Kakao Mobility CEO Ryu Geung-seon: 'Autonomous Driving Commercialization Must Expand Into City-Level Operations'
TECHWORLD ·
✦ AI Summary
Ryu Geung-seon, CEO of Kakao Mobility, said autonomous driving commercialization should not be seen as only a vehicle technology issue, but as something that must be connected to service operations and urban infrastructure.
Kakao Mobility said that autonomous driving commercialization requires building an ecosystem that connects vehicle driving technology with services and city infrastructure.
In the Gangnam late-night autonomous driving service, 97% of users used "Kakao T," and the vehicle utilization rate was 82.5%.
Ryu Geung-seon, CEO of Kakao Mobility, said autonomous driving commercialization should not be viewed simply as a vehicle technology issue, but as something that must be connected to service operations and urban infrastructure as well. Kakao Mobility said that, for autonomous driving commercialization, it is necessary to build an ecosystem that links vehicle driving technology with services and city infrastructure.
Ryu delivered a keynote speech at the "2026 Global Mobility Conference" on the 7th, where he explained the company's autonomous driving commercialization strategy. Under the theme "From autonomous driving technology to everyday mobility," he presented its strategy for commercialization.
Ryu said that for autonomous driving to take root as a practical transportation service, it will require not only driving technology but also changes in how users interact with the service and in urban infrastructure. He also stressed that the scope of autonomous driving commercialization should be gradually expanded from driving technology to services and city infrastructure.
The event was co-hosted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Korea Transportation Safety Authority (TS), and the International Transport Forum (ITF) under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Kakao Mobility, Waymo, and Nvidia took part in the keynote speeches.
Kakao Mobility is pushing ahead with commercialization by combining its in-house autonomous driving technology with platform operation experience. While internalizing core technologies such as high-definition maps, simulators, control systems, and integrated AI models, it has also operated actual autonomous vehicles and services.
In the Gangnam late-night autonomous driving service, 97% of users accessed it through the existing "Kakao T" without installing a separate application. The service's vehicle utilization rate was 82.5%.
Kakao Mobility is improving service accessibility by combining its existing platform with autonomous driving, and is building an everyday use environment on that basis. The company said that as the service scale expands, the ability to stably operate multiple autonomous vehicles in a city will become more important than the driving performance of individual vehicles.
Ryu said that even with the same technology, moving to a different city creates another 10% of difficult problems. He added that the evaluation criteria for autonomous driving services should also shift from the driving capability of a single vehicle to the ability to operate hundreds of vehicles in a city.
He explained that the spread of autonomous driving cannot be achieved through vehicle technology alone, and that changes in urban space, transportation infrastructure, and operating rules to accommodate autonomous driving are also needed. Just as roads, traffic lights, and crosswalks were built alongside the spread of automobiles in the past, the conditions for advancing autonomous driving also require parallel changes in vehicle technology and the urban environment.
Kakao Mobility is moving ahead with a plan to build an autonomous driving ecosystem and has agreed to cooperate with automakers, parts suppliers, the government, local governments, and academia. It plans to establish collaboration models by sector, with cooperation covering vehicle design suited to services, supply chain stabilization, route planning, safety standard setting, and verification of mobility completion rates.
Ryu said that in Korea's mobility market, the experience of existing industrial and technology companies in jointly building systems and services can also be applied to autonomous driving. He added that the combination of existing transportation systems and new technologies is necessary, and that the foundation for autonomous driving commercialization should be laid through a division of roles among the government, industry, and technology companies.
Ryu said that autonomous vehicles drive on their own, but autonomous driving services require co-development, and explained that the company has accumulated more than 10 years of mobility technology development experience and has platform operation capabilities. He added that, based on this, it will pursue public-private cooperation, aim to establish autonomous driving as an everyday transportation service, and contribute to building a sustainable ecosystem.
Source: TECHWORLD · Kim Seung-gi
Original: https://www.epnc.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=406632
References
This article was produced with the help of an automated content generation algorithm.
Source: TECHWORLD
View originalThis article was summarized and organized by BizCrush based on the original article from TECHWORLD. For exact quotations and full details, please refer to the original article.