Simultaneous Driving Competition of Multiple Vehicles in Sangam This October
Real-time AR Live Broadcast, Cheer Events, Automated Parking Demonstrations, and Citizen Participation to Enhance Autonomous Driving Experience
[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] In October, an opportunity will be provided to directly witness the competition of autonomous vehicles on actual urban roads in the Sangam DMC area.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 28th that it has signed a mutual cooperation memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Hyundai Motor Company to jointly host the '2021 Autonomous Driving Challenge (University Student Competition)' and will work together for its successful hosting.
The joint hosting of the Autonomous Driving Challenge is promoted as a public-private cooperation effort to expand the base of autonomous driving technology development and to discover and nurture talent related to autonomous driving. The city will provide administrative support such as autonomous driving infrastructure and road control, while Hyundai Motor Company will organize the competition and provide vehicles and technical support to participants.
The Autonomous Driving Challenge is a competition where university students directly build autonomous vehicles and compete in technological skills. It is the new name for the 'University Student Autonomous Vehicle Competition' which started in 2010. Held biennially, this year marks the 6th event. Previous competitions were conducted on closed tracks such as automobile driving test sites, with vehicles running one at a time focusing mainly on functional tests.
Unlike previous competitions, this contest will be held for the first time on actual urban roads rather than closed tracks, where multiple vehicles will compete simultaneously, evaluating autonomous driving technology through real driving. It is notable that the event will be held at the Sangam Autonomous Vehicle Pilot Operation Zone, the world's first 5G-converged urban autonomous driving testbed.
The Autonomous Driving Challenge will be conducted in a multi-dimensional way so that citizens can directly see, hear, and feel it. The autonomous vehicle race process will be delivered to on-site spectators through real-time AR live broadcasting, and cheering events for participants will also be held. Additionally, various events will be conducted so that citizens can experience autonomous driving technology firsthand, such as RC car autonomous racing and automatic parking demonstrations.
The Sangam Autonomous Vehicle Pilot Operation Zone provided by the Seoul Metropolitan Government is equipped with world-class infrastructure necessary for autonomous driving operation, including ultra-low latency traffic signal information openness and provision of road and 5G communication infrastructure, making it possible to safely demonstrate autonomous driving technology on actual roads.
Based on the infrastructure provided by the city, Hyundai Motor Company plans to comprehensively evaluate driving time, compliance with laws such as traffic signals, lanes, and speed, obstacle avoidance, and response to unexpected situations. In particular, by applying evaluation methods that can handle various unexpected situations on actual urban roads and verify safety, they expressed their ambition to elevate the status of this competition to a world-class level through more practical autonomous driving tests.
The joint hosting of this Autonomous Driving Challenge is expected to be an opportunity to promote the development of autonomous driving technology through cooperation between leading private companies and the public sector, and to foster excellent talent who will lead the future autonomous driving industry. Based on the agreement signed in November 2019 to foster an autonomous driving mobility platform city, the city and Hyundai Motor Company have been conducting development and demonstration tests of world-class urban autonomous driving technology in the Gangnam area.
After document and presentation evaluations, 23 teams have begun developing autonomous driving algorithms, and through a virtual preliminary competition scheduled for February 18-19, six teams will be selected to advance to the final round. The final round is scheduled to be held in October, and the winning team will receive a prize of 100 million KRW and an overseas study tour benefit, with a total prize pool of 300 million KRW awarded to the winning teams.
Hwang Bo-yeon, Director of Urban Transportation at the Seoul Metropolitan Government, expressed expectations, saying, "This MOU is a significant step that sets a new milestone toward the city's goal of realizing a future transportation mobility platform city by completing future talent cultivation through cooperation with the private sector, following the city's efforts in autonomous driving research, development, demonstration, and infrastructure construction."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
