Kakao Mobility signed an ‘MOU for verification and commercialization of autonomous driving mobility services’ with Hyundai Motor Company and announced that it will cooperate to accelerate the commercialization of autonomous driving technology.
The two companies plan to discuss ways to cooperate with each other to demonstrate various services and develop businesses using autonomous driving technology. As a first step toward this end, the company plans to introduce an urban self-driving mobility pilot service within the year, such as using Kakao Mobility’s ‘Kakao T’ platform to call and use the IONIQ 5 ‘Roboride’ developed by Hyundai Motor Company.
Kakao Mobility provides navigation, taxi, and parking services that are fundamental to the development of autonomous driving technology, based on Korea’s largest complete MaaS platform, ‘Kakao T’, with over 30 million cumulative subscribers, and ‘Kakao Navi’, with over 22 million subscribers. We have accumulated data and service know-how. We are also working to create a mobility technology innovation ecosystem by providing the technology infrastructure internalized by operating various services in the form of SaaS to partners with innovative technologies.
Based on this know-how, we are building a cooperation system with leading companies with outstanding capabilities in each field of autonomous driving, including autonomous driving, high-definition maps (HD maps), and monitoring and control.
This MOU between Kakao Mobility and Hyundai Motor Company is significant in that it is the cornerstone for autonomous driving services to evolve beyond demonstration to the commercialization stage. Kakao Mobility and Hyundai Motor Company plan to expand the scope of cooperation to provide autonomous driving services through various vehicles in various environments in the future, starting with urban self-driving mobility services. Through this, the goal is to go beyond simple demonstration and present a more complete autonomous driving service.
Woongjun Jang, Executive Director of Hyundai Motor Company’s Autonomous Driving Division, said, “Through this MOU, we expect to be able to introduce Hyundai Motor Company’s autonomous driving technology to more customers using Kakao Mobility’s platform.” He added, “Customers will be able to easily use roboride in their daily lives.” “Both companies will actively cooperate to make this possible.”
Jang Seong-wook, vice president of Kakao Mobility’s Future Mobility Research Institute, also expected, “This MOU will be an opportunity for the domestic autonomous driving market to take a step forward in that it is a collaboration between the top companies in each field in Korea.” He added, “Kakao Mobility platform capabilities will be added to autonomous driving technology, allowing more citizens to access autonomous driving services, and through this, laying the foundation for the commercialization of autonomous driving.”
Source: Pangyo Techno Valley Official Newsroom
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