The Korean government has designated Gwangju’s 500,000㎡ Jeonjuk district as a national autonomous driving testbed, launching large-scale real-road trials with AI-powered self-driving vehicles. The project aims to establish Gwangju as one of the world’s top three autonomous driving hubs by 2027.

Key Points

- Testbed Location:

* Jeonjuk district, Gwangju Metropolitan City (500,000㎡ area).

* Converted into a real-road autonomous driving simulation zone.

- Project Goals:

* Build a global top-3 autonomous driving cluster.

* Strengthen Korea’s competitiveness against the U.S. and China in autonomous driving AI.

* Achieve end-to-end Level 4 autonomous driving implementation by 2027.

- Technology & Infrastructure:

* Equipped with “Driving Simulator” facilities for safe testing of edge cases (rare, dangerous scenarios).

* Vehicles collect standardized large-scale driving data, processed at the National AI Data Center in Gwangju using high-performance GPUs.

* Insurance products developed to cover risks during trials, ensuring safety for participating companies.

- Industry Participation:

* Major Korean automakers and tech firms (Hyundai Motor, Otomonomous AI, RideFlux, etc.) are involved.

* Around 200 autonomous driving software-defined vehicles (SDVs) will be deployed for testing.

* Collaboration under the “K-Autonomous Driving Cooperation Model” with startups and suppliers.

- Government Support:

* Backed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport with ₩610 billion investment over three years.

* Linked to Korea’s AI Grand Transformation Project (15 major initiatives).

* Plans to build a specialized evaluation center for future mobility components in Gwangju.