Earlier this year, South Korea became the first country in the world to test-drive a 5G driverless car on busy city streets.
Local developers have now introduced newer and smarter features that will make driverless vehicles much safer in the future.
Oh Soo-young reports. Getting your car out of the parking lot can be a daily hassle living in the city.
But running on Korea's 5G mobile network,... a driverless car can pick up at your doorstep, saving precious minutes in the morning.
"Korean telecom firms like LG U Plus are developing 5G-V2X or Vehicle to Everything technology,... which enables driverless cars to communicate with other vehicles, gadgets, networks and traffic, to make your ride as safe and smooth as possible."
Using the 5G network,... LG test-drove a driverless car on an open road for 15 minutes using new safety solutions.
The vehicle managed to detect jaywalking pedestrians... and slowed down when an ambulance passed.
Using Geofencing, it noticed sudden accidents on the road and switched lanes.
"The many sensors in driverless cars can only detect and collect data about its nearby surroundings. However, using a 5G cloud system, the car can receive and exchange information about other vehicles, road conditions, sudden obstacles and other variables ahead, in realtime, very quickly."
Working with Hanyang University's Ace Lab, LG U Plus was the first in the world to successfully test a 5G vehicle on city streets this past March.
But to stay ahead of the competition,... Professor Sunwoo Myoung-ho says South Korea needs to get rid of the red tape that hinders research and development.
"Currently, Korea has only about eighty driverless cars that have been approved for test-driving. This compares to the thousands being tested in China and the United States. More cars need to be tested in order to collect data, which is critically needed in order to optimise technology as well as enhance trust in their safety. Also, there should be a central control tower between government bodies such as the ministries of science, land and industry as well as the police to efficiently manage and grow the sector."
Over the last decade, the university's Ace Lab has been developing state-of-the art technologies to enhance precise localisation, map generation, environment perception, path generation as well as vehicle control.
Its aim is to develop zero-emission, zero-accident cars... in a world where some one-point-three million people die each year from careless driving.
Autonomous cars are also a part of the government's 158-billion-dollar investment plan to grow the industries of the future by the year 2030.
But many experts say without removing regulatory obstacles, Korea could behind in developing core sensor technologies.
Oh Soo-young, Arirang News.