Mando is the first Korean automotive company to possess an autonomous vehicle testing permit in the state of California, added to the exclusive list of companies on August 28th by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (CA DMV). With the permit, the company expects their “Hockey” autonomous driving platform to rapidly advance.
The Hockey features independently-developed sensors, and received an autonomous driving permit in 2017 from the Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport. In May of the same year, Mando opened an R&D center in Silicon Valley to expand their capacity to collaborate and exchange technology in the area. This foothold also enables them to nurture promising start-ups for maximum synergy in the autonomous driving field.
The ultimate goal of Mando is to reach a “Level-4 platform”, or a vehicle capable of completely autonomous driving with no human input, based on their independently-developed technologies, according to a Mando official. The company sees Silicon Valley as an excellent place to attain this goal, benefitting from a high concentration of academic institutions that offer top-of-the-line industry-university cooperation in automotive technology.
A company representative stated in a recent press release that this new permit allowing them to test their system in California enables Mando to, “advance the future of completely autonomous driving through mutually advantageous competition and technological exchanges.” Numerous powerful companies already have roots in Silicon Valley to make this possible, including Zoox, Intel, Tesla, Baidu, and Waymo all advancing the field with their own test drives, development, and research.
