South Korea's building a whole city to test self-driving cars

South Korea is making a big move into the self-driving car development space. Like, "building an entire mock-city dedicated for self-driving cars" big.

The country's government will open K-City, an 88-acre urban complex constructed specifically to test autonomous vehicles, later this October, according to Business Korea.

The test bed, which is designed to mimic real road conditions with bus lanes, expressways, and special zones for autonomous parking, will be the biggest self-driving car testing facility in the world when it's finished, eclipsing the University of Michigan's 32-acre MCity testing space by over 50 acres.

K-City is meant to give South Korean companies a chance to fine-tune self-driving tech in realistic conditions without going through the lengthy permit process needed to take the cars out onto public streets. The country has expressed its plans to have Level 3 (mostly autonomous) self-driving cars on its roads by 2020 — so the K-City project is just more proof that it means business.

Auto giants like Hyundai and Kia are expected to take advantage of K-City, according to the Business Korea report, while tech companies like Samsung, which was recently granted approval to conduct tests on public roads, could also use the space to develop their self-driving systems.

South Korea is a latecomer to the self-driving show — the country only opened up many of its public roads to permit-approved testing last year. Now, big players like Hyundai and smaller projects like Seoul National University's SNUber car will have an express option to get their systems out on the roads without working through governmental red tape.

South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure & Transport is building the complex based on the Korea Transportation Safety Authority's intelligent transportation system plan to keep the roads as authentic as possible. The government is committing 11 billion won (around $9.7 million) to the project, which will be fully operational once its expressways open, slated for 2018.

[h/t Engadget]