operate among general vehicles in Korea.

@Gyeonggi Provice

Autonomous cooperative buses feature systems through which they receive information on related infrastructure – such as various traffic signals and status – and operate with this information taken into account. 

Unlike general autonomous driving vehicles that are self-reliant for information gathering, these buses receive input from external infrastructure and are thus expected to operate with greater efficiency and reliability.

@Gyeonggi Provice

A bus driving test was successfully concluded at the Korea Automobile Testing & Research Institute of the K-City Autonomous Driving Test Center located in Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi Province, last month.

Various systems including those for vehicle-to-vehicle distance maintenance, lane deviation prevention, and emergency braking were tested in K-City under conditions similar to actual road conditions; the bus successfully passed the temporary operation assessment.

In terms of differences, general buses can carry 48 passengers while the cooperative autonomous bus of Gyeonggi Province can only carry 20 passengers. And during the trial operation period, only administrators will ride the buses without any passengers.

After trial operation, Gyeonggi Province plans to determine bus fare and other operation factors for a 7-kilometer bus route that will run between Pangyo Techno Valley 1 and Pangyo Techno Valley 2. 

Expectations are high that the cooperative autonomous bus of Gyeonggi Province will prove to be a convenient assistant for your commute in Pangyo.