Gyeonggi Province Begins Remote-Driving Demonstration for Shared Vehicle Delivery and Retrieval Service Starting Late September in Pangyo

Gyeonggi Province will conduct a pilot operation of a service that remotely sends shared vehicles to desired locations for reserved customers and retrieves them after use—a first in South Korea.

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 26th that it will begin demonstration of the 'urban shared vehicle delivery and retrieval-type remote driving service' in the Pangyo Techno Valley 1st and 2nd complexes and surrounding areas of Pangyo Station starting from late September. The province will verify technical safety and service feasibility in an actual urban environment over three months through the end of December.

Remote driving is a technology in which a remote operator, stationed separately, drives a vehicle by viewing real-time driving footage without a driver present in the vehicle. Steering, acceleration, and braking commands are transmitted to the vehicle through existing 4G and 5G communication networks, while the vehicle transmits driving footage and vehicle status information in real time. Unlike fully autonomous driving, this approach offers the advantage of enabling faster service deployment at relatively lower costs by utilizing existing communication infrastructure and mass-produced vehicles.

This demonstration project is being pursued through a remote driving demonstration exception granted via the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's Mobility Regulatory Sandbox. Gyeonggi Province expects this demonstration to advance remote driving from a simple vehicle control technology into a new mobility service. The province plans to verify potential applications not only in shared vehicle delivery and retrieval but also in logistics, transportation support for mobility-disadvantaged groups, and various other private and public services. Particularly, after full autonomous driving commercialization, remote driving is expected to serve as a complementary technology supporting autonomous vehicles through emergency remote assistance or vehicle movement within restricted areas.

The service operates in the sequence of 'reservation and payment → remote delivery → user direct operation → remote retrieval.' When employees of Pangyo Techno Valley tenant companies reserve a vehicle through a dedicated app, a remote operator moves the vehicle to the designated location. Users then take custody of the vehicle, drive it themselves, and only need to report its return at their destination.

Once return is reported, the vehicle is retrieved to the depot through remote driving. Users can pick up and return vehicles at any location within Pangyo Techno Valley.

To sufficiently verify safety, the province will conduct the demonstration in two phases. During the beta service period from late September through October, a safety driver will remain in the vehicle while providing service to employees of companies based at the Gyeonggi Business Growth Center. From November through December, the province plans to expand service eligibility to employees of all tenant companies in Pangyo Techno Valley 2nd Complex, with the goal of operating without an onboard safety driver.

Meanwhile, the Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly's Future Science Cooperation Committee will visit Seoul National University's Siheung Campus Future Mobility Technology Center on the 28th to directly demonstrate and inspect remote driving technology, and to verify safety measures and demonstration plans prior to project implementation.