Kakao Mobility Establishes Autonomous Driving Alliance... Accelerating Commercialization

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] Kakao Mobility announced on the 6th that it will launch the ‘KM Autonomous Driving Alliance Program’ to promote the growth of the autonomous driving ecosystem. The plan is to accelerate the commercialization of services through comprehensive cooperation with domestic and international autonomous driving companies.

Currently, various companies in Korea are developing autonomous driving technology, but due to the nature of mobility services that require a wide range of service elements such as customer contact points, call and dispatch systems, and operational policies, it has been difficult to implement these as commercial services that consumers can experience in daily life.

Accordingly, Kakao Mobility plans to connect companies with excellent capabilities in each field of autonomous driving?such as systems, vehicles, high-definition maps (HD Map), monitoring and control, and linked services?through partnerships, and integrate the various solutions each partner company possesses to present autonomous driving services at a level ready for commercialization.

Participating partners will be provided with mobility platform infrastructure where they can quickly verify their technologies. Based on the technological expertise accumulated through Kakao T, the goal is to advance dispatch and routing (path generation) calculation technologies optimized for autonomous driving environments and provide a platform where autonomous driving technology can be stably linked.

They will also actively work on discovering new service models based on autonomous driving through technology verification. In particular, they will focus on evolving autonomous vehicles beyond simple means of transportation into a ‘spatial platform’ that can realize the movement of ‘objects and services’ beyond spatial constraints.

For example, an autonomous vehicle could become a moving department store, enabling shopping without physically visiting a department store, or it could be used as a space for watching movies, expert consultations, or resting, allowing leisure and logistics services to be implemented without location restrictions.

Currently, autonomous driving-related companies such as autonomous driving solution developers Autonomous A2Z, SWM, ThorDrive, autonomous driving truck software startup MarsAuto, and electric bus specialist Edison Motors are participating as partners.

Kakao Mobility is also exploring the possibility of autonomous driving technology development and service cooperation with LG Group, which made a strategic investment in Kakao Mobility, GS Caltex and GS Energy, and Hanjin, with whom it has established a collaborative relationship.

Jang Sungwook, Executive Director of Kakao Mobility’s Future Business Division, said, "Based on Kakao Mobility’s platform capabilities, we will help various autonomous driving players quickly verify their technologies and try various business models," adding, "We will play a central role in enabling the domestic autonomous driving industry to gain a competitive edge in the global technology competition."