![A late-night autonomous bus operated by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. [Seoul Metropolitan Government]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/08/21/news-p.v1.20260821.a0aa40f0c85140319c53a614a0f8c363_P1.jpg)
The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced plans Friday to deploy 500 autonomous buses by 2030 and conduct a citywide survey of public transit accessibility to eliminate transportation blind spots. The initiative aims to mainstream advanced technology while closing mobility gaps between neighborhoods, accelerating Seoul's push to rank among the world's top three public transit cities during the current mayoral term.
The city unveiled the plans as the core future strategy of the transport innovation panel under the G3 Seoul Planning Committee, which is tasked with designing the growth vision and strategy for the ninth elected mayoral administration.
The panel set two strategic goals: completing a world-class public transit system and driving mobility innovation for the future. The plan calls for raising the overall quality of transit services that residents experience — from closing transportation gaps to improving commutes — while rapidly integrating autonomous driving and other future mobility technologies into everyday transit services to sharpen Seoul's competitive edge.
As the first strategic projects under the transit innovation drive, the panel selected the expansion of autonomous bus operations to 500 vehicles by 2030 and a survey of areas lacking adequate rapid transit access.
The city aims to formally integrate autonomous buses into the existing public transit network and scale the fleet to 500 by 2030. Seoul is currently pursuing transit-centered policies designed to direct the benefits of advanced transportation technology first to underserved areas and residents with limited mobility. Building on the world's first late-night autonomous bus service, the city has also introduced an early-morning autonomous bus for dawn-shift workers and a neighborhood-route autonomous bus for local residents, giving it the largest autonomous transit operation in the country.
The United States and China are pushing ahead with large-scale commercial deployment of driverless vehicles, centered on robotaxis, while South Korea remains largely confined to small-scale pilot programs. To close that gap, Seoul will follow a phased roadmap — beginning with the development of autonomous city bus prototypes, moving to demonstration and pilot services in 2028, and launching mass deployment from 2029 to progressively replace conventional city buses.
The autonomous bus expansion is also expected to boost local economies alongside improving residents' mobility. By filling public transit gaps during early-morning and late-night hours, the service is expected to increase convenience for commuters and, more broadly, stimulate the nighttime economy by encouraging greater use of commercial districts and cultural and leisure activities after dark.
The second initiative calls for a comprehensive citywide survey of public transit accessibility, covering subway stations and dedicated bus lanes. The goal is to reduce disparities in transit access across neighborhoods, shorten commute times and give residents back the time they currently spend traveling.
The survey will use a metric called Rapid Transit Accessibility (ART), which measures whether a location falls within 800 meters of a subway station or a median or curbside dedicated bus lane. Population data, travel demand and local conditions will be analyzed together to identify areas lacking ART coverage and to prioritize improvements.
Based on the survey results, the city plans to develop tailored improvement measures for each area — such as expanding dedicated bus lanes and improving bus route connections — and to benchmark international metropolitan cases as foundational data for a medium- to long-term transit network expansion plan.
Starting with these flagship projects, the transport innovation panel said it will continue to put forward a range of policy recommendations covering the full spectrum of public transit issues, including mobility, traffic safety, inclusive access and smart mobility innovation.
Im Sam-jin, chair of the G3 transport innovation panel, said transportation "is a core field that is directly tied to residents' daily lives and determines a city's competitiveness." He added that the panel would "examine conditions on the ground, look ahead to future changes in the transportation environment, and identify and propose effective policy tasks to complete a world-class public transit system that residents can truly feel."
ikson@heraldcorp.com
