Hyundai's 190km self-driving journey

This is the first time in the world that level 4 autonomous driving has been achieved with fuel cell electric cars. Prior to this, autonomous driving has been demonstrated at a limited speed on some sections of domestic roads, but this is the first-time autonomous cars have driven such a long distance at 100-110 km/h, the maximum speed allowed by law on Korean highways. The demonstration started in Seoul on 2 February with the 'CRUISE' and 'SET' buttons being pressed on the autonomous-driving steering wheel of each vehicle, at which point the cars immediately switched to self-driving mode and began the 190km journey to Pyeongchang. Entering the highway, the vehicles moved in response to the natural flow of traffic. They executed lane changes and overtaking manoeuvres, and navigated toll gates using Hi-pass, South-Korea’s wireless expressway payment system. “Hyundai’s philosophy for developing autonomous driving technology is to provide the highest level of safety combined with a high standard of convenience that our customers expect,” said Jinwoo Lee, head of the Intelligent Safety Technology Centre at Hyundai Motor Group. Autonomous driving processes a high volume of data, which requires a lot of power. The fuel cell electric model is able to produce electricity through a reaction between hydrogen and oxygen in the fuel cell stack, making it the optimal vehicle model choice for this test.