Socar to Establish Korea’s Largest Autonomous Driving Corporation with 150 Billion Won Investment... Krafton Joins as Key Investor
Autonomous Driving Services Launch as Independent Corporation
Krafton Becomes Major Socar Shareholder and Invests in New Entity
On April 30, Socar announced its plan to establish the largest autonomous driving corporation in Korea, with a total investment of 150 billion won. The goal is to accelerate the commercialization of autonomous driving services by leveraging Socar's autonomous driving data and mobility platform operational capabilities. Krafton will participate as a key investor in the establishment of this new corporation.
The new corporation is scheduled to be established in May. Jaewook Park, CEO of Socar, will also serve as the CEO of the new entity. Since January of this year, Park has led Socar's new autonomous driving business initiatives.
Krafton will invest 65 billion won in Socar through a third-party allotment of new shares. Krafton will become a major shareholder of Socar and, at the same time, participate as a core investor in the new corporation through a separate investment.
Socar, for its part, plans to contribute both cash and data assets through a future board resolution, thereby participating in the establishment of the new corporation. According to Socar, this new entity represents the largest investment in the Korean autonomous driving service sector to date.
Socar intends to concentrate its autonomous driving data and mobility platform operational capabilities in the new corporation. Earlier this year, Socar’s Future Mobility Task Force (TF) began collecting real-time driving data from its car-sharing vehicles.
All Socar vehicles are equipped with front and rear two-channel black boxes and proprietary telematics terminals (STS). The STS transmits more than 100 types of vehicle data—such as speed, steering, braking, and acceleration—in real time to a central server. The combined daily driving distance of these vehicles reaches 1.1 million kilometers, which is 10 times the total length of roads in Korea (110,000 kilometers). The collected data undergoes three stages—anonymization, time synchronization, and tagging based on Vision Language Model (VLM)—before being processed for immediate use in AI training.
The new corporation will pursue the phased commercialization of autonomous driving services. It will start with Level 2 car-sharing services and expand its business area to Level 4 fully autonomous B2C services.
In addition, Socar aims to internalize technology and validate real-world services, building independent technological and operational capabilities while also seeking competitiveness in the global market through partnerships.
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Jaewook Park, CEO of Socar, stated, "Our goal goes beyond simply perfecting autonomous driving technology; we aim to successfully commercialize it and fundamentally change users’ mobility habits and quality of life. Leveraging Socar’s 15 years of data and operational expertise built through car-sharing, we will set a new standard for the future mobility market."
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