The Daejeon Metropolitan City Government and the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) announced on the 1st that, together with local autonomous driving specialist companies, they will begin passenger transport services in Daejeon’s autonomous driving pilot operation zone.

This project has been promoted with Daedeok Research and Development Special Zone at its center in order for Daejeon to secure independent autonomous driving technological capabilities and an industrial ecosystem, and to build a wide-area autonomous driving transportation system for the Chungcheong region in connection with Sejong and North Chungcheong Province. The autonomous bus will operate on a route from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) to Shinsegae Department Store, Daedeok High School, Hana Apartment complex, Banseok Station and Sejong Terminal. This route connects the subway (Banseok Station) with intercity buses (Sejong Terminal), which means that autonomous vehicles can move beyond being only for experiential use and play a core role in practical future-oriented public transportation services (MaaS). The pilot operation will be conducted free of charge once a day on weekdays only, from January 30 until the end of March this year. From April, after obtaining a limited autonomous driving transport license, the service will be converted into a paid passenger transport operation and will continue until December 31, 2028, with plans to expand the number of stops and trips.

ETRI researchers applied core fundamental technologies to this autonomous bus that were secured through national R&D projects conducted by the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP), and the Autonomous Driving Technology Development Project Group. The autonomous bus will travel at 50 km/h in downtown Daejeon and up to 80 km/h on the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) section toward Sejong. ETRI explained that this is similar to the speed of regular city buses and demonstrates that key technologies such as lane keeping, inter-vehicle distance control, merging, and emergency braking response have reached the commercialization stage even in high-speed driving environments.

The autonomous driving service is characterized by a three-dimensional safety system that combines vehicle technology, a control system, and road infrastructure. For the first time in Korea, a reality-based high-precision 3D (three-dimensional) map control system has been introduced to monitor in real time the exact location and driving status of the autonomous bus. Based on next-generation vehicle communication technology, a road monitoring system (V2X) capable of detecting objects on the road and unexpected situations has been applied to the demonstration route, allowing advance detection of unexpected risk factors such as jaywalking pedestrians and fallen objects and transmitting this information to the vehicle, thereby compensating for the blind spots of the vehicle’s sensors. High-precision 3D control at the control center, V2X detection through road infrastructure, and the vehicle’s own sensors are organically interconnected to create a driving environment that can predict even invisible hazards.

ETRI and the Daejeon Metropolitan City Government plan to open to the private sector the “on-road driving demonstration data” accumulated in the course of providing the autonomous passenger transport service. Choi Seong-a, Vice Mayor for Political, Economic and Science Affairs of Daejeon, stated, “Daejeon will strengthen its role as a national hub where not only autonomous driving R&D and demonstration projects, but also the training of local talent, are concentrated.”

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