Autonomous Vehicles Deliver Mail Without Postal Workers... Commercialization Next Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Hye-seon] Starting next year, autonomous vehicles will deliver mail within university campuses without postal workers.

The Ministry of Science and ICT's Korea Post announced that on the 19th, it held a demonstration of the 'Autonomous Unmanned Post Office' pilot project at Seoul National University to improve the working conditions of postal and delivery workers.

The autonomous unmanned post office is an advanced unmanned mail reception and delivery service that autonomously delivers campus mail without postal worker assistance and operates throughout the entire university campus at times requested by users.

Korea Post has invested approximately 16 billion KRW of national funds over three years since April 2020 to develop core technologies and pilot services for an advanced autonomous unmanned reception and delivery service using ICT technologies such as 5G, data, and artificial intelligence (AI), and is preparing for commercialization starting next year.

During the autonomous unmanned post office demonstration, the service was implemented where an autonomous vehicle (Hyundai Solati) equipped with an unmanned mail reception device collects customers' mail and provides batch delivery services centered on apartment complexes without postal worker assistance. Mail reception is completed when customers pre-register their mail through the post office app, scan the issued reception barcode at the kiosk, and place the mail into the opened storage compartment.

At the recipient's location, customers can enter the authentication code at the unmanned post office kiosk by referring to the vehicle arrival time and authentication number provided in the app, which automatically opens the unmanned storage compartment to receive the mail.

Meanwhile, Korea Post stated that it plans to expand the autonomous unmanned post office service beyond the currently limited campus area to real roads by linking with next-generation intelligent transportation systems (C-ITS) targeting suburban autonomous driving pilot zones, apartment complexes, and public institutions.