No Driver on Board: Kia Starts a Remote-Driving Car-Sharing Pilot in Pangyo
Book a car on an app and it shows up with nobody in the driver's seat. Kia launched a remote-driving car-sharing pilot in Pangyo on the 15th.
The car that arrives empty
Once you book, an operator at a control center drives the car to your requested spot remotely. There is no one inside.
From there you drive yourself. Park it anywhere when you are done and a remote operator takes it back to the depot.
Who gets to try it
This round is a business pilot open only to employees of companies in Pangyo Second Techno Valley. It runs for about three months, through year-end.
The car is Kia's mid-size purpose-built vehicle, the PV5 Passenger. Booking is through an app; pricing and fleet size were not disclosed.
What if the signal drops?
Remote driving means a control center operates a vehicle with nobody on board over 4G and 5G networks, so connectivity is the obvious worry.
Kia says it built a triple communication network, trains its operators and has an emergency dispatch system.
How it got here
Kia received a remote-driving regulatory-sandbox exemption from the transport ministry in April 2025. In November 2025, after about 70 hours and 1,000 km of testing in Jeju, it said it became the first domestic automaker to pull off a remote-driving demo on public roads.
Kia calls the Pangyo pilot the first domestic case of testing the business case for remote driving in a real service environment.
What to watch
Kia plans to widen the service in 2027 and push toward commercializing PV5-based remote-driving service.
It is not open to the general public yet. Questions go to Kia's PR team at +82-2-3464-2105.
Sources & context
2026-10-18T00:15:56.087Z
Newswire · Kia press release (Oct. 16, 2026) ↗Hyundai Motor Group newsroom · Kia Jeju remote-driving demo (Nov. 27, 2025) ↗The Kia PV5 used in the remote-driving car-sharing pilot driving around Pangyo Second Techno Valley. Photo: Kia