The Korea Herald reports on the “race for leadership of South Korea’s flying car market, with SK Telecom, Hyundai Motor Group and Kakao Mobility announcing their bids by forging consortiums with local companies and submitting their business proposals to join the K-UAM Grand Challenge, a government-led program to select an urban air mobility business operator.”
The newspaper reports:
“They are vying for the lucrative sector that is expected to surpass 1,800 trillion won (USD1.4 trillion) in value by 2040. They aim to work with the government on UAM demonstration tests and to launch their own respective commercial services in 2025” says Mr Da-sol.
In the report http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20220531000605 the consortiums being formed by the main players are described and their strengths highlighted; SKT by leveraging its expertise in operating 4G and 5G communications; Hyundai its vehicle manufacturing and its US-based UAM division Supernal; and Kakao a Korean IT company its data and mobility platform operational experience and taxi-hailing service division.
Meanwhile, says Mr Da-sol “with the absence of concrete legal regulations or infrastructure for the UAM business in Korea, some experts say it is still too early to predict who will launch their service here first” and concludes by reporting that “according to the Transport Ministry, it will select a single UAM business operator that will work with the government over the next few years on demonstration tests of UAM flights and checking the validity of telecommunications infrastructure for UAM operations in the sky. The selected business operator will run the actual service in urban areas in 2024, prior to its commercialization in 2025.”
For more information
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20220531000605
(Image: Hyundai Motor Group)