Mars Auto Logs 10M KM Autonomous Truck Real-World Data

Autonomous driving truck startup Mars Auto has surpassed 10 million km in cumulative real-world driving data, based on its vision-based End-to-End (E2E) artificial intelligence (AI) autonomous driving technology, moving one step closer to commercialization. The vast amount of data secured this time consists of 2 million km accumulated through actual autonomous freight transportation, and 8 million km collected by 'Mars Box,' a proprietary camera-based data collection device attached to general large trucks. Mars Auto has equipped Mars Boxes on the trucks of its major logistics partners to collect vivid driving data in various domestic road environments, including highways, local roads, and urban areas. The collected data encompasses not only daytime and nighttime, but also adverse weather conditions like rain and heavy snow, traffic congestion, accidents, and other diverse driving scenarios that can be encountered during actual operation. Mars Auto utilizes this large-scale real-world driving data for training its E2E single neural network-based autonomous driving AI for large trucks, continuously enhancing its performance. This is an innovative approach that aligns with the government's recently emphasized strategy for an AI-centric shift in autonomous driving. After acquiring regulatory sandbox demonstration special exceptions in 2022, Mars Auto has partnered with major domestic logistics companies such as Hyundai Glovis, Lotte Global Logistics, and CJ Logistics since 2023 and is successfully operating paid autonomous freight line-haul transportation services. To date, it has performed over 5,000 paid transports, driving an average of 540 km round trip per transport, proving its commercialization potential. Park Il-soo, CEO of Mars Auto, stated, "The 10 million km of real-world driving data forms a solid foundation for the commercialization of middle-mile autonomous driving," and revealed plans to expand the number of Mars Box-equipped vehicles to over 1,000 in the future to secure 100 million km of data, thereby further advancing E2E AI technology. Meanwhile, last November, Mars Auto was selected as the lead organization for the 18.2 billion won 'Unmanned Autonomous Driving Commercialization Technology Development for Large Truck Freight Transport' strategic project, led by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and is accelerating research and development with a consortium of 13 industry, academia, research, and government entities, aiming for the commercialization of autonomous driving for large trucks by 2027. The leap forward by Mars Auto, which is expected to lead the future logistics revolution, is highly anticipated.