【Exploring The Jungle Between My Wife’s Crotch】

While Uber and Exploring The Jungle Between My Wife’s CrotchTesla grab headlines in self-driving car tech, Korean engineers are building an autonomous vehicle that is planned for roadworthiness by the middle of this year.

A team at the Seoul National University have been building their self-driving car -- cleverly named SNUber -- for the past couple of years. While it's been available for use on campus via an app, the team is ready to test the outside terrain, thanks to Korea recently opening downtown roads to self-driving cars.

SEE ALSO: This 13-foot-tall mechanical suit looks like something straight out of a sci-fi film

In a ride I had with two engineers, the car safely maneuvered through traffic on the Seoul campus, stopping for pedestrians, slowing traffic and oncoming buses that poked into its lane.

It was also able to overtake obstacles like double-parked cars and made safe left and right turns -- perhaps more passively than the average driver in safety-first, “grandma-style” fashion, as the driver put it.

Via Giphy

Seo Seung-woo, lead professor on the project, said he and his team of around 20 engineers ultimately aims for Level 4driverless technology -- regarded as full autonomy, which involves ferrying a passenger from door-to-door on regular roads. They expect the tech will be ready for primetime by 2025.

For now, the team has much to tackle. Because autonomous vehicles are uncharted ground in South Korea, the university's Vehicle Intelligence Lab must be an all-round map-making, tech-developing, car-souping team.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

They've tested the vehicles in snow and rain too, and is seeking more data for nighttime driving and more severe driving conditions.

Seo said the lab expects its research to allow it to eventually step into the commercial realm as a technology supplier for carmakers.

South Korea's Hyundai, for one, has expressed interest in autonomous vehicles. It's said it's keen to have Google to take the reinson its self-driving development, so it can bring partially semi-automated vehicles to market by 2020.

Last November, the carmaker took its Ioniq concept vehicle out for a spinat the L.A. Auto Show.

What the car sees Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

“Economically and socially, there is so much evidence of why people will pursue and why people want autonomous driving in the future,” said Seo.

One is a rapidly aging society. More than half of Koreans are expected to be older than 52 by 2040, and they will need a tool for mobility, he said.

Elaine Ramirez is a tech correspondent based in South Korea.

---

Featured Video For You

---

These self-driving buses could make owning a car totally pointless

---

• Science
• Digital Culture
• Tech
• Deals
• Games
• Social Good
• Entertainment
• Shopping

• Virtual Reality: The True Cost of Admission (and Why It Doesn't Matter)
• How Gordon Lish Antipicated “The Jinx”
• YouTube TV's missing channels are back after Google and Disney made a deal
• Get $35 off the Cube GPS tracker at Best Buy
• One of Android's Easter Eggs is a Flappy Bird
• Feminist Fumes: Anicka Yi’s Miasmatic Art
• YouTube demonetizes Russell Brand's channel following allegations
• Steven Crowder is one strike away from a permanent ban on YouTube
• Patched Desktop PC: Meltdown & Spectre Benchmarked
• “Bankspeak”: Your New Least Favorite Language

• Times Are Hard, But At Least Our Wallpaper Is Arsenic
• On Harriet Tubman, “Ugly Beauty,” and the Avant
• Remembering Robert Silvers, 1929–2017
• On Translating Karolina Ramqvist’s Novel ‘The White City’
• Whiting Awards 2017: Kaitlyn Greenidge, Fiction
• Kiki Smith: “Portraits, Celestial Bodies, and Fairy Tales”
• Yevgeny Yevtushenko, “Olympic Champion of Poetry”
• When Soviet Art Was Full of Hope
• In an Ancient Cave, It’s Pointillism: The Prequel
• It Probably Feels Pretty Good to Be a Bee

• The strangeness of Japan's decision to start openly hunting whales
• Peter Saul’s “Pictures with Problems”
• 'Quordle' today: See each 'Quordle' answer and hints for September 19, 2023
• Move over fresh bread, hello fresh pasta
• NYT Strands hints, answers for May 5
• Gary Indiana’s Art Recasts Voyeurism as Wonder
• “Bankspeak”: Your New Least Favorite Language
• 11 creative ways to use a water bottle instead of recycling it
• 5 Ways to Access a Locked Windows Account
• How Gordon Lish Antipicated “The Jinx”

• Best earbuds deal: Save 20% on Soundcore Sport X20 by Anker
• How, and why, to create a Spotify blend playlist
• Steven Crowder is one strike away from a permanent ban on YouTube
• How to avoid sex toy injuries
• NYT Strands hints, answers for May 18
• Fans are threatening to delete Twitter to avoid 'Spider
• Shadows of removed Reddit posts hide in plain sight
• Of Truffles and Holy Week
• 'The Last of Us' Season 2, episode 3's opening credits has a heartbreaking change
• Strife in the Fast Lane