On the road to autonomous driving, a good map helps

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On the road to autonomous driving, a good map helps

Published: 10 Feb. 2022, 19:03 Updated: 10 Feb. 2022, 19:34

Engineers at Kakao Mobility talk about the company's gaols for this year during an interview with the local press on Thursday. From left are: Hong Seung-hwan, tech leader at the digital twin team; Christopher Chang, the managing director of the company's research lab The New Squad; and Park Chang-soo, the tech leader at the autonomous software team. [KAKAO MOBILITY]

"Kakao Mobility aims to lead the industry as the only company in Korea to develop both high-definition map and self-driving car technologies," Christopher Chang, the managing director of the company's future research lab, said on Thursday.

"There are companies that only develop high-definition maps or self-driving cars," Chang said in an interview held as a part of "Next Mobility: NEMO 2022," a conference held at Coex, southern Seoul.

"But we plan to advance both technologies because we believe that only through providing both services, we can see how they are used together in real life.

On the road to becoming such a unique player, Kakao Mobility will focus on building the foundations of a digital twin of Korea this year. The company will use its capabilities as both the operator of an online map service and developer of mobility technologies.

"High-definition maps are essential not only for self-driving cars but operating robots, air taxis or any other electric vehicle that moves around," Chang said.

The company is 59-percent owned by Kakao and offers the Kakao T taxi-hailing app.

Last December, it started operating a self-driving taxi near its office in Pangyo, Gyeonggi. As the law prohibits a vehicle from driving around unmanned, the taxi has two technicians sitting in the front seat in case of emergencies.

The taxi can be called by anyone using the Kakao T app. It uses the data from the Kakao Map to make its decisions, but also the information it learns on the road, such as traffic lights and where pedestrians are.

Autonomous cars operate better when using well-made digital maps, according to Park Chang-soo, the tech leader at the autonomous software development unit of Kakao Mobility.

"Just as we humans drive better and faster on roads that we know, it's the same with artificial intelligence [AI]," Park said. "So if we help the AI learn its surroundings through the digital twin, then we can make it much more time and cost efficient."

The engineers argued that the company has the capacity to create a digital twin in one-fifth of the time and at one-fifth the cost of other companies, Hong Seung-hwan, tech leader at the digital twin development team said.

"We plan to spend this year making our foundations strong by gathering the data we need," he said.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]