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A government survey on advanced mobility services found that platform-based taxis — such as Kakao T and Uber Taxi — and demand-responsive transport (DRT) taxi services have seen the widest adoption among eight categories of advanced mobility modes and services tracked.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport released the results of its "2025 Advanced Mobility Survey" on Friday. Advanced mobility refers to transportation modes and services that differ from conventional transit by incorporating cutting-edge technologies such as information and communications technology, autonomous driving and AI, or by using new power sources.
The survey is conducted annually under the Mobility Innovation Act to provide baseline data for advanced mobility policy development and industry promotion. It marks the first full regular survey covering eight special and metropolitan cities and 153 other cities and counties, following earlier framework studies and a pilot survey.
Platform taxis were found to be operating across all regions nationwide, led by private platforms such as Kakao T and Uber Taxi, as the service requires no additional vehicles or infrastructure to deploy.
Taxi-type DRT services use existing taxi resources to flexibly meet travel demand in transportation-underserved areas. The survey found them operating in 160 local governments — 99.4% of those surveyed — with Ulleung-gun the only exception.
The operation and use of advanced mobility services varied by regional size and transportation conditions. DRT saw active use in small and medium-sized cities with populations under 300,000 and in counties, while shared bicycles, shared personal mobility devices, platform taxis and car-sharing services were used most heavily in special and metropolitan cities.
The ministry attributed this pattern to DRT's role in supplementing travel demand in areas where conventional public transit is insufficient, while other modes tend to thrive in urban areas with an established base of users.
Newer mobility services such as autonomous driving and mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) are also being introduced and operated. As of end-2024, a total of 42 autonomous vehicle pilot zones had been designated nationwide, with autonomous driving services running in 27 of them.
Autonomous driving services have been introduced in diverse settings including urban centers, tourist destinations and airports, with route-based services accounting for 53.7 percent and demand-responsive services 35.2 percent of passenger transport operations. Most services were provided free of charge, at 68.5 percent.
MaaS adoption is expanding, centered on Gyeonggi Province's "Ddokta" platform, and some local governments have partnered with private platforms to allow users to access DRT, shared bicycles and shared personal mobility devices through a single platform.
A satisfaction survey of 10,121 people nationwide on advanced mobility service quality — conducted as of 2025 — found overall satisfaction scores above 70 points, driven by improvements in travel convenience and public transit accessibility.
Among individual modes, platform taxis recorded the highest satisfaction, followed by DRT, car-sharing services, shared bicycles and shared personal mobility devices.
In terms of awareness, platform taxis and shared personal mobility devices ranked highest, followed by shared bicycles, car-sharing services and DRT. The ministry noted that DRT's lower recognition in special and metropolitan cities and larger cities with populations of 300,000 or more reflects the fact that its rollout has been prioritized in small and medium-sized cities and counties, focusing on transportation-underserved areas.
Among those who had not yet used DRT, the survey found the highest stated intention to use it in the future compared with other services, suggesting the mode is expected to grow further as a flexible response to travel demand.
Meanwhile, advanced mobility infrastructure is being built and operated nationwide as of end-2024, with related technologies advancing toward AI- and data-driven operations and safety management. Bus information terminals — electronic displays at bus stops that provide real-time arrival information — have been installed at 31.5 percent of surveyed stops nationwide, with installation rates highest in special and metropolitan cities.
A total of 397,519 electric vehicle chargers have been installed across the country, of which 10.6 percent are capable of fast charging. The number of hydrogen vehicle charging stations stands at 200 nationwide.
Park Jun-hyung, director general of the ministry's Mobility and Automobile Bureau, said the survey "is significant as the first full regular survey to systematically capture the current state of advanced mobility modes and services, as well as public awareness, satisfaction and demand." He added that the ministry would "conduct accurate and substantive annual surveys so that the results can be put to practical use as baseline data for policy development in areas such as DRT, autonomous driving and urban air mobility, and for companies seeking to promote and improve their services."
hss@heraldcorp.com
