Empty-seat Kia PV5 drives itself to you: remote-driving car sharing launches in Pangyo

It comes to you, driven by someone far away

The car is a Kia PV5 Passenger. When a user books through the dedicated app, a remote operator in a control center drives the empty vehicle over 4G/5G networks to the pickup spot.

From there the user drives. After parking at the destination and returning the car, the operator drives it back to the depot.

Only Pangyo office workers can ride

The pilot is B2B. Only employees of companies based in Second Pangyo Techno Valley can use it, and it runs to the end of the year, about three months.

Kia supplies the vehicles and leads the project, SUM builds the remote-driving solution and Mobius runs operations. The Korea Road Traffic Authority reviews traffic rules, with support from Gyeonggi-do, KT and others.

What if the signal drops?

Connectivity is the big worry with remote driving. Kia says it has a triple communication backup for weak or lost signals, remote-driver training, a multi-layer safety system and an emergency dispatch system.

A year and a half to get here

Kia received a regulatory sandbox exemption from the transport ministry in April last year and demonstrated PV5 remote driving on public roads in Jeju in November. In July it signed an MOU with KT and SUM to commercialize the technology, promising a service within the year.

The use cases floated then: send a car to your door, then let it move to another lot after you get out, easing urban parking crunches.

Kia says the pilot will test reliability and operational feasibility and gather data, with an expansion toward commercialization planned for 2027.