Kakao Mobility Launches Free Autonomous Taxi Service in Gangnam: What You Need to Know

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[Asia Times = Reporter Dong-wook Lee] Seoul — Kakao Mobility is ramping up its autonomous vehicle operations. Industry sources said on March 15 that the company will begin operating a late-night Gangnam self-driving service on March 16 using its own autonomous driving technology.

The late-night Gangnam Seoul Autonomous Vehicle service will operate on weekdays within Seoul’s Gangnam autonomous driving pilot zone from 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m.

Passengers can request a vehicle by tapping the “Seoul Autonomous Vehicle” icon on the “View All” screen in the Kakao T app or by calling a car through the regular taxi-hailing menu. The service is currently free; Seoul plans to convert it to a paid service in April under the city’s autonomous-transport policy.

Since 2018, Kakao Mobility has been collecting real-time urban driving data with a modular sensor unit called the AV-Kit. The company uses AI-based auto-labeling to process that data and feeds it into its in-house AI data pipeline for immediate training of driving models, continually refining its self-learning autonomous driving systems.

Kakao Mobility also operates an Intelligent Autonomous Driving Integrated Safety Management Platform that analyzes vehicle data in real time. Built on service-monitoring technology from the Kakao T platform, the system helps teams respond quickly to unexpected situations. An in-cabin visualization tool (Autonomous Vehicle Visualizer) shares nearby obstacles and route plans with passengers in real time to reduce anxiety and improve trust during autonomous trips.

Ryu Geung-seon, CEO of Kakao Mobility, said, “This is an important moment to secure independent competitiveness in autonomous driving technology in a domestic mobility market that global big tech has not fully dominated. Based on the mobility data infrastructure and operational capabilities we have built, we will strengthen our position in autonomous driving—the core of future mobility—and evolve into a ‘physical AI–based technology company.'”