In Pangyo, in South Korea’s Gyeonggi Province, a Kia PV5 electric van now rolls up to the people who rent it with no one in the driver’s seat. Kia says the pilot, which began operating on Thursday, October 15, is the first car-sharing service in South Korea to use remote driving technology. The van is reserved through an app, and a remote operator handles the trips that no customer is driving.
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How a reserved PV5 reaches a renter
Once a customer reserves a van, Electrek reports, it drives itself to the requested location without a driver aboard. The renter then drives the PV5 as they wish and parks it at a chosen spot. When the rental ends, a remote driver moves the van back to its garage over 4G or 5G wireless networks. In practice, the empty-van trips depend on a person at a control station, not on a vehicle deciding everything alone.
The pilot runs through the end of 2026 and is meant to verify the technology and the feasibility of operating the service under real-world conditions. Kia says it can help businesses improve efficiency and ease the burden of owning a vehicle fleet, with convenient pickup and drop-off. The PV5 is Kia’s mid-size purpose-built vehicle, the same model used in the earlier Jeju demonstrations, and the pilot moves it from a road-test program toward a service that members of the public can book through an app and use in daily life.
The consortium behind the pilot
Four members make up the consortium, as Electrek’s report on the launch lists them. Kia supplies the PV5 vans and oversees the project, SUM develops the remote driving solution, Mobiops runs service operations, and the Korea Road Traffic Authority assists with regulatory reviews. Partner organizations include Gyeonggi Province, KT, UMOS ONE, the Next Generation Convergence Technology Research Institute and the Gyeonggi Automobile Rental Business Association.
The pilot also depends on a regulatory exemption. Electrek reports that Kia received a special exemption for the remote driving regulatory sandbox from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The Road Traffic Authority’s role in regulatory reviews fits that arrangement, since a pilot that sends unoccupied vans onto public roads has to be cleared with the agencies that govern them, and the sandbox is the mechanism that allows a limited, supervised trial.
From a Jeju demonstration to a Pangyo service
The Pangyo service follows a year of steps. In November 2025, Kia formed a consortium with Socar, KT and SUM and held what it described as Korea’s first on-road remote driving demonstration by a domestic brand. Hyundai Motor Group’s release on that demonstration says it took place in Jeju on November 27, using the PV5, and followed about 70 hours and 1,000 kilometers of road testing over a month, including routes between Jeju Airport and a Socar terminal.
The group listed redundant communication networks, remote driver training and an emergency dispatch system among the safety measures. A Kia representative said remote driving could improve daily convenience in areas with limited public infrastructure and could later expand into car sharing and logistics, which is the use now being tested in Pangyo.
On July 23, 2026, Kia, KT and SUM signed a memorandum of understanding at Kia’s Yangjae headquarters to commercialize the technology, according to Hyundai Motor Group’s announcement of the agreement. Kang Ju-yeop, managing director of Kia’s New Business Planning Division, signed for Kia, Seo Sang-gyu for KT and Hyun Young-jin, chief executive of SUM, for the startup. Kia handles the vehicle and technology, KT the network, and SUM the remote driving and control systems. Automotive World’s account of the deal describes how an external control center can operate driverless vehicles over 4G or 5G networks to help when a vehicle faults or needs repositioning, with home vehicle dispatch and mobile unmanned services such as stores or libraries as target uses.
What Kia wants from the pilot
Kang described the agreement’s aim as building a cooperative foundation that speeds commercialization of remote driving, and said Kia would add distinct value to its purpose-built vehicles by building an unmanned vehicle ecosystem, moving from remote driving toward autonomous driving. The partners also plan to jointly promote the service, look for use cases and prepare legal and regulatory frameworks, and the stated goal was a PV5-based service within 2026. The Pangyo pilot arrives inside that window, which makes it the first public test of whether the commercial plan survives contact with ordinary renters, traffic and mobile networks.
Asia Economy’s English coverage of the signing reports the same target and the same division of roles. Kia now says data from the pilot will be used to advance the technology, and the company plans to expand the service in 2027. How many vans are in the Pangyo fleet, what renters pay and how many remote drivers each van requires were not disclosed in the reports reviewed.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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