South Korea’s largest auto parts supplier Hyundai Mobis Co. has opened a driving test center in the country that offers comprehensive testing facilities for not only conventional vehicle technologies but also autonomous driving technologies.

Hyundai Mobis said on Sunday that it has embarked on the operation of its new driving test center sitting on a 1.12 million square-meter site in Seosan, western coastal region of Korea. The construction of the driving test facility took about three years at a cost of nearly 300 billion won ($267 million). The driving test ground, which is the company’s first of its kind in the country, is composed of 14 driving test tracks and four equipment test buildings.


Hyundai Mobis’s new driving test center in Seosan, South Chungcheong Province, South Korea

The center’s main driving test track that covers 1.02 square-meter, or 91 percent of the entire testing ground, includes roads for experimenting self-driving technologies such as sensors and cameras, as well as a 250-meter-long, 30-meter-wide tunnel designed for night driving tests.

The world’s longest research tunnel, as claimed by Hyundai Mobis, will allow the company to prepare for different automotive lighting regulations of the world.

Product testing on roads that resemble actual driving conditions is a must for making a perfect quality product, said Yang Seung-wook, head of Hyundai Mobis’s research and development division.

The company has been running driving-test ranges that allow the company to test its auto technology under a severe winter weather condition in foreign countries, such as China and Sweden.

By Park Chang-young

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Source: Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea (Jun. 12, 2017)