Cleaning, courier, shuttle bus, self-driving is already completed… the best technology in the country

On the 22nd, A2z Central Research Institute, an autonomous driving startup in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province. On one side, a seat shaped like the driver’s seat of a car was equipped with a monitor that could check all sides. It is a monitor that remotely connects autonomous vehicles that are being piloted in areas such as Sejong City to check the current status in real time. “Self-driving cars are meaningful when 100% safety is guaranteed,” said CEO Han Ji-hyung (41). “In terms of self-driving technology itself, it has reached 99%, but all executives and employees are wrapping their heads to fill the last 1% to have perfect crisis response ability in emergency situations.”

On the 22nd of last month, CEO Han Ji-hyung explains the process of developing self-driving cars at the Central Research Institute of Automus A2J in Anyang, Gyeonggi-do. CEO Han said, “The goal is to complete 100% safe self-driving cars by 2027 and operate them in smart cities across the country.” / Kim Yeon-jung, Guest Reporter
On the 22nd of last month, CEO Han Ji-hyung explains the process of developing self-driving cars at the Central Research Institute of Automus A2J in Anyang, Gyeonggi-do. CEO Han said, “The goal is to complete 100% safe self-driving cars by 2027 and operate them in smart cities across the country.” / Kim Yeon-jung, Guest Reporter
There are about 200 self-driving vehicles that actually drive around without driving themselves on the roads of Korea with the permission of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Among them, A2Z has 21 units, which is the largest number in Korea. The test mileage of a2z’s self-driving vehicle is 186,622km, which can travel between Seoul and Busan 230 times, and is the fifth in the world after Google Waymo, GM Cruise, Pony AI, and Amazon Juk.

Han was a researcher in charge of developing self-driving cars at Hyundai Motor. The Ioniq self-driving car that Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Eui-sun rode at CES, the world’s largest IT exhibition in 2017, and the Nexon self-driving car that President Moon Jae In test-drive at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics were all the works of CEO Han and colleagues. He decided to “focus on technologies that can be used in practice” when he left Hyundai Motor and founded a2z in 2018. The company’s name as a2z also said, “It contains the will to complete all technologies from A to Z first, including recognition, judgment, and control capabilities for autonomous driving.”

The a2z self-driving car goes on a set route with little driver intervention, although the driver rides together in case of an emergency. CEO Han said, “Since we have conducted the most pilot runs in various parts of the country, including Seoul, Sejong, Gwangju, Ulsan, and Daegu, related data has been accumulated for a long time, and autonomous driving technology has been able to continue to be upgraded.” Thanks to this technology, Kakao Mobility has made strategic investments in a2z, and telecommunication companies such as KT have also chosen a2z as 5G smart city research and development (R&D) partners.

The goal of the a2z is not a mass-produced self-driving car aimed at by automakers such as Tesla and Hyundai Motor. Its strategy is to develop special-purpose self-driving vehicles that operate at less than 50 kilometers per hour, such as cleaning cars, courier cars, and shuttle buses, and settle in the market first. CEO Han said, “We will aim for niche markets for self-driving cars.” Local governments that are already promoting smart cities have entrusted a2z with demonstration projects for special purpose autonomous vehicles. As he was also in charge of demonstration projects for large companies, sales quadrupled from 1.3 billion won in 2019 to 5.2 billion won in 2021.

A2z plans to complete a special purpose vehicle that can be fully autonomous by 2027. CEO Han said, “Since there is no legal basis and ethical regulations for self-driving cars yet, we do not need to make self-driving cars in a hurry,” adding, “We will build 100% safe self-driving cars by building technology.”