Oh Se-hoon: 'Autonomous driving will trigger a total urban paradigm shift'

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said Thursday that autonomous driving represents "a total urban paradigm shift" — one that will transform not just transportation but the city's spaces, industries, jobs and the way residents live their lives.

Oh made the remarks on Facebook, saying he would make Seoul a city where residents naturally use autonomous public transit in their daily lives without giving it a second thought, with 500 autonomous buses on the road by 2030. The Seoul Metropolitan Government signed an MOU with Hyundai Motor Company and the Seoul Metropolitan Bus Transport Business Association on the commercialization of Level 4 autonomous city buses and the development of an industrial ecosystem, at a ceremony held on the sixth floor of Seoul City Hall. Oh, Hyundai Motor Company President Park Min-woo, who heads the AVP division, and Seoul Metropolitan Bus Transport Business Association Chairman Kim Jeong-hwan attended the signing. The agreement runs for three years from the date of signing.

"What I am focused on is not simply the era of driverless cars," Oh said, "but the transformation of the entire city that autonomous driving will bring." He said that as vehicles change, so too will roads, parking lots, and the design of buildings and urban spaces. "We will no longer need to dedicate as much expensive downtown land to parking as we do now," he said. "Housing and building designs will change, and parking spaces can be repurposed as pedestrian areas, green spaces and new leisure areas for residents."

Oh said the changes would extend beyond physical space. "Once people are freed from driving, they will use their time differently, and the mobility of elderly and disabled residents who have faced significant constraints will expand," he said. He added that the labor market, including the transport industry, would also undergo change — existing jobs would evolve while new industries and positions would emerge in vehicle management, AI, data and mobility services.

"The future is arriving faster than we think," Oh said, adding that the rapid advancement of AI — once considered a distant prospect — made now the right time to prepare for the urban future that autonomous driving will bring. He said Seoul would go beyond being the first city to adopt new technology and become the first to prepare for the broader changes that technology will bring to cities and daily life. "We will rethink new types of roads, redesign how future spaces are used, and restructure our administrative systems so that residents can adapt to change naturally," he said.