It appears that it will be possible to drive across Jeju Island in autonomous vehicles starting in the second half of 2022.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 24th that it had selected a consortium led by Autonomous A2Z and IT Telecom as the final operators for the 'Autonomous Driving Mobility Service Project'.

This public offering project provides subsidies of 8 billion won (4 billion won each in the first and second years) over two years to private sector autonomous vehicle-based mobility projects.

Its significance lies in the fact that ordinary citizens can experience it, and it also provides startups and small and medium-sized enterprises with a practical opportunity to demonstrate it.

A total of seven consortia participated in this second round of competition.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that it had selected two final operators after evaluating the business plans based on various indicators, including the innovativeness of the business model, the feasibility of the technology applied to the service, and the effectiveness of increasing public acceptance of autonomous vehicle services.

The first consortium is Autonomous A2Z. It consists of Kakao Mobility, KT, Hyundai Autoever, Newbility, and Korea Automobile Research Institute.

Autonomous A2Z plans to establish a vehicle platform and related communication infrastructure that can provide integrated passenger (demand-responsive) and logistics (delivery services) services in Daegu Technopolis and national industrial complexes.

The IT Telecom Consortium is comprised of Rideflux, Gwangmyeong D&C, KAIST, and Jeju Research Institute.

IT Telecom provides a circular autonomous tourist shuttle service connecting major tourist destinations near Jeju Airport, a carrier delivery service between the airport and Jungmun Hotel, and a public transportation shuttle bus service.

The organization selected as the business operator will manufacture autonomous vehicles through subsidies and operate the business by building autonomous driving infrastructure in the service area.

During the project period, a total of 11 Level 3 autonomous vehicles (Ioniq, Solati, etc.) are expected to be manufactured and operated.

Basically, it provides autonomous driving service, but it operates with professional safety personnel on board to prepare for unexpected situations.

The autonomous vehicles produced during the project will be recovered by the government upon completion of the project and used to provide continuous mobility services, such as by lending them to industries, academia, and research institutions for various purposes such as test runs and data collection.

A detailed business plan agreement will be signed between the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the consortium this month, and the project will begin in earnest, with autonomous vehicle production and infrastructure construction starting in June.

We plan to proceed with the project without a hitch so that we can fully launch autonomous mobility services in the second half of 2022.

Park Ji-hong, Director General of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's Automobile Policy Bureau, said, "Through this project, the public will experience a more stable autonomous vehicle mobility service, thereby contributing to the autonomous vehicle industry." “You will be able to feel that the era of commercialization is fast approaching before our eyes,” he said. “The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to spare no effort in providing policy support, such as improving legal and institutional regulations, advancing infrastructure, and supporting technological development, so that autonomous driving technology can be commercialized and the era of autonomous driving can be brought forward.”