Kakao Mobility announced on the 7th that it will introduce an indoor map service through Kakao Navi at the COEX parking lot in Gangnam, Seoul. This is the first time a mobile navigation app has offered indoor mapping services in a parking lot, and it is expected to greatly enhance user convenience with added parking-related features.
Typically, when using navigation, guidance ends at the entrance of a building’s parking lot, making it difficult to confirm the user’s location or provide directions in underground parking lots where GPS signals are unavailable. There have been attempts at indoor map services in specific buildings or apartment complexes, but these features were often offered alone, making them hard to utilize as a widespread commercial service.
With this introduction of the COEX parking lot indoor map service in the Kakao Navi app, it is now possible to continuously check one’s location and receive navigation guidance even after entering the underground parking lot. Finding a parking spot near the closest gate to your final destination in COEX or locating the entrance to the building after parking has become much more convenient.
Additionally, combined parking convenience features allow for a more differentiated indoor map service. As you enter the COEX parking lot with Kakao Navi guidance, ▲ You can check the occupancy status of each floor in real-time via the app, and ▲ Your parking location is automatically saved within the app (for users who have registered their vehicle information in the Kakao Navi app), allowing for precise location confirmation on the map before exiting. For electric vehicle drivers, the location of electric vehicle chargers can also be confirmed. This significantly alleviates the inconvenience of navigating through several floors to find an empty parking space.
The establishment of the COEX parking lot indoor map service has been supported by Kakao Mobility’s indoor positioning technology and digital twin construction capabilities. Kakao Mobility has refined indoor positioning technology optimized for underground parking environments and developed it into a form applicable to the Kakao Navi app, using its digital twin building solution to create a digital twin of the COEX parking lot.
Meanwhile, Kakao Mobility continues to diversify its fused indoor positioning technology, ‘FIN (Fused Indoor Localization)’, to overcome the limitations of positioning in GPS-shaded areas. After showcasing technology that identifies the user’s precise location in tunnels and underground waterways using mobile network signals like 5G and LTE in 2020, they have now teamed up with beacon-based indoor positioning technology startup ‘TJ Labs’ to apply it to the indoor map service in the COEX parking lot.
Based on these mobility-enabled technologies, they are also contributing to public safety enhancement.
Since 2019, Kakao Mobility has participated in the national project “Development of Intelligent Precision Positioning Technology for Emergency Response”, initiated by the Ministry of Science and ICT, the National Fire Agency, and the National Police Agency, helping develop a three-dimensional precision positioning platform capable of accurately identifying the location of persons requesting assistance in emergencies such as fires and major incidents.
The new feature can be accessed by activating the ‘parking lot indoor map’ function in the Kakao Navi app under More > Laboratory. Kakao Mobility plans to apply indoor mapping services in various indoor spaces, including parking lots, starting from the COEX parking lot.
Lee Seong-woo, head of technology planning at Kakao Mobility, stated, “By being able to provide mapping information in indoor spaces like parking lots through Kakao Navi, we have achieved seamless navigation throughout the entire journey of users, from getting into the vehicle to parking,” adding, “We will continue to drive innovation in navigation services through challenging technology development and maximizing synergy between various mobility services.”
Ji Sang-in daedusj@autodiary.kr