Hwaseong Special City Holds Autonomous Driving Living Lab Citizen Briefing

Hwaseong Special City (Mayor Jung Myung-geun) held a "Autonomous Vehicle Service for Assisting Transportation-Disadvantaged Groups Demonstration Commencement and Living Lab Eight Major Service Fields Citizen Briefing" on the 26th at the Moodeul Noureum Center, attended by approximately 50 people including the Director of Advanced Industry, officials from the Autonomous Vehicle Technology Development and Innovation Business Division (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 multi-ministerial autonomous driving research and development (R&D) projects being promoted by the government with a total investment of 1.1 trillion won from 2021 to 2027. It is a project that comprehensively demonstrates developed autonomous driving technology and public services in actual urban spaces.

The eight major public services subject to demonstration are: △assistance for transportation-disadvantaged groups △demand-responsive transit (DRT) △autonomous shared vehicles △urban environment management △emergency road recovery and traffic support △emergency vehicle traffic support △route-based autonomous buses △traffic accident prevention patrol.

The city will progressively expand autonomous driving public services, beginning with the operation of autonomous vehicle services for assisting transportation-disadvantaged groups. In September, the city will begin operating shared vehicles and route-based autonomous buses and hold a citizen briefing, and in October, will begin operating demand-responsive transit and hold related citizen briefings.

Subsequently, from now until December 2027, the city will fully operate and demonstrate autonomous driving public services in eight major fields. Through this process, the city plans to continuously gather citizen feedback to enhance the completeness of technology and services.

Kim Seon-il, Director of Advanced Industry, said, "The autonomous driving living lab is highly significant in that citizens can directly use and evaluate developed technology in actual urban environments," and "We will faithfully reflect citizen experience 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."