“Stable verification and diverse services in daily life”

Newbility Wins CES 2023 Smart City Innovation Award
Stable autonomous driving based on camera sensor and lidar-free

[Editor's Note] Newbility is a company that has embarked on the development of autonomous delivery robots based on the growth and problems of the last-mile delivery market. Newbility's flagship model, 'Newbee', chose camera-based autonomous driving instead of lidar in terms of price, and has secured price competitiveness through hardware self-development and autonomous driving software technology internalization. In October of last year, Newbility signed a business agreement with Gokko Network, a European autonomous vehicle and robot logistics company, and won the Smart City Innovation Award ahead of CES 2023. Accordingly, our magazine asked Newbility Vice President Kang Ki-hyeok about his thoughts on CES and his technological prowess.

▲Kang Ki-hyeok, Newbility Vice President

■ Please introduce Newbility

Newbility wants to solve problems related to transportation in urban areas by using camera-based urban autonomous robots (platforms).

Among them, we first focused on the last-mile delivery issue, which was considered the most urgent problem, and have been conducting demonstration services in downtown areas, university areas, convenience stores, etc. to solve this last-mile delivery problem.

■ You won the CES Smart City Innovation Award. I am curious about why you were able to receive the award and how you felt about it.

We are very pleased and honored that our outdoor autonomous robot, 'Newbee', which has both economic efficiency and performance by internalizing hardware and software technology, has been recognized worldwide.

The fact that it has been steadily tested in various environments such as city centers, golf courses, resorts, university campuses, and apartment complexes, and that it can provide various services in everyday life based on familiar design and UX seem to have led to it winning the Innovation Award in the smart city category.

■ Please explain Newbility’s technological capabilities.

Newbility does not use lidar for autonomous driving.

△ It has internalized technologies for stable autonomous driving, such as economical camera-based sensors, V-SLAM technology, and Visual Perception-based path setting and driving control (Planning & Control) technology.

Through verification that has been conducted consistently since last year, we have accumulated urban driving experience and are continuously improving data-based autonomous driving performance and service quality through this.

■ What is Newbility’s revenue model?

Currently, we are trying to focus our service model on private land.

We are considering various service modules, including downtown delivery services inspired by the last-mile delivery market, as well as leisure-type services and community-type services centered on private land, and are preparing through close discussions with partners regarding collaboration.

I think I'll be able to tell you again once we have a more visual discussion.

■ I am curious about how the collaboration with Gokko Network is progressing.

Through an MOU with Koko Network, we are identifying the needs necessary for each company's market entry (expansion), and based on this cooperation, we are internally reviewing policies necessary for future entry into overseas markets.

I think I can talk about the collaboration part again after we have discussed it in detail.

<span style="font-size:13px;"> ■ I am curious whether there have been any notable results as the service is currently being operated in Songdo, Gangnam, Incheon, etc.

As we continue to test our services, we are discovering various possibilities within the market.

A demonstration of apartment complex delivery in Songdo showed a remarkable increase in the number of robot deliveries reaching more than half of deliveries at a specific store, confirming the need in the market.

■ A word to the readers

We would like to expand and develop various service fields utilizing robots so that robots, which used to exist only in science fiction movies, can be encountered more closely in our daily lives.

We hope you look forward to and support autonomous robots as they implement various services in our daily lives in physical spaces.