Kakao Mobility

• Operating use

  2026-08-20 - Kakao Mobility will operate six autonomous taxis in Seoul's overnight Gangnam service from 20 August 2026, up from two vehicles. - Kakao Mobility vehicles in the Gangnam overnight service - Gangnam autonomous-driving service area

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• Gung-seon Ryu - Chief Executive Officer - Leads Kakao Mobility's mobility-platform and physical-AI strategy.
• Jin-gyu Kim - Vice President and Head of Physical AI - Leads the company's autonomous-driving and physical-AI technology programme.

Events

• 2026-10-06 - Partnership - Kakao Mobility signs defence orchestration MoU with Korea University

  The planned platform will apply routing, dispatch and multi-robot orchestration to drones, robots and unmanned ground vehicles. The collaboration covers defence-AI research, business development and professional training. The parties plan to participate in the military-industry-academic cooperation centre in Yongsan, Seoul, under the Defence AX Hub initiative.

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• 2026-09-09 - Market Signal - Kakao Mobility reports 2,000 autonomous rides and 13,000 km in Gangnam

  The overnight service began in March with two vehicles and expanded to six in August. Kakao plans to combine perception and decision-making in one end-to-end model while retaining rule-based safety checks. The service has an average rider rating of 4.97 out of five; one reported rear-end collision caused no injuries.

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• 2026-09-07 - Contract Award - Seoul selects three autonomous-transport platform operators

  Each operator will provide reservation, dispatch, payment and route-guidance functions for two years after signing its agreement with Seoul. The platforms must complete public-service integration by December 31; the awards do not mean all three services are live yet. Hyundai is the first automaker selected to operate a Seoul robotaxi platform directly; T-money Mobility participates with the Seoul Taxi Transportation Cooperative.

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• 2026-08-20 - Deployment - SWM and Kakao Mobility expand Gangnam robotaxi fleet to 19 vehicles

  SWM's share of the fleet increases from five to 13 vehicles, while Kakao Mobility increases from two to six. Passengers continue to hail the taxis through Kakao T across the Gangnam operating area using the service's fixed overnight fare structure. The programme is seeking approval for autonomous operation across the full service area, including school zones, before considering later daytime expansion.

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• 2026-08-19 - Deployment - Kakao Mobility expands Gangnam autonomous service to six vehicles

  The service uses Kakao Mobility's internally developed autonomy stack and operates through the Kakao T app. The company added control logic that reduces speed below 80% of the posted limit and restricts rapid acceleration in child and other vulnerable-user protection zones. Daytime data collection is continuing alongside the overnight public service to improve the end-to-end driving model across a wider range of traffic conditions.

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Relationships

• Korea University C5ISRT Research Institute

  Technology Partner - Kakao Mobility and Korea University's C5ISRT institute signed an MoU on defence AI, unmanned-system orchestration and training.

• SWM

  Gangnam Overnight Autonomous Taxi Operations - SWM and Kakao Mobility co-operate Seoul's overnight Gangnam autonomous-taxi programme, with separate vehicle fleets accessed through Kakao T.

• Seoul selects three autonomous-transport platform operators

  2026-09-07 · Order / contract · Seoul selected Kakao Mobility, Hyundai Motor and a T-money Mobility-led consortium to operate consumer platforms for the city's autonomous-vehicle transport services.

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