LG U+ 5G car drives itself on expressway

LG U+ employees demonstrate an autonomous car using 5G connectivity in Seoul on Tuesday. [LG U+]

LG U+ has successfully tested a 5G-powered self-driving vehicle on an expressway for the first time.

The mobile carrier announced Tuesday that a self-driving car developed by Hanyang University successfully drove on LG U+’s 5G network for 25 minutes across seven kilometers (4.35 miles) of busy city roads including the Gangbyeon Expressway and Olympic Expressway.

A low latency video transmitter developed by LG U+ delivered real-time footage of the test drive to Hanyang University. Two cameras attached to the self-driving vehicle recorded the front and rear of the car.

During the test drive, the vehicle had to react to certain scenarios such as avoiding obstacles and changing course. The vehicle was also tested to see how it reacts to new traffic information such as a blocked parking lot entrance.

The vehicle was remote controllable, offering added safety measures in case of emergency.

It was the first time that a self-driving car has completed a test drive on such a scale on an expressway or high-speed road in Korea, according to the company.

“Self-driving cars that run on the 5G network will make important contributions to solving social problems like traffic volume and accidents,” said Sunwoo Myung-ho, who teaches automotive engineering at Hanyang University.

“It’s significant that we were able to produce substantial results with self-driving cars through cooperation between industry and academia,” said Kang Jong-oh, who manages future technologies at LG U+. “We will continue to invest our efforts into developing self-driving car technology through cooperation between mobile carriers and the auto industry.”

LG U+ will continue to work with Hanyang University to polish its 5G-based self-driving car technology.

Competitors SK Telecom and KT are also actively investing in self-driving technology. KT, for example, successfully tested a self-driving bus at Incheon International Airport last month.

BY KIM EUN-JIN [kim.eunjin1@joongang.co.kr]