South Korea’s leading automaker Hyundai Motors Co. has joined up with a research team of Seoul National University on a project to mass-produce fully-automated vehicle solely powered by electricity by 2020.

The two are challenging to perfect the two core road technologies of the future that global automakers and engineering companies are heavily competing in.

According to the university on Monday, the research team led by Yi Kyong-su, a professor of Department of Mechanical Engineering, started joint research on autonomous electric vehicles with the carmaker on October 1. The automotive electric vehicle would be developed by applying the research team’s self driving technology and integrated safety control technology to Hyundai Motor’s electric vehicle IONIQ hybrid, which has been already mass produced.

They plan to develop a pilot model of a fully automotive electric car by January next year. “We will test the prototype on the actual road once it is finished,” said Yi.

Major roads of cities have heavier traffic and are more risky than highways which mostly have straight sections and therefore considered the highest stage in autonomous driving test. The automaker and the research team are expected to conduct road tests around Pyeongchang until October next year after getting permission from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

No self-driving electric vehicle has so far won license to go on the road in Korea. “This is the first attempt of a university and a carmaker to join hands to apply autonomous driving technology to electric vehicle platform. We hope to have the fully autonomous electric vehicle ready for the market by 2020,” said the professor. A self-driving vehicle developed by the research team succeeded in trial run on highways in May for the first time in the nation. Back then, the autonomous car has driven a 40 kilometer section from Seoul Toll Gate of Gyeongbu Expressway to Hobeop Interchange of Yeongdong Expressway with the driver’s hands off the steering wheel and feet off the brakes

By Hwang Soon-min

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