This photo provided by Mars Auto shows its self-driving truck.
SEOUL, March 17 (Korea Bizwire) — A long-haul cargo transportation service using self-driving trucks to transport cargo from Busan to Incheon has been launched.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on Thursday announced that a long-haul cargo transportation service using manned self-driving trucks developed by local startup Mars Auto, for which a special demonstration case was approved under the regulatory sandbox in December last year, was launched.
Through this demonstration project, the government plans to verify the validity and safety of the technology and service concerned by deploying 14 trucks equipped with domestically-developed self-driving technology on the arterial roads connecting the greater Seoul area with the Yeongnam region on a gradual basis.
Mars Auto plans to launch a pay-based transport service by equipping the trucks with a Level 3 self-driving system called Mars Pilot that consists of seven cameras and a small computer.
Mars Pilot is an artificial intelligence (AI)-based system that can control vehicles by recognizing and judging the conditions of roads and drivers, while switching vehicle control to manual in emergency situations.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
