Your friendly neighborhood bus may no longer have a driver

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Your friendly neighborhood bus may no longer have a driver

Published: 13 Jul. 2025, 09:00 Updated: 14 Jul. 2025, 18:35

CHO JUNG-WOO
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Dongjak A01, a self-driving village bus, operates autonomously as a driver sits without touching the steering wheel during its route from Soongsil University to Chung-Ang University in Dongjak District, southern Seoul, on July 11. [CHO JUNG-WOO]

[GIVE IT A GO]

Imagine an empty shuttle bus whisking you away from the subway station to your school perched atop a hill. In the era of autonomous transportation, nothing is impossible. Seoul will launch its first self-driving village bus on Monday.

On Friday morning, I hopped on the new autonomous village bus in southern Seoul’s Dongjak District for a trial run.

Seoul has gradually been rolling out autonomous transportation services, including night buses and taxis, since last year in order to accommodate more passengers and address a driver shortage.

In an expansion of its autonomous transportation project, the city government announced that the Dongjak A01 route would officially be in operation starting Monday. Two self-driving buses will run a short 1.62-kilometer (1-mile) route between the middle gate of Soongsil University and the back gate of Chung-Ang University in Dongjak District, from 10 a.m. to 4:10 p.m. every 20 to 25 minutes.

On my first driverless ride, I put to test whether self-driving technology could be the solution to the city’s growing difficulty in securing drivers for public transportation, especially for village buses — small, light green vehicles that navigate deeper into residential neighborhoods. As opposed to regular city buses, village buses can handle the tight, winding routes that larger vehicles cannot.

Autonomous, but not alone

Just before 11 a.m., I took a city bus to the middle gate of Soongsil University. The village bus stop was conveniently located next to the regular city bus stop where I had just been dropped off.

The Dongjak A01 bus stop at the middle gate of Soongsil University is located right next to a regular city bus stop. [CHO JUNG-WOO]

Since the autonomous bus service was still in the trial phase, real-time bus location information was unavailable on Naver Map. However, past records on the map service showed that the bus typically departed from the stop around 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. during its two-week pilot, which ran from June 30 through Friday.

Soon, a green-and-white vehicle slowly pulled up with a digital screen on its side that read, “14 seats available." 14 is the maximum number of people the bus was designed to carry.

The doors opened and I climbed aboard, feeling slightly anxious about my first foray into autonomous public transportation. Despite the “self-driving” label, a driver sat behind the wheel and instructed me to tap my transit card, just like on any other city bus.

Although the service is free for the year, passengers are still required to tap their cards to apply transit discounts.

Dongjak A01, a self-driving village bus, arrives at its stop at the middle gate of Soongsil University on July 11. [CHO JUNG-WOO]

I tapped my Climate Card — Seoul’s unlimited monthly transit pass — and took a seat. The driver reminded me to buckle up. A prerecorded bilingual announcement in Korean and English greeted me and reiterated the driver's warning.

The vehicle, fully electric, resembled a typical campus shuttle bus more than the standard village buses rolling throughout the city. To indicate to passengers that the bus was operating autonomously, a monitor at the front livestreamed the steering wheel moving on its own.

The eight-minute ride to Chung-Ang University began. The driver kept his hands off the wheel for most of the journey, except in school zones, where autonomous driving is restricted, or in areas of heavy traffic.

A monitor inside the self-driving village bus shows the steering wheel moving on its own in real-time. [CHO JUNG-WOO]

I asked whether he was using the accelerator or brakes. “No,” he replied.

The bus relied on cameras and sensors to detect traffic lights and nearby vehicles. A monitor showed all nearby traffic in real-time, including when traffic lights were changing and whether the vehicle was currently in autonomous or manual mode.

Two stops in, another passenger joined the ride.

Not exactly a smooth ride

The bus traveled at a top speed of 30 kilometers per hour, the legal limit in school zones. For most of the ride, the speed hovered between 23 and 25 kilometers per hour, which was comparable to what I typically experience on human-driven village buses in my own neighborhood.

But there was one major difference: the braking was sudden, jarring and frequent.

A digital display inside the self-driving Dongjak A01 bus shows all nearby traffic in real-time, including when lights change and whether the vehicle is in autonomous or manual mode. [CHO JUNG-WOO]

Any time a car veered too close, the bus slammed the brakes abruptly enough for my head to snap forward. At one point, the bus attempted to merge right toward a stop but immediately braked as a car failed to yield. When traffic made it too difficult to change lanes, the driver intervened. A beep would indicate that the vehicle had switched to manual mode.

The route of Dongjak A01 bus [YUN YOUNG]

While sudden stops are part and parcel of the village bus experience, the autonomous vehicle’s braking felt even more mechanical. There was no subtlety, no anticipation — just an instant slam.

Otherwise, the rest of my journey was smooth. The bus handled corners surprisingly well.

Eight minutes into my ride, the bus reached its final stop at Chung-Ang University. The other passenger also disembarked.

The service will no longer be free starting sometime in the first half of 2026 and is expected to expand to Dongdaemun District in eastern Seoul and Seodaemun District in western Seoul in September.

After my brief adventure aboard an autonomous vehicle, I hopped on a regular city bus to reach my next destination. A human driver greeted each passenger before gently pulling away from the bus stop.

I realized that unlike on my earlier ride, I was relaxed enough to look out the window and enjoy the clear blue skies, all the while massaging the back of my neck, which was still sore from the driverless journey.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [[email protected]]