SK Telecom said Friday it will participate in a government-led research project to develop an autonomous public transportation system.

The mobile operator said it will take part in the project led by the Ministry of Land, Transport and Infrastructure with an aim to develop a public transportation system based on self-driving technologies by 2021.

Other participants of the project include Hyundai Motor Company and Seoul National University.

The 35.9 billion won ($33.2 million) project aims to develop self-driving buses and trucks, a control system and build a public system by using high definition maps and vehicle-to-everything communications system. 

SKT will focus on developing the control system for autonomous driving vehicles by utilizing fifth-generation network service and high definition maps, it said.

The participating companies and institutions will develop more than eight diesel or electricity-based autonomous cars during the project period, and run tests on the first two vehicles next year.

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)