Kakao Mobility has detailed its plan to develop Level 4 autonomous driving technology internally as a core component of its broader physical AI strategy. The announcement came during the 2026 World IT Show conference at COEX in Seoul, where Kim Jin-kyu, vice president and head of the company’s Physical AI division, presented the roadmap.
The session focused on autonomous driving services built around mobility platforms in the physical AI era. The event was held under the title “Beyond Idea, Into Action: AI moves Reality,” with 460 companies and organizations from 17 countries participating, according to Yonhap. South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT described the event as part of a wider physical AI transition, where AI is applied to physical industrial fields.
Kim said Kakao Mobility is working to combine autonomous driving technologies with physical infrastructure as part of its mobility strategy in South Korea. The company aims to establish an open autonomous driving ecosystem to support local competitiveness.
Understanding Level 4 Autonomy
Level 4 autonomy, as defined by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, refers to systems that can handle driving in limited service areas without requiring passengers to monitor the road or take control. Such systems are typically deployed in defined service areas, such as autonomous taxi zones or fixed districts.
Kakao Mobility’s Level 4 roadmap is built around three technology areas: machine learning models, vehicle redundancy, and validation systems. The company is developing machine learning models designed to handle perception, decision-making, and control without human input. These functions cover how an autonomous vehicle reads its surroundings, makes driving decisions, and controls movement.
The company also plans to use vehicle architectures with redundant systems, allowing core functions to continue operating if an important component fails. Its validation platform will combine virtual simulations with real-world driving data. The system is intended to support testing, performance improvement, and quality checks as the company develops autonomous driving services.
Safety and Control Systems
Kakao Mobility is also building an integrated safety management platform for autonomous vehicles. One component is the Autonomous Vehicle Visualizer, a 3D visualization tool that shares a vehicle’s field of view in real time and allows passengers to monitor driving conditions. The tool shows passengers the vehicle’s driving context during a ride.
The company plans to add a 24-hour control center and an anomaly detection system using vision-language models. These systems are intended to support real-time context analysis, remote intervention, and emergency response. The planned control center would monitor autonomous driving services after deployment. Kakao Mobility said the anomaly detection system will use vision-language models but did not provide details on model architecture or performance.
Open Ecosystem Plan
Kakao Mobility also outlined plans to share selected technology assets with companies, startups, and manufacturers working on autonomous driving. The assets include large-scale autonomous driving datasets, high-definition maps, and platform APIs for ride-hailing and dispatch. HD maps support autonomous driving by providing detailed road information used for localization and driving decisions.
The company said the asset-sharing plan would allow other industry participants to develop autonomous driving technologies without building all the underlying infrastructure independently. Kakao Mobility also plans to share operational resources, including fleet management systems and on-site response abilities. These are part of the company’s plan to support an open domestic autonomous driving ecosystem.
Gangnam Service Data
The company pointed to its late-night autonomous vehicle service in Seoul’s Gangnam district as one example of its current work. The service is available through the Kakao T platform, where users can access autonomous driving services alongside existing mobility options.
The Gangnam late-night autonomous taxi service recorded 7,754 rides from its launch on September 26, 2024, to February 28, 2026, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government. The city said no accidents were attributed to autonomous driving technology during that period, and the service averaged about 24 trips per operating day. The service moved from a free pilot to paid operation in April 2026. Seoul also expanded the fleet from three vehicles to seven, excluding two reserve vehicles.
The service can be called through Kakao T using either the Seoul Autonomous Car icon or the regular taxi-hailing menu. Kakao T groups multiple mobility services in one app, including taxi, navigation, and vehicle-related services.
Looking ahead, Kakao Mobility intends to continue scaling its autonomous driving operations and open ecosystem efforts. The company has not disclosed a firm timeline for nationwide Level 4 deployment but expects further service expansions and technology sharing initiatives in the coming years as it refines its validation systems and machine learning models.
