Seoul's Sangam to Trial Driverless Level 4 Taxi in Late November

Seoul City and autonomous driving industry sources said on the 19th that a taxi with no one in the driver's seat will carry passengers in Sangam in late November. The service will be run by autonomous driving startup RideFlux, and the first vehicles to be deployed are two Genesis GV80s. The city says this will be the first time a Level 4 autonomous taxi carries members of the public in Korea. However, detailed negotiations with the operator are still ongoing, so the official announcement will come only after the contract is signed.

Here, “Level 4” refers to a stage in which the vehicle drives itself within a pre-learned area without any driver intervention. The autonomous buses and taxis that Seoul has operated in Sangam, Gangnam and Cheonggyecheon have mostly had a safety officer in the driver's seat, or a person who could take direct control of the vehicle when necessary. The difference lies in when a human hand intervenes. The autonomous driving software and the perception and decision-making technology RideFlux has installed in its vehicles will take on that judgment.

The first to benefit will be passengers traveling to and from Sangam. A plan to start in late November this year with three vehicles and expand to 10 or more by 2027 was announced at the beginning of the year. However, this year's actual deployment is two GV80s, and the press materials did not explain the gap between two and three vehicles. The city said it will expand the service area next year, add at least one more vehicle and consider models other than the GV80. The next stage is fully driverless operation with no safety manager inside the vehicle, which the city says it will pursue gradually after accumulating real-road experience and public feedback.

The safety manager in the front passenger seat is a sign that this transition will be carefully managed. A Seoul city official said, “We will initially operate with a person in the front passenger seat, and we are also considering moving to fully driverless operation next year.” Beyond passenger transport, RideFlux is also expanding into autonomous freight on highways and logistics delivery. Whether the approach proven in Sangam will extend to logistics remains to be seen.