Kim Hyun-bin began his journalism career at Arirang TV from 2012 to 2017, specializing in defense, foreign affairs and the economy. In 2018, he joined The Korea Times, covering society and business, and is currently responsible for embassy affairs.
Seoul taxis to implement customer finding AI systems
Seoul taxis are lined up to pick up passengers in Seoul. / Korea Times file
By Kim Hyun-bin
By Kim Hyun-bin
The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) said, Sunday, it plans to implement an artificial intelligence (AI) system to help taxi drivers find customers.
Last November, the city government installed “AI Taxi System” in 380 cabs from five operators in the capital and found the system to be effective in reducing the imbalance between supply and demand.
According to the results of the test-run, the AI taxis were able to accommodate 25.3 passengers on average per day, a 21-percent increase from 20.9.
The local government and Korea Smart Card developed the AI system that evaluates big data including taxi information, weather, population and business districts in real-time to analyze taxi demand in the area.
Taxi drivers could press the “estimate” button on their meter and the AI will analyze passenger demand within a one-kilometer radius and the driver can head toward that direction to pick up prospective customers.
“From January 2018 to July 2018, we have accumulated 200 million scenarios through big data and test-ran the system from Nov. 6 to 11, 2018, and found the accuracy to be 97.2 percent,” Seoul City said in a statement.
“Before, taxi drivers encountered their passengers through coincidence, however, with the AI taxi system their encounter will be inevitable.”
The city plans to make slight adjustments to the AI system before installing it in all Seoul taxis.