Hwaseong Special City Holds Citizen Briefing for Autonomous Driving Living Lab

Hwaseong Special City (Mayor Jeong Myeong-geun) held an 'Autonomous Driving Service Demonstration Launch and Living Lab 8-Service Sectors Citizen Briefing' on the 26th at the Modeul Noureum Center, with approximately 50 attendees including the Advanced Industry Division Chief, officials from the Autonomous Vehicle Technology Development and Innovation Project Team (KADIF), Korea Transportation Safety Authority (KATRI), Korea Intelligent Transportation Systems Association (ITSK), and citizens.

The 'Hwaseong Special City Autonomous Driving Living Lab' is one of the inter-ministerial autonomous driving research and development (R&D) projects being pursued by the government with a total investment of 1.1 trillion won from 2021 to 2027. The project involves comprehensive demonstration of developed autonomous driving technology and public services in actual urban spaces.

The eight public services subject to demonstration are △transportation-disadvantaged user mobility support △demand-responsive transport (DRT) △autonomous shared vehicles △urban environmental management △emergency road recovery and traffic support △emergency vehicle transit support △route-based autonomous buses △traffic accident prevention patrols.

The city will gradually expand autonomous driving public services, beginning with the operation of autonomous transportation services for the transportation-disadvantaged. In September, the city will begin operating shared vehicles and route-based autonomous buses and hold a citizen briefing, and in October, it plans to launch demand-responsive transport operations and hold related citizen briefings.

Through December 2027, the city will fully operate and demonstrate autonomous driving public services in eight service sectors. During this process, the city plans to continuously gather citizen opinions to enhance the completeness of the technology and services.

Kim Seon-il, Chief of the Advanced Industry Division, said, "The autonomous driving living lab is significant in that citizens can directly use and evaluate developed technology in an actual city," adding "We will faithfully reflect citizen experiences and opinions in the demonstration process so that autonomous driving technology can lead to public services that improve citizens' daily lives in terms of mobility convenience and urban safety."