South Korea’s auto parts maker Mando Corp. became first Korean entity to be endorsed by the government to test fully self-developed autonomous vehicle on the road.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) said Thursday that it endorsed the company to test-drive autonomous vehicles entirely running on its self-developed technology.

Similar permits have been handed out to 19 vehicles. The other 18 self-driving vehicles given clearance on the road are made of sensors and cameras of foreign made.

Mando equipped a Genesis sedan of Hyundai Motor Co.’s with a front radar and camera which are already out in the market and side radar that is under development. The Korean car parts supplier plans to verify functionality of the sensors of the car on the road to enhance accuracy of their environment-learning. It is also working on brake, steering and suspension systems of its self-driving car to maximize their synergic effect with sensors.

The Korean firm plans to find a name for its autonomous car through a public naming contest as specified on its parent company Halla Group’s official Facebook account (http://www.facebook.com/hallagroup).

The company has 900 patented technologies including one on the driver assist system (DAS).

So far, 19 domestic companies and institutions have been approved to test-drive their autonomous vehicles, including Hyundai Motor, Seoul National University, Hanyang University, Kia Motors, Hyundai Mobis, Korea Transportation Safety Authority, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Naver Labs and Mando.

Seoul earlier set a goal of commercialization of Level 3 self-driving car - which requires a human driver at the driver’s seat while the car takes control most of the time - by 2020 after debuting the car in the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

The U.S. Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) defines six levels in automated driving from 0 to 5. Korean carmakers have reached Level 2 standard in self-driving.

By Ko Jae-man

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]