South Korea plans to introduce self-driving vehicles and robots for package delivery services using 5G and artificial intelligence(AI) technologies. 

The Ministry of Science and ICT and Korea Post unveiled the plan on Thursday and explained the services will be provided on a trial basis for 21 months from as early as this October.  

The postal service said it’s developing such technologies to promote untact services amid the COVID-19 pandemic and to innovate future logistics services.  

Self-driving postal service vehicles would enable people to send and receive mail or packages without having to visit the post office by just downloading an application on their smartphones. These vehicles would be operated in smart cities and special zones accommodating roads for autonomous cars.  

Robots that deliver mail or packages will be operated mostly on college campuses or at large apartment complexes. Like the self-driving vehicles, people can use the robot services through mobile applications.