The vehicle demonstration took place on the Gyeongbu Expressway, the most heavily travelled expressway in Korea, and the vehicle traveled approximately 26 kilometers (from Seoul Service Area to Suwon-Shingal Interchange) at a speed of up to 80 kilometers per hour (50km/h on average). Its software has been designed to not exceed that speed in accordance to the government regulation on test-driving of autonomous vehicles.

In July 2017, SK Telecom has received a license from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport for testing its autonomous driving car on local roads. SK Telecom’s Vehicle Tech Lab has been working closely with diverse partners, including a Seoul National University team led by Professor Lee Kyeong-soo, Nvidia and LG Electronics, to develop self-driving technologies such as artificial intelligence computer, sensors, communication and route determination/tracing.

“Following today’s successful test-driving of our autonomous vehicle on an expressway, we will continue to test our self-driving cars on downtown roads, national highways and motorways,” said Park Jin-hyo, Senior Vice President and Head of Network R&D Center of SK Telecom. “Furthermore, we will connect self-driving vehicles to our 5G trial networks to advance technologies that can significantly enhance driving safety via IoT and real-time communication with the control tower.”