[K-MOVE] Autonomous Vehicle Contest

South Korea's Ministry of Industry has held a self-driving vehicle contest of university students in the southeastern city of Daegu.

A total of nine university teams took part in the competition and flaunted their own-developed autonomous vehicles.

Unlike the past editions of the contest, the self-driving vehicles participating in the competition were tested on real roads.

The participants were required to get through highly difficult on-road tests, including how to deal with traffic lights at junctions and with pedestrians at crosswalks on busy downtown roads.

Industrial experts expect that at least 40 percent of car journeys would be done in autonomous vehicles by 2030. Also, the global market involving or related to self-driving vehicles is forecast to soar to 1.5 trillion dollars by the mentioned year.

In this context, the South Korean government plans to pour 5.2 billion won to cultivate professional workforces next year. This amount is compared to 3.8 billion won invested for this year.

In addition, the government seeks to invest 145.5 billion won by 2021 for developing technologies to produce nine key parts for autonomous vehicles.


[Sung Yun-Mo, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy]
"The government will push for large-scale national projects to focus on fostering the competitiveness of (the country's) autonomous car industry."


In particular, the self-driving vehicle contest in Daegu became the first such event where the top prize winner has received a presidential award.

The top prize in this edition went to a team from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, better known as KAIST.