Hyundai Motor, in collaboration with KT and Hyundai Construction, is officially embarking on a practical project for the commercialization of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) in South Korea and is working towards creating an integrated platform that connects UAM and land mobility.
To participate in the ‘Korean Urban Air Mobility Grand Challenge’ practical project, Hyundai has formed a consortium with KT and Hyundai Construction, signing a business agreement with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Seoul on the 22nd (Wednesday).
Present at the signing ceremony were Hyundai Motor’s AAM Division President Shin Jae-won, Deputy Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Eo Myung-soo, KT Management Planning Division President Park Jong-wook, Hyundai Construction Technology Research Institute Managing Director Park Young-jun, and Korea Aerospace Research Institute Director Lee Sang-ryul.
The K-UAM Grand Challenge is a large-scale public-private joint project initiated by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to validate vehicle safety and establish operational concepts and technical standards suitable for domestic conditions with the goal of commercializing UAM in South Korea by 2025.
The Ministry plans to start the K-UAM Grand Challenge Phase 1 (from August 2023 to December 2024) at the National Comprehensive Flight Performance Test Center in Goheung, Jeollanam-do from this August, and Phase 2 will be carried out for the consortium that passes Phase 1, demonstrating flights in quasi-urban and urban environments.
To participate in the K-UAM Grand Challenge, Hyundai has formed a consortium with KT and Hyundai Construction, and the three companies will jointly conduct practical projects on vehicle and operation, traffic management, and vertiport.
Hyundai intends to establish a Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platform that connects UAM and land mobility, planning to demonstrate the process of passengers utilizing various mobility options from their starting point to their final destination.
※MaaS: A service that integrates various transportation modes into a single mobility option, providing optimal route guidance, booking, and payment for all transportation means through a single platform.
KT will develop and validate the UATM (UAM Air Traffic Management) system and UAM communication infrastructure, as well as a data-sharing platform.
Hyundai Construction will derive optimization plans for the design of vertiports, essential for UAM, and will study build models for vertiports that can be implemented in quasi-urban and urban areas.
Furthermore, the three companies plan to contribute to activating the domestic UAM industry and achieving early commercialization through close cooperation in verifying the safety of each system and practical integration of UAM services.
Hyundai Motor’s AAM Division President Shin Jae-won stated, “The K-UAM Grand Challenge is significant as an integrated operation validation project that encompasses the entire UAM ecosystem beyond simply validating individual systems. We plan to validate safe and efficient UAM services by connecting mobility, communications, and vertiports centered around the MaaS platform in cooperation with KT and Hyundai Construction.”
Contact: Lee Sang-jin daedusj@autodiary.kr