Korea Expressway Corporation, Electronics Technology Institute, and others sign MoU for technology cooperation
Convergence of Korea Expressway Corporation's Road Traffic Infrastructure and KETI's Chipset Manufacturing Technology

Korea's leading mobile telecommunications company, the Korea Expressway Corporation (which possesses the country's largest road infrastructure), and a leading related research institution have joined forces to research 'autonomous vehicles,' which are considered a global next-generation growth engine.

SK Telecom (CEO and President Jang Dong-hyun), Korea Expressway Corporation, and Korea Electronics Technology Institute announced on the 8th that they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for next-generation vehicle communication (V2X, Vehicle to Everything) technology cooperation for autonomous driving at SK Telecom’s Bundang Research Center.

'V2X' is a technology that exchanges or shares information, such as traffic conditions, through communication with various road infrastructure like traffic lights and surrounding vehicles while driving, and is a core technology for realizing connected cars* and cooperative autonomous driving*.

Through this MoU, the three companies plan to go a step further than existing V2X technology using short-range communication networks and research safer autonomous driving methods by exchanging information between roads and vehicles using mobile communication networks.

To this end, the Korea Expressway Corporation will provide solutions such as road traffic infrastructure and integrated traffic information systems, and the three companies will conduct joint research by integrating the Electronics Technology Institute's V2X core chipsets and solutions with SK Telecom's vehicle IoT platform and next-generation mobile communication network technology.
In particular, the three companies plan to demonstrate their developed technologies on the 40km section of the Gyeongbu Expressway from Seoul Tollgate to Singal Junction and the Yeongdong Expressway from Singal Junction to Hobop Junction, which serves as the Korea Expressway Corporation's autonomous cooperative driving research testbed, starting in 2018, and to cooperate in the development of future V2X technologies and core services.

NXP Semiconductors demonstrated receiving information about an ambulance approaching from the opposite side of a corner via V2X.

As V2X technology advances, vehicle safety is expected to be significantly improved as not only vehicle location and traffic volume information obtained from each vehicle but also accident data and road infrastructure information are shared in real time.

Recently, vehicle communication functions have begun to be piloted primarily for vehicle-to-vehicle or vehicle-to-infrastructure communication with a focus on passenger safety; however, there is a need to improve vehicle communication performance and discover integrated services to support autonomous driving.

Park Jin-hyo, Head of Network Technology at SK Telecom, stated, “We expect the vehicle communication technology to be developed through this MoU with the Korea Expressway Corporation and the Korea Electronics Technology Institute to serve as a foundation for the expansion of autonomous driving, which is a key element of the connected car era.”