South Korea’s auto giant Hyundai Motor Co. will test its first self-driving cab dubbed RoboRide on roads in Seoul in the first half of next year, the company announced at Seoul Mobility Show held at Kintex in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, on Thursday.

The autonomous driving technology that will be applied to its unmanned robot taxi will be Level 4 self-driving technology, a fully autonomous driving technology in which the vehicle handles nearly all situations when a driver sets up the destination, the company added.

Hyundai Motor will test operate RoboRide in Ioniq 5 in a designated zone in central Seoul, according to the company. Equipped with Level 4 technology, Ioniq 5 robot taxi will independently make driving decisions after recognizing its surroundings and detecting obstacles. Hyundai Motor said RoboRide will not need a human driver’s intervention even in an emergency situation – except when it encounters brief traffic congestion.

At the show, Hyundai Motor also boasted its Level 4 autonomous driving technology applied to its hydrogen electric vehicle Nexo in a video showing Nexo driving on real roads without a human driver in the driver seat.

Nexo, without a driver, could change more than two lanes on congested roads and successfully adjusted speed when making U-turns. When making left or right turns, it successfully detected vehicles joining the lane from other sides and people crossing the roads.

Jang Woong-jun, head of Hyundai Motor’s autonomous driving division, said that the company’s goal is to apply partial autonomous driving technology to possibly all car models types for performance improvement. The company also plans to expand the application of the remote software update feature for autonomous driving, which is already employed in its high-end models in the second half of this year, to other models, he added.

Yoo Won-ha, head of domestic business at Hyundai Motor, announced that the company will release mid-size electric sedan Ioniq 6 based on its concept car Prophecy next year while enhancing green car lineup in commercial segment such as hydrogen electric truck Xcient and low-floor electric bus Elec City.

The company will also add more high-speed charging facilities and test an electric charging cart H Mobile Charger in December.

At the show, Kia Motors premiered a full-change model of its environmentally-friendly small sport utility vehicle Niro for the first time in five years since its launch. The second-generation Niro will come in hybrid and pure electric models, of which the hybrid type will hit the market first early next year and the EV version in the first half.

By Seo Jin-woo, Won Ho-sup, and Lee Eun-joo

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