SK Telecom also agreed to provide vehicles-to-everything communications elements such as its fifth-generation network and the platform for self-driving to create synergy with Nvidia’s artificial intelligence to make deep learning technology, the company said.

“A test drive of self-driving is projected to take place within this year,” said SK Telecom CEO Park Jung-ho in an interview with Yonhap News Agency.

“(Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang) was well aware that SK Telecom’s T Map navigation service has an upper hand in collecting data for self-driving over Google Maps,” he said.

The promising market for self-driving cars is expected to reach $42 billion by 2025, according to US-based global consulting firm Boston Consulting Group. It is also projected to make up one-fourth of vehicles sales worldwide by 2035, according to BCG.

Mando, a South Korean auto parts maker, has recently strengthened competitiveness in the domestic self-driving market, becoming the first company to run test drives of autonomous cars equipped with homemade radars and cameras.

It has received temporary permission by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to test sensors newly installed on opposite ends under the front headlights.

There are currently 18 other self-driving vehicles conducting tests here, equipped with sensors made by foreign companies, the ministry said.

“We are concentrating on rolling out level-three autonomous driving technology,” Mando said.

On level-three automated driving, out of five levels, drivers are not required to drive in most areas and the system will notify the driver to intervene when needed.

Local tech giant Samsung Electronics was the first approved to test autonomous cars earlier this month, the ministry said.

The software that enables self-driving by controlling sensors and analyzing data was made by the tech company, which has been speeding up development in the business since it acquired US-based auto parts supplier Harman in March.

Waiting to jump into the race is LG Electronics, South Korea’s second-biggest electronics company, which applied for permission to test its autonomous driving technology earlier this month, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, to foster further development, the government has allowed autonomous cars to be tested on all roads since November.

The ministry is also planning to complete K-City, designed to test self-driving cars, spanning 363,000 square meters in Hwasung, Gyeonggi Province, by the end of next year. 

By Kim Bo-gyung (lisakim425@heraldcorp.com)