Video: Ohmio AV gains ground in Korea

Auckland-based Ohmio Automotion’s driverless shuttle is proving popular in the 10-year-old South Korean city of Sejong.

The level four autonomous shuttle saves on parking spaces and reduces traffic congestion by taking up to 13 people to public transport sites, says Korea Transport Institute chief director Dr Young-Jun Moon.

“Korea is going pretty well,” says Ohmio research and development head Mahmood Hikmet.

“In Korea we are the only vehicle, to my knowledge, that has passed the new regulatory testing put in place and are able to operate on public roads in Korea.

“The vehicles in Sejong are open to the public and are undergoing constant testing and development in conjunction with Lotte Data Communications Company and Korea Transport Institute.

“Last month, we also signed an agreement with Lotte Data Communications as partners for the manufacturing of Korean Ohmio shuttles.”

He adds there’s little to report in New Zealand where Ohmio has been involved in COVID-19 impacted trials at Christchurch Airport.

Hikmet has meanwhile received plenty of attention for his Twitter post “Ridiculous but true fact: Zoom, the teleconferencing app, has done more to reduce emissions than electric vehicles.”

He says he was a bit unprepared for how many people saw it as an attack on EVs rather than a comment about how we have the power to make significant emission reductions without taking on huge costs.

“It’s about a concept shift called ‘Avoid-Shift-Improve’,” Hikmet explains.

“I work on EVs for a living. Love them. But you’re leaving a lot of wins on the table if your plan for reducing emissions is to only swap out your combustion engine for an electric one.

”More than 14 million people saw my tweet and maybe learned something about ‘Avoid-Shift-Improve’ when they otherwise wouldn’t have.”

Hikmet describes ‘Avoid-Shift-Improve’ as just ‘Reduce-Reuse-Recycle’ applied to transport.

“There’s a legitimate criticism re the latter about how it tries to shift the blame of the largest polluters onto consumer choice and behaviour, but in this case ‘Avoid-Shift-Improve’ isn’t always down to personal choice and needs top-down support for people to be able to utilise it.

“If you don’t put in bike lanes or reliable public transport – how do you expect people to shift to those? If you don’t allow work from home – how do you expect people to be able to avoid the trip into the office?

“Policy and governance are the enablers for these.”

Hikmet says the focus on EVs as the saviour for emissions is understandable.

‘Improve’ requires the least amount of imagination or organisational changes to be implemented, he explains.

“The biggest supporters and pushers of EVs will admit that uptake is extremely slow – even with the most optimistic estimates.

“We can be making immediate changes now to reduce emissions, while also still being fans of EVs and working on increasing the fleet percentage of EVs and the infrastructure needed for them in the meantime.

“If you invest in reliable public transport (and electrify it), then you’ve effectively electrified the trip of people who wouldn’t have bought an EV for a couple of decades. That’s a huge win.”