Kakao Mobility uses self-driving vehicles to transport cargo

South Korea’s transportation company Kakao Mobility has launched a project in the nation's fourth-largest city of Daegu to transport people and cargo with self-driving vehicles.

A consortium comprising Kakao Mobility, Autonomous A2G, Korea Automobile Research Institute, KT Corp., Hyundai AutoEver and Neubility on Wednesday started the second year of the service Dalgubeol Autonomous Vehicle in the special R&D zone of Daegu Technopolis.

The service is an ongoing project of developing a model for a self-driving-based mobility service. The six companies were selected last year as operators in a contest hosted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and have run since November last year a Dalgubeol autonomous vehicle service for passengers.

In its first year, the project ran an experiment to meet demand for ultra-short distance travel within 2 km, which was difficult with conventional modes of transportation, by utilizing technology from its ride-hailing app Kakao T in vehicle dispatch and route selection.

The second year will test Dalgubeol Autonomous Vehicle Plus, a passenger and product transportation service in which a user can send and receive goods by calling a self-driving vehicle in real time. The service also uses last-mile delivery, or the process of getting a product from a distribution center or warehouse to its destination, to a customer’s home for things like transactions of used items and food delivery.

The plus service operates weekdays from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. The self-driving vehicle service can be used through the Kakao T app, while a separate app is needed for the plus service.

Write to Seung-Woo Lee at leeswoo@hankyung.com