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The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) has developed a self-driving car than can be summoned by smartphone. (provided by ETRI)

“Car! Come here.”

The first-ever technology for a driverless electric car that approaches from a distance when called has been developed in South Korea. The car also boasts exceptional cost-competitiveness thanks to use of low-cost sensors and reduced electricity consumption.

The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) announced on July 19 that had conducted a successful demonstration on key technology for a self-driving car that can be summoned by smartphone, which it has been developing with the domestic electric car production business IT Engineering.

After the place of origin and destination are entered in a smartphone, the user “summoned” the car through a voice recognition app. “Now proceeding to the current location,” it replied, approaching the driver on its own. Once it arrived, another message stated, “The vehicle has arrived at its destination. Please board the vehicle.” After the user boarded, another message said, “Now commencing automated driving,” and the vehicle started up again. During self-driving travel, the vehicle showed no problems waiting in lanes, avoiding other vehicles cutting in front, or recognizing pedestrians.

“Based on the levels from 0 to 5 suggested by the US automobile technology association, the autonomous driving technology demonstrated here was being level 3 (eyes off) and level 4 (mind off),” the institute explained.

The key technology uses sensors to recognize the surrounding environment on the road, creating and updating precision maps. Rather than ordinary maps, automated driving requires “precision maps” that include traffic lights, boundary stones, trees, and other parts of the driving environment; crucially, these must be updated in as close to real time as possible. A large margin of error is out of the question. The technology developed by ETRI has a 10-cm margin of error, which is considered world-class.

The researchers also stressed the significance of the low electricity consumption by the self-driving car in the demonstration. In addition to low-cost image sensors and lidar (laser radar) sensors, the vehicle also includes artificial intelligence software developed by the researchers. Two personal computers were used to drive the software. Existing self-driving cars require hundreds of watts of electricity due to the large amount consumed in the sensor and AI algorithm operation processes. Most testing has been conducted with midsize or larger sedans or sport utility vehicles (SUVs). By integrating its AI algorithms, ETRI has lowered consumption to below 100W – the equivalent of two notebook computers – allowing for automated driving by compact electric cars.

“It’s at the level where we could apply the parts directly to a regular vehicle for a demonstration,” ETRI said.

“The success of this demonstration is very significant in terms of contributing to lowering the high entry barriers to autonomous driving technology development,” it added.

ETRI plans to open up the big data from its research on real-time traffic information and road characteristics detected by the cameras and lidar sensors for use by universities and companies conducting research on driverless vehicles, it said.

By Park Tae-woo, staff reporter

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