{"id":15564,"date":"2026-05-13T16:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T16:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/15564\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T16:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T16:00:15","slug":"korea-launches-large-scale-autonomous-vehicle-trial-in-gwangju","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/15564\/","title":{"rendered":"Korea launches large-scale autonomous vehicle trial in Gwangju"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2f098fa2-5027-4b3e-8beb-644846e6d2fa.jpg\" style=\"height: auto; aspect-ratio: 1920 \/ 1200; width: 100%\" alt=\"Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Kim Yun-duk sits in the passenger seat of a self-driving vehicle during a launching ceremony for the Team Korea for Autonomous Driving initiative at Kimdaejung Convention Center in Gwangju, Wednesday. Yonhap\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Kim Yun-duk sits in the passenger seat of a self-driving vehicle during a launching ceremony for the Team Korea for Autonomous Driving initiative at Kimdaejung Convention Center in Gwangju, Wednesday. Yonhap<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport officially launched Team Korea for Autonomous Driving, a public-private partnership aimed at making Gwangju the country&#8217;s first citywide testbed for self-driving vehicles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">The launch ceremony, held Wednesday at Kimdaejung Convention Center in the southwestern city, included the signing of a memorandum of understanding by all participating entities and the public unveiling of dedicated autonomous driving vehicles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">Under the initiative, 200 software-defined vehicles (SDVs) built by Hyundai Motor will be deployed across Gwangju&#8217;s 500-square-kilometer urban area beginning in June.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">Autonomous driving firms Autonomous A2Z and RideFlux will install sensors and software on the vehicles and begin real-world testing after completing safety verification procedures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">The project follows a cycle of driving data collection, artificial intelligence model training and field demonstration, with the goal of achieving Level 4 end-to-end autonomous driving by 2027. <\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">Level 4 refers to vehicles capable of operating without human intervention under most conditions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">Gwangju was designated Korea&#8217;s first citywide autonomous vehicle pilot zone in April, allowing test operations across residential and commercial areas without the regulatory restrictions that apply to standard roads.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">Samsung Fire &amp; Marine Insurance will develop dedicated insurance products for autonomous vehicles and handle emergency response and accident analysis. <\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">The Korea Transportation Safety Authority will manage operations and performance verification around the clock, while the Gwangju Metropolitan Government will provide garage facilities and charging infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">Participating companies plan to prioritize local hiring for the project, with recruitment information to be shared at a technology exhibition held alongside the ceremony.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">&#8220;We cannot fall behind the U.S. and China, the frontrunners in autonomous driving,&#8221; said Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim Yun-duk. <\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">&#8220;Today marks the starting point of our counteroffensive to break into the global top three.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Kim Yun-duk sits in the passenger seat of a self-driving vehicle during a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[457],"tags":[337,864],"class_list":{"0":"post-15564","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-korea-exchange","8":"tag-korea-exchange","9":"tag-krx"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}