Follow-up cooperation case of the business agreement between the Korea Automobile Safety Research Institute and M-City signed in May
Establishment of a cooperative system including construction of autonomous driving virtual test environment, data sharing, etc.

Morai collaborates with US M-City for joint research in autonomous driving virtual verification and related technologies.

The two organizations announced on the 18th that they signed an MOU for mutual cooperation and a membership for securing original technologies and establishing key strategies.

M-City is the world's first autonomous driving experimental city located in Michigan, USA.

It was established to promote innovation in the autonomous driving field by utilizing Morai's simulation capabilities and M-City's infrastructure, and is expected to serve as a catalyst for promoting the exchange and development of autonomous driving technology between Korea and the United States.

This collaboration is a follow-up to the business agreement signed between the Korea Transportation Safety Authority’s Automobile Safety Research Institute and M-City in May.

Previously, the Korea Automobile Testing & Research Institute and M-City announced that they would share a physical and virtual environment evaluation platform that overcomes the limitations of the autonomous driving test city environment and combines real roads and virtual environments.

Accordingly, Morai was selected as a virtual evaluation platform provider and will supply its simulation platform to M-City.

Under this agreement, Morai and M-City will: △build a virtual autonomous driving test environment; △establish a dataWe will engage in cooperation such as sharing of land, international joint research, and development of overseas business opportunities.

Specifically, the two organizations plan to build a verification and demonstration environment for connected and automated vehicle (CAV) technology.

M-City further enhances the M-City testbed environment with a virtual testing environment based on Morai’s autonomous driving simulation platform.

M-City has recently built a virtual test environment linked to surrounding real roads based on the cloud and is providing functions (MCity 2.0) that can be efficiently utilized for autonomous driving technology development through a data center.

Morai plans to increase the efficiency and safety of the autonomous driving test environment by implementing VILS (Vehicle-in-the-Loop Simulation), a real-vehicle simulation, and cloud-linked testing in conjunction with the M-City control center.

Additionally, the two organizations will establish an international research cooperation system, including joint use of autonomous driving data. M-City shares real-time traffic and operation data database acquired from road infrastructure sensors with Morai.

Morai plans to improve the function based on the collected data so that it can be used for verification by generating various edge scenarios and realistic traffic flows.

As part of the collaboration, the three organizations, Morai, Korea Automobile Testing & Research Institute, and M-City, will hold an international cooperation technology exchange seminar on November 13.

At the event, researchers from autonomous driving research institutes will be invited to share trends in autonomous driving technology.

“The Korea Transportation Safety Authority is gradually upgrading its autonomous driving test bed, K-City, to create a testing environment to prepare for harsh environments and traffic congestion,” said Eom Sung-bok, director of the Korea Transportation Safety Authority’s Automobile Safety Research Institute. “We expect that this cooperation between Morai and M-City, which are jointly participating in the R&D of the Autonomous Driving Technology Development Innovation Project, will promote autonomous driving technology exchanges between Korea and the U.S. and serve as an opportunity to strengthen the domestic autonomous driving evaluation and verification base.”

Meanwhile, Morai is also working closely with the Korea Transportation Safety Authority's Automobile Safety Research Institute for the national R&D project 'Establishment of a Metaverse-based Autonomous Driving Virtual Test Environment and Development of Verification Technology' promoted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement, and the Autonomous Driving Technology Development Innovation Center.

Through this project, we are developing a metaverse-based virtual test environment that applies ▲open simulation and AI-based scenario advancement ▲metaverse-based operating environment and reporting technology ▲parallel test technology utilizing hybrid cloud ▲autonomous driving development support and certification evaluation technology.

CEO Jeong Ji-won of Morai said, “We are pleased to collaborate to enhance the virtual verification environment of M-City, a world-class autonomous driving experimental city. We are delighted to have this opportunity for collaboration, and we would like to express our gratitude to the Korea Automobile Testing & Research Institute for providing this opportunity for collaboration,” he said. “Based on the research results with M-City, we will advance autonomous driving simulation technology, apply it to various national autonomous driving research and development projects in which we are currently participating, and strive to contribute to commercialization by applying it to the domestic autonomous driving industry.”