Automaker Hyundai has introduced its Level 4 autonomous RoboRide service in the Gangnam district of Seoul, South Korea. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 is at the heart of the deployment and will see a safety driver present for now.
Seoul’s Mayor and another city official were the first passengers in the new ride-hailing service in the Gangnam district. They were taken along a route in the district which is the only location for the service in Korea. There are no details as of now on when Hyundai will discontinue the presence of a safety driver in the RoboRide in Korea. The Ioniq 5 autonomous vehicles can accommodate up to three passengers at a time.
The Hyundai-powered RoboRide service in Korea will only be available to company employees at the start. The hailing is achieved using the i.M app, similar to the ones used by Waymo or Cruise. The i.M app was developed by Jin Mobility and it will rely heavily on AI. The Ioniq 5 itself is based on Hyundai’s Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS). There are no indications of how long this pilot RoboRide service will last in Korea. The company feels this milestone is an important inflection point as it continues to internalize autonomous driving technology.
There are twenty-five districts in Seoul and the RoboRide is only active in just one. This is because the traffic lights in the other districts are not yet capable of communicating with self-driving vehicles. The data that will be gathered from the pilot scheme will aid Hyundai in integrating several components in the production of autonomous vehicles.
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