[Digital Today reporter Chi-gyu Hwang] Autonomous truck startup Mars Auto said on Jan. 12 it has completed a training course on major international standards for autonomous driving in heavy trucks hosted by global safety science company UL Solutions.

Mars Auto provides an autonomous line-haul freight transport service through its camera-based end-to-end (E2E) AI autonomous driving system, MarsPilot. In November last year, it was selected as the lead agency for a strategic task under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s technology development initiative for commercialising unmanned autonomous driving for heavy-truck freight transport, and is working with a total of 13 organisations on a project targeting commercialisation in 2027.

The training was arranged with Mars Auto taking the lead and companies in the consortium participating jointly. It was designed to review preparations needed ahead of a shift to commercialisation of autonomous driving and to secure in advance technology and operating systems that meet international standards.

UL Solutions, which hosted the training, is an applied safety science company known for the UL Mark that is attached to various products around the world.

Mars Auto established collaboration standards, centred on key international standards for autonomous driving: functional safety (ISO 26262), safety of the intended functionality (ISO 21448/SOTIF) and cybersecurity (ISO 21434). It said this covered everything from defining requirements needed for autonomous middle-mile (business-to-business transport) driving to verification and operations.

Mars Auto Vice President Je Kyung Noh said, "The spread of autonomous driving requires systematic preparation in the field of operations as well as technology development." He added, "Together with a 'logistics dream team', we will prepare for the era of autonomous driving in logistics and build systems that can operate stably even in environments where large-scale technology is introduced."