[THE INVESTOR] SK Telecom said on May 25 it will participate in a government-led project to develop a public transportation system based on self-driving automobile technology.

The 35.9-billion-won (US$33.20 million) project, spearheaded by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, is aimed at conducting detailed research on the country‘s public transportation system by 2021.

Korea’s No. 1 mobile carrier said it will focus on developing the control center for autonomous driving vehicles by utilizing 5G network service and HD maps.

Other participants in the project include the country’s top carmaker Hyundai Motor and Seoul National University.

The companies will each develop more than eight diesel or electricity-based autonomous cars and run tests on the first two vehicles next year.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)