SoCar, RideFlux to offer driverless chauffeuring at Jeju airport in H1

[Photo provided by SoCar Inc.]

South Korea’s ride-sharing leader SoCar Inc. together with autonomous driving startup RideFlux Inc. will launch driverless airport pickup service starting with Jeju resort island in the first half.

Driver-less minivan Chrysler Pacifica accommodating maximum five passengers with two pieces of luggage will chauffeur a 38-kilometer (23.6 mile) drive from the airport to Jungmun Resort, a multi tourism area. The autonomous drive is the longest among the six courses approved by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in November last year.

The two companies have already completed the eight-month free trial service by putting self-driving shuttle with a human driver on a 5-kilometer road between the Jeju Airport and SoCar rental station for car pickup or return in May last year.

During the test period, they conducted more than 500 hours of travels through 5,400 drives with Hyundai Ioniq and collected various data, technological and operational knowhow.

Customers also gave positive feedback with a score of 4.9 out of perfect 5 to the service, the first of its kind operated by private companies in Korea.

SoCar and RideFlux are planning to expand the self-driving shuttle service to the entire Jeju Island and Sejong city within the year.

SoCar recently made its second investment in RideFlux after July 2018 to provide safer and credible driverless service in Korea. Under the strengthened partnership, SoCar focuses more on improvement of ride-hailing platform and vehicle deployment efficiency while RideFlux works on development of operational solutions like self-driving software, broadcast control and high precision map.

“The company’s top priority is to secure high-level safety and credibility without a human driver in an autonomous vehicle to open an era of using a car-sharing service, not owning a car,” said Park Joong-hee, chief executive officer of RideFlux.

“In a few years later, mobility companies will compete for a lead in the paid driverless service market,” said Park Jae-uk, CEO of SoCar. “SoCar will make efforts to raise its competitiveness by combining its ride-sharing and car-hailing capabilities with RideFlux’s self-driving solutions

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