Hyundai has been working on autonomous technology for vehicles for some time. We even saw a report last year suggesting that Apple was in talks with Hyundai to develop its long-rumored self-driving Apple car. Now, Hyundai has launched its own driverless ride-hailing service in Korea, which is backed by two IONIQ 5 battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and its in-house level 4 autonomous driving tech.
Hyundai recently announced to pilot a RoboRide car-hailing service in the Gangnam neighborhood of Seoul, Korea, which is one of the most congested areas of the metro city. The company has received a temporary permit for autonomous driving operation from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport (MOLIT) of Korea for the pilot program.
Now, for this pilot program, Hyundai will deploy a safety driver with each ride to ensure nothing goes wrong during the autonomous rides. However, most of the driving decisions will be made by the RoboRide EVs, with the safety driver only intervening in emergency situations. The company also worked with Seoul Metropolitan Government to build a system that connects the traffic signals with the IONIQ 5 RoboRide EVs.
