[Courtesy of SK Telecom]
SK Telecom, South Korea's largest mobile carrier, pulled a successful test drive of its autonomous vehicle on a rush-hour expressway near Seoul. The company promised to enhance the safe driving ability of self-driving by using its mobile communications network.
It was the first official test drive of an autonomous vehicle carried out on an expressway. In March, Naver Labs, autonomous vehicle wing of web service giant Naver, claimed to have carried out a successful on-road test of its self-driving car, but the company did not disclose details for "strategic" reasons.
"We will test the next level of autonomous driving technology such as a vehicle operation in urban and suburban areas and auto parking in the near future," SK said in a statement on Thursday.
The test was conducted over the distance of about 26 kilometers (16 miles) for 33 minutes from 07:15 am (2215GMT) when the expressway was full of commuters. The vehicle reached the maximum speed of 80 kilometers per hour and an average speed of 47 kilometers.
SK said the car has been driven in the same section of the expressway south of Seoul about 50 times for two weeks so that its AI can study road signs and traffic lanes with two people, including a researcher, on board.
As of March this year, there are 13 officially registered autonomous vehicles owned by various companies and research groups such as Hyundai, Kia and Seoul National University.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
