Kakao Mobility unveiled its vision to internalize Level 4 autonomous driving technologies and build a collaborative ecosystem as part of its strategy for the emerging physical AI era. Kim Jin-kyu, vice president and head of the Physical AI division at Kakao Mobility, presented the company's roadmap at the 2026 World IT Show conference held at COEX in Seoul on April 22 under the theme "The Future of Autonomous Driving Services Opened by Mobility Platforms in the Physical AI Era." "Amid intensifying global competition for technological leadership, Kakao Mobility is designing the future of mobility in Korea by combining advanced autonomous driving technologies with physical infrastructure," Kim said. "We aim to establish a K-autonomous driving open ecosystem to secure global competitiveness." Level 4 Autonomy Push Backed by Integrated Safety Platform Kim outlined a blueprint for achieving Level 4 autonomous driving, emphasizing the integration of three core technological pillars. First, the company is developing advanced machine learning models capable of independently handling perception, decision-making and control. Second, it plans to deploy vehicles with redundancy-based architectures to ensure safety even in the event of critical system failures. Third, it will utilize a validation platform that continuously cycles between virtual simulations and real-world driving data to enhance performance and ensure quality. Kakao Mobility is also focusing on strengthening service reliability through its intelligent integrated safety management platform. A 3D visualization solution, Autonomous Vehicle Visualizer, enables real-time sharing of a vehicle's field of view, allowing passengers to monitor driving conditions. The company plans to further enhance safety by developing a 24/7 control center and an anomaly detection system based on vision-language models, enabling real-time context analysis, remote intervention and rapid response during emergencies. Open Ecosystem Strategy to Support Industry Growth Kakao Mobility also pledged to contribute to the development of an open ecosystem by sharing