Enhancing Competitiveness in Autonomous Driving Technology... Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Launches Data Sharing Project

Autonomous Driving Data Collection Vehicle (Photo by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport)

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Jiwon] The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is rolling up its sleeves to accumulate and share driving data necessary for advancing autonomous driving systems.

On the 31st, the Ministry announced, "A data sharing project capable of building big data suitable for the era of commercial autonomous vehicles will be launched in earnest."

According to the Ministry, a data sharing council has been formed to enable over 30 companies, universities, and research institutes investing in the autonomous vehicle industry to share data and collaborate.

In December 2018, the Ministry established a data sharing center within the Korea Transportation Safety Authority's K-City to share related data.

Based on one year of operational experience, the Ministry plans to solidify the data sharing project by increasing the number of participating institutions in the council and expanding the scale of data to be shared.

Data Sharing Center Exterior (Photo by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport)

To this end, the Ministry is actively encouraging participation from industry, academia, and research sectors, and is also exploring ways to share driving data on nationwide roads in cooperation with local governments. Efforts are underway to process and share the collected driving data in a form that artificial intelligence (AI) can learn from.

To collect driving data, a project will be launched from the 1st of next month to lend two data collection vehicles free of charge: one vehicle produced with an investment of 340 million KRW and another provided by Hyundai Motor Company, a participant in the data sharing council.

This is expected to help small and venture companies, universities, and research institutes that have struggled to enter the autonomous driving field due to the high cost of data collection equipment.

Kim Sangseok, Director of Vehicle Management at the Ministry, said, "Expanding the base of data is very important to gain competitiveness in the autonomous vehicle market, so we will continue to expand and develop the data sharing project."