Belgian Ministry of Mobility Visits Kakao Mobility Headquarters to Experience Autonomous Driving Technology

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Kakao Mobility announced on July 31 that the Belgian Ministry of Mobility recently visited its Pangyo headquarters to observe its autonomous driving technology.

On the 25th, Tanya Brainsales, Director of Strategic Mobility at the Belgian Ministry of Transport, was listening to an explanation about autonomous vehicles near the Kakao Mobility headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. Photo by Kakao Mobility

On July 25, Tanja Brainsseels, Director of Strategic Mobility at the Belgian Ministry of Mobility, rode in an autonomous vehicle prepared by Kakao Mobility and personally drove around the area for about 30 minutes. Afterwards, she moved indoors to listen to a briefing on Kakao Mobility's preparations for the era of autonomous driving and its track record as a private operator of the Seoul autonomous vehicle transportation platform.

This visit was arranged at the request of the Belgian side, which aims to take the lead in the field of autonomous driving within the European Union (EU). It was reported that Director Brainsseels showed strong interest in Kakao Mobility's strategy to enhance its own technological capabilities amid the commercialization of autonomous driving led by some global big tech companies.

Director Brainsseels said, "I was deeply impressed by how Kakao Mobility is working closely with the government to develop systems and services for the commercialization of autonomous driving," and added, "It is impressive that Kakao Mobility is contributing to mobility optimization based on user patterns and service statistics, and that it has strengths in areas such as control, operations, autonomous driving technology, and digital twin capabilities."

Currently, Kakao Mobility is collecting large-scale data with its third-generation autonomous vehicles equipped with its self-developed Level 4 Autonomous Vehicle Kit (AV Kit), and is establishing a process for generating training data through auto-labeling. This is in preparation for the full-scale implementation of autonomous driving in Korea. The company has also built an AI learning pipeline that includes scenario expansion and algorithm validation processes, such as inputting various types of obstacles without actual driving by using simulators.

Kakao Mobility has received the Minister of Science and ICT Award for building a dataset for autonomous driving artificial intelligence (AI) learning based on domestic conditions and opening it for free to startups. In addition, through Kakao T, it is operating an integrated autonomous driving service supervised by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Its capabilities in digital twin technology, which enable the implementation of sensor and hardware optimization, an autonomous driving-specialized service platform, and a mobile mapping system (MMS) with proprietary technology, have served as a foundation.

Kakao Mobility stated that its technological and platform capabilities in the field of future mobility continue to attract attention in the global market. In the first half of this year, the OECD International Transport Forum (ITF) global delegation, which included high-ranking officials from the transportation ministries of major countries, as well as Japan's taxi organization X Taxi, requested and conducted visits. In October last year, a delegation from the Digital Authority of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE), also visited the headquarters to experience future mobility technology firsthand.

Jang Sungwook, Head of the Future Mobility Research Institute at Kakao Mobility, said, "We are very grateful for the interest shown by the Belgian Ministry of Mobility," and added, "Mobility and autonomous driving are business areas with strong regional characteristics, and both technology and business aspects need to be supported for smooth operation. Kakao Mobility will continue to prepare for all elements necessary for autonomous driving services from multiple perspectives."