SK Telecom has built a high-speed 5G network in K-City, a pilot city for self-driving, in partnership with the Korea Transportation Safety Authority (KOTSA).
SK Telecom said in a statement that this is the first time a 5G network was deployed in a test site for self-driving cars.
K-City is being built in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi by KOTSA and has a total area of around 363,000 square meters. It has a variety of test driving lanes that resemble real world driving conditions including a school zone and bus-only lane.
On December 28, 2017, SK Telecom and KOTSA announced the successful deployment of a 5G infrastructure, including test network with 20 Gbps download capacity, which allows downloading a 1GB video file in 0.4 seconds.
SK Telecom said it has set up a control center for 5G in the test site that can share data with test cars in less than 0.001 seconds. It also set up infrastructure there that is meant to make 3D maps with high accuracy of less than 20cm for cars.
The test site will offer a platform for Korean automakers and tech giants that work on self-driving cars to test 5G self-driving technology.
“We will continue to work with KOTSA to make K-City a mecca for self-driving research and development,” said Lee Jong-ho, senior vice president and vehicle unit leader at SK Telecom.