Autonomous A2Z, a South Korean self-driving technology company, said on the 21st that it has obtained temporary operating permits for more than 100 autonomous vehicles on a cumulative basis.
The company has secured a total of 101 permits through October this year, after receiving its first in 2018. A temporary operating permit is granted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) to test and research self-driving cars on public roads, and must be obtained separately for each vehicle even when the models are identical.
Of the 101 permitted vehicles, 14 are ROii, a Level 4 autonomous driving platform developed in-house, while the remaining 87 are existing vehicles converted for self-driving. Among the converted vehicles, 17 are owned or operated by public agencies, companies, universities and research institutes, with Autonomous A2Z providing support for installing the self-driving systems and obtaining the permits.
By region, Sejong had the largest deployment with 26 vehicles, followed by Daegu with 13 and Anyang with 12. The company has also verified its self-driving technology or run services for the public in Seoul, Goyang, Gwangju, Busan and Ulsan. Its cumulative autonomous driving distance at home and abroad stands at 1.15 million kilometers, and the company uses data collected on actual roads to develop Level 4 technology and verify safety.
Autonomous A2Z plans to push ahead with a project to build a self-driving demonstration city in Gwangju this year, while expanding testing and commercialization opportunities overseas in markets including Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Japan.
"Obtaining 100 cumulative temporary operating permits for self-driving vehicles means more than simply an increase in the number of cars. It means we have actually accumulated autonomous driving experience across that many different regions and road environments," Autonomous A2Z CEO Han Ji-hyung said. "We will focus on developing hybrid end-to-end self-driving technology to raise safety and completeness, so that users can use autonomous vehicles conveniently and safely anytime and anywhere, in overseas markets as well as at home."