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Self-driving hub opens in Hwaseong, bringing autonomous tech into daily life
An autonomous vehicle navigates the streets in Gangnam, Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap
By Lee Kyung-min
A stretch of suburban roads southwest of Seoul is being turned into a real-world laboratory for self-driving technology, as the government moves to push autonomous vehicles out of test tracks and into everyday life.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said it will open an “AI (artificial intelligence) autonomous driving hub” Friday in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, where self-driving services will be tested not just for transportation but also for a range of city management tasks.
The project is part of a broader government initiative to accelerate future mobility and build so-called “K-AI cities,” integrating AI into urban infrastructure.
The testing zone spans 36.13 square kilometers in western Hwaseong with a total road network of 46.5 kilometers. Within the area, autonomous systems will be deployed to support mobility for vulnerable groups, carry out street cleaning, monitor road conditions and even transport emergency patients.
The ministry said the hub will serve as a control center built on an intelligent transportation system, designed to address the limitations of still-developing autonomous technology. By collecting and analyzing data on traffic flow, road conditions, object detection and signals, the system aims to reduce blind spots for self-driving vehicles and improve safety.
About 100 people, including Land Minister Kim Yoon-duk and officials from related agencies and industry will attend the opening ceremony.
Eight types of autonomous public service vehicles will be showcased, including demand-responsive transport, shared cars, village buses, patrol vehicles and robots, and emergency transport vehicles.
In a pre-opening demonstration, Kim is set to ride in a self-driving vehicle designed for areas with poor transportation infrastructure. The vehicle, developed by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, is capable of navigating narrow alleyways and unstructured roads without traffic signals or lane markings.
Officials said the hub will also support startups, universities and research institutions by providing a platform for real-world testing and service deployment. It will be linked to an incubation program at the Korea Automobile Testing and Research Institute to help foster growth in the autonomous vehicle sector.
Separately, the government plans to broaden its push later this year by supporting large-scale data collection and artificial intelligence infrastructure in Gwangju, another designated autonomous driving test city.
Kim said autonomous vehicles have so far been limited to controlled environments, operating under temporary permits similar to a learner’s license. He said the new hub will allow for more advanced testing on public roads.
He added the government aims to make 2026 a turning point for the autonomous driving industry, calling it a key sector in the development of physical artificial intelligence.
This article was published with the assistance of a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.