As I sat in the driver’s seat, four monitors caught my eye. The sky over Gangneung was clear, but it was raining in Daegu. The pedals in the driver’s seat were identical to those of a real car. They were slightly smaller, but they served the same functions as a clutch, brake, and accelerator. I did not use the clutch, operating only the brake and accelerator. Once I engaged the gear and pressed the accelerator, the autonomous bus in Daegu immediately began to move. Forward motion, reversing, and cornering all felt exactly like actual driving.
Lotte Innovate showcased its AI and autonomous driving technology at the ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems) World Congress, held around the Gangneung Olympic Park area in Gangwon Province through the 23rd of this month. The ITS World Congress is the world’s largest annual event where government officials, corporate representatives, and academic experts from around the globe gather to share technology and policies in the field of intelligent transportation systems. Lotte Innovate participated in this year’s event at the highest tier among domestic companies.
The most eye-catching feature at the Lotte Innovate booth was the remote autonomous driving bus. The company set up an experience allowing visitors to remotely control an autonomous bus located at the Intelligent Vehicle Parts Promotion Institute’s test track in Daegu, approximately 300 km from the Gangneung exhibition hall, and view the actual vehicle’s movements via real-time video. This was designed to intuitively convey the technology and operational capabilities of remote control for autonomous vehicles.
Lotte Innovate has been operating autonomous bus services on actual road environments in regions such as Gangneung, Gyeongju, and Jeju, accumulating technical expertise and experience. In 2021, the company obtained a temporary operation permit for a Class B driverless autonomous vehicle, the first of its kind in South Korea, and has since operated autonomous driving services in nine regions nationwide. To date, cumulative mileage has reached approximately 100,000 km, with around 40,000 passengers served. Lotte Innovate assesses that an era of remote autonomous driving will precede the age of fully driverless autonomy, and is intensively researching related technologies.
Lotte Innovate’s vision AI technology also drew attention. The company exhibited a video capture device that automatically recognizes license plates of vehicles in motion using cameras and vision AI technology. It identifies vehicle numbers not only on single-lane roads but also in multi-lane highway environments, supporting accurate toll collection. The recognition rate stands at approximately 99.9%. Having supplied 74% of the domestic market volume for such equipment over the past three years, it has emerged as a future growth area. Lotte Innovate leverages AI infrastructure built on its own cloud center to generate license plate images and utilize them as training data for vehicle number recognition AI.
In addition, Lotte Innovate showcased next-generation intelligent transportation systems. The technology uses road infrastructure such as cameras and LiDAR to detect pedestrians, vehicles, and hazardous situations, transmitting this information to vehicles to prevent accidents. Road infrastructure detects and alerts drivers to pedestrians in blind spots and dangerous conditions that are difficult for the driver of an autonomous vehicle to perceive directly through its sensors. Furthermore, a humanoid robot combining the company’s proprietary AI platform “iMber” with physical AI technology captured visitors’ attention.
A Lotte Innovate official stated, “Going forward, we will advance integrated mobility technology that connects roads, vehicles, and traffic systems centered on AI, and strengthen our business competitiveness in future transportation markets both domestically and internationally.”
in TECH
