[Yonhap Photo]
South Korea demonstrated an autonomous bus and an autonomous parcel-delivery service drone that would make their combined debut during next year's Winter Olympic in the eastern ski resort of Pyeongchang.
Using an ultra-fast fifth-generation (5G) mobile telecom network, telephone company KT Corp. plans to provide trial services for self-driving buses and drone deliveries in Pyeongchang from February 9 to 25 next year.
The autonomous bus communicates with a control center with minimum latency. Because of the fast network speed, the bus is capable of detecting and evading risky on-road vehicles and obstacles. The driver and passengers are alerted of any unexpected dangers through display panels.
The bus provides a multi-point-of-view interactive system which allows passengers to experience Olympic events from different angles without the need of 3D glasses.
At Tuesday's devemontration, an autonomous parcel-delivery service drone was introduced. The drone stored at the top of the autonomous bus can deliver parcels to designated pick-up points.
KT also unveiled "Pyeongchang 5G Center", established in November last year as an R&D center for 5G network test services and the verification of functions for related devices. Pyeongchang, about 180 kilometers (111 miles) east of Seoul, will become the test field for many cutting edge technologies and products.
Park Sae-jin = swatchsjp@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
