Free Ride on Level 4 Autonomous Cars Driving Hands-Free... Daegu City Accepts Citizen Applications

Level 4 autonomous vehicle, Dalgubeol autonomous car.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Koo Dae-seon] Starting from the 29th, Daegu City will launch the ‘Dalgubeol Autonomous Vehicle’ mobility service, an integrated passenger and logistics service, in the Daalseong-gun Technopolis area through the collaboration of six companies in the Autonomous A2Z consortium.

The ‘Dalgubeol Autonomous Vehicle’ mobility service is a project providing free Level 4 autonomous driving services from 2022 to 2023. This year, autonomous driving services will be offered on a 10.6 km section in Daegu Technopolis, and in 2023, the operation area and services will be expanded to provide logistics services over 28.2 km from Daegu Technopolis to the National Industrial Complex.

Accordingly, citizens who pre-apply can ride the autonomous vehicles for free in the service area near Daegu Technopolis starting the morning of the 29th. The autonomous vehicles will operate on weekdays (Monday to Friday) from 2 PM to 8 PM for 6 hours.

A Daegu city official said, “One Carnival passenger car carries six people at a time: four citizens, one safety driver, and one assistant, running about 1 km per trip, and three such Carnival passenger cars will be in operation. Currently, 350 Daegu citizens have pre-registered.”

Daegu City explained, “The Carnival passenger cars have drivers on board but operate as Level 4 autonomous vehicles with hands off the steering wheel. Although the steering wheel is not held at crosswalks, autonomous driving is prohibited in child protection zones under current regulations.”

To use the Carnival autonomous passenger cars, Daegu citizens can scan a QR code or click an online banner to apply for the experience group, then call the vehicle through the ‘KakaoT’ app. Passengers can check their travel status via the app.

Next year, Daegu City plans to increase the number of autonomous passenger cars by five, operating a total of eight vehicles, and will also deploy three additional delivery robots.

Lee Seung-dae, Director of Daegu City’s Innovation Growth Office, said, “Next year, we will introduce an integrated passenger and logistics autonomous driving service that carries cargo as well as passengers. Daegu City will spare no effort to fully support companies so they can gain competitiveness in the autonomous vehicle market as a leading autonomous driving city.”

The Autonomous A2Z consortium was selected as the final operator in May 2022 in the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s second ‘Autonomous Driving Mobility Service Project’ competition and has been preparing to launch the service.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.