Kakao Mobility, Hyundai to launch pilot robotaxi service by year-end

Kakao Mobility Corp., which runs South Korea’s most popular taxi-hailing app, and top Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co. have agreed to launch a pilot autonomous robotaxi service by the end of this year.

The two companies on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding to launch the mobility service by combining Kakao’s taxi-hailing platform, Kakao T, with Hyundai’s self-driving vehicle Roboride, based on its electric crossover IONIQ 5.

"Based on Kakao T, the largest mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) platform in Korea, and Kakao Navi, which has more than 22 million subscribers, we have accumulated navigation, taxi and parking data and service know-how,” said a Kakao Mobility official.

Kakao and Hyundai said they will expand their partnership to eventually offer fully autonomous taxi services in Korea.

A unit of tech giant Kakao Corp., Kakao Mobility has been evolving into a mobility-as-a-service platform for its tens of millions of registered users.

FULLY AUTONOMOUS SERVICE BY 2030

"The MOU with Hyundai will serve as an opportunity to advance the domestic autonomous driving market in that it is a collaboration between the No. 1 companies in each field,” said Kakao Mobility’s Next Mobility Labs Director Chang Sung-wook.

In June, Kakao Mobility and LG Electronics Inc. agreed to form a future mobility technology partnership with an aim to jointly launch an autonomous delivery robot service.

Hyundai Motor Group aims to roll out fully autonomous driving cars by 2030 after pilot services on real roads.

To prepare for a commercial self-driving service globally, Hyundai and its US mobility joint venture Motional Inc. are testing IONIQ 5 robotaxis on public roads in Las Vegas and other US cities. Hyundai aims to take such services to Singapore and Saudi Arabia later.

“Through the MOU with Kakao, Hyundai will be able to showcase its autonomous driving technology to more customers,” said Jang Woong-jun, head of Hyundai’s autonomous driving business.

Write to Seung-Woo Lee at leesw@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.