Universities zero in on driverless cars
Students study auto tech to prepare for 4th Revolution
In recent years, not just carmakers but also universities around the country have been investing to develop self-driving vehicles of their own.
Kyung Hee University has developed its self-driving car called “KHUV.” “Self-driving cars could be defined as vehicles that operate without human control, capable of detecting surrounding hazards and steering accordingly,” said Lee Soon-gul, professor in charge at Kyung Hee University. “At this moment we are only researching self-driving cars, but our goal is to attach the technologies to every moving body.”
Currently, the vehicle is self-driving and can detect and avoid obstacles, but the university is working on numerous technologies that can deal with unexpected situa- tions during high-speed driving, according to the university.
Lee believes self-driving technology could reduce the country’s accident rate and save lives in the near future.
“Korea has 30 percent more traffic accidents compared to other OECD nations and spends over 20 trillion won ($18.5 billion) in social costs on the matter,” he said. “The self-driving autonomic technologies could be used to save lives even in disasters such as major earthquakes. The technologies could be extended to aid the elderly in a fast-aging city.”
The nation’s top university, Seoul National University (SNU), has developed a driverless sedan dubbed “SNUver” and an upgraded version “SNUvi.” Both have been test driven on the university campus and have made appearances on Yeouido in southern Seoul last year.
SNU plans to apply artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to enhance vehicle learning ability, which will enable them to adapt swiftly to various city environments such as roads, tunnels and buildings.
The university has gone through over 20,000 kilometers of test-driving in the last two years and aims to be fully operational in Yeouido streets by 2022.
Since 2010, most of the developed world has been testing self-driving cars on regular roads, but many experts point out Korea’s development has been significantly slow due to strict government regulations.
“To perfect the technology it will take close to a decade, but our goal is to let SNUver and SNUvi be capable of self-driving on Yeouido within three years,” SNU professor Seo Seung-woo said.
Korea’s leading car manufacturer Hyundai Motor have been investing heavily in the K5 models dubbed “M.Billy” equipped with auto-driving components. The carmaker has been testing Level 3 and 4 stages of the vehicle in Michigan, a U.S. state car giants like GM, Ford and Chrysler call home.