South Korea has been showing steady progress in the development of self-driving vehicles.
Fleets of autonomous cars and taxis are already in operation.
From Thursday, the capital began running its first autonomous shuttle bus.
Song Yoo-jin provides a glimpse of what to expect.

South Korea's capital city Seoul is cruising its way to becoming smarter.
One way it's doing that is through the use of autonomous, or self-driving vehicles.
The city's first self-driving shuttle bus hit the roads on Thursday after a more than year-long joint effort between the city government and 42dot, a domestic autonomous vehicle startup.

"One of our audacious goals is becoming an autonomous driving city.
We've already launched and are operating self-driving taxis in the Sangam-dong and Gangnam-gu areas.
And with this bus, we're moving closer to establishing a self-driving public transport network."


"Right now I'm at Cheonggye plaza, the start of this self-driving bus’s route.
This is the bus and as you can see it's not that big.
Inside, however, it's packed with cutting-edge technology that guarantees convenience and security for passengers."

The 8-seater vehicle is at Level 4, or high driving automation, which means that it's able to perform all safety-critical driving functions while monitoring the road ahead.
We could see that the bus self-navigated its way through narrow roads and jammed streets during our ride-along.
But for the sake of safety, there's a driver behind the wheel to take control when necessary.
And to provide a comfortable riding experience, there's a full-glass roof, large windows, and a widescreen upfront.

"This area surrounding the Cheonggyecheon stream is extremely challenging not only for drivers but also self-driving vehicles as well, as there's a lot of traffic and unexpected situations.
So by running through this route, we believe the bus will compile helpful data that will help improve the overall quality and stability of its autonomous driving system. "

The city aims to deploy three of these self-driving buses by the end of this year.
They'll be traveling a 3-point-4 kilometer route in downtown Seoul every day except for Sundays at free of charge to passengers.
Those who wish to hop on and take a ride around can do so from Friday morning.
Song Yoo-jin, Arirang News.