A team, led by Professor Jeong Hwan Jeon from the Department of Electrical Engineering at UNIST has achieved an impressive third place in the 2025 Hyundai Motor Group (HMG) Autonomous Driving Challenge, held on April 27 at COEX, Seoul. This remarkable accomplishment comes during their inaugural participation in the competition.
Team FAST (Future Autonomous Systems Team) that participated in the challenge, consisted of JungEun Lee (Team Leader), a student from Professor Jeon’s Robotics and Mobility Lab, along with EunChong Kim, SeongJae Lee, HyoJae Lee, Sung Jun Heo, and HeeDon Jeong.
Team Fast from the UNIST Robotics and Mobility Lab is showcasing AI autonomous driving technology at the HMG Autonomous Driving Challenge, held on April 27, 2025.
The HMG Autonomous Driving Challenge is Korea’s largest autonomous driving competition, held annually since 2010, with the aim of advancing research in autonomous driving technology and nurturing talent at Korean universities. This year, the competition focused on AI End-to-End (E2E) autonomous driving technology, which allows AI systems to learn driving data and respond flexibly to unpredictable situations, diverging from traditional rule-based methods and aligning with global trends in autonomous driving.
Team FAST distinguished itself by advancing to the finals, having secured a position among the top eight out of sixteen competing teams during the preliminary round in February 2025. The finals were conducted in a virtual simulation environment that replicated K-City in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, where the team successfully completed various missions, including navigating continuous intersections, managing special scenarios, and driving on highways.
Team Fast, led by Professor Jeong Hwan Jeon, consisting of JungEun Lee, EunChong Kim, SeongJae Lee, HyoJae Lee, Sung Jun Heo, and HeeDon Jeong, is taking a commemorative photo after securing 3rd place in the 2025 HMG Autonomous Driving Challenge.
Notably, Team FAST achieved this impressive outcome only six months after their initial preparations, securing third place and a prize of 5 million won. Despite lacking prior experience in autonomous driving competitions, the team demonstrated exceptional prowess through intensive research and development, marking a significant milestone in UNIST’s autonomous driving research.
For the competition’s execution, Hyundai Motor Group provided participating teams with partial development funding and access to the MORAI simulator platform for autonomous vehicle development. Additionally, researchers from Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Corporation, together with 42dot Inc. offered technical support throughout the competition.
Professor Jeon commented, “We received an encouraging result of placing third in our first competition, particularly in an event that has shifted towards software and AI in autonomous driving.”
Team FAST‘s research and development efforts were conducted with support from various organizations, including the UNIST Center for Future Mobility, funded by the Ulsan Metropolitan City, the Graduate School of Artificial Intelligence Support Project under the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), and the Green Venture Program initiated by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS).
