November 21, 2024

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[ET NEWS] Tech giantSamsung Electronics, automaker Hyundai Motor and telecommunications companyKT will jointly showcase autonomous driving technology running on the 5G network later this month, according to sources on Nov. 5.

The three conglomerates will demonstrate an autonomous vehicle running on the next-generation network in an event to celebrate the opening of K-City, a self-driving vehicle testing and research facility in Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi Province, in late November. 

Top officials from the central and regional governments as well as company officials are anticipated to participate in the event.

The demonstration will mark the first time that the three major players in the car, electronics, and telecom segments are making a joint effort to showcase the self-driving car technology.

During the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, KT and Hyundai worked together to showcase autonomous vehicles.

Hyundai will be in charge of developing advanced driver-assistance systems for the demonstration this month while Samsung will offer 5G network equipment utilizing the 3.5GHz band. KT will establish the 5G network facilities at the testing site.

“Domestic autonomous driving technology is considered to be far behind that in the US and Europe, but the planned demonstration will prove the Korean firms’ technical capability for 5G-based autonomous driving,” an industry official said.

The K-City project started in June 2016 to set up a testing facility for self-driving cars. The Korean government invested 11 billion won (US$9.80 million) to develop the testing and research site built on a 320,000-square-meter land -- nearly 2.5 times larger than Mcity, a mock city built by the University of Michigan for testing connected and driverless cars in the US.

The testing site in Korea, which is fitted with tollgates, crossroads and parking lots will allow researchers to operate self-driving cars in real-life driving conditions.

By Ryu Jong-eun (rje312@etnews.com)

This story was co-produced by ET News and The Investor. For any inquiries, please contract editor Lee Ji-yoon at jylee@heraldcorp.com