Today was our final day in Korea, which, for a lot of reasons, was super sad, not only because the trip has been such a fun and meaningful experience, but also because I will likely not see some of the friends I made on this trip for a few months.

Though, despite it being our last day, it certainly wasn’t an empty one. By 9:00 am, we were out the door and on our way back to City Hall, which we had previously toured, though this time we were going to see a facility located in City Hall’s basement, TOPIS.

TOPIS is a government organization in South Korea that manages its intelligent traffic system. They collect data from CCTV cameras and automatically detect when vehicles violate traffic laws, then charge them accordingly. This data can also be used to see general traffic flow rates through the city streets and lights, and to automatically adjust on-ramp availability to decongest traffic. Both of these are great ideas and really help save time and promote safe driving, but they are also a little dystopian.

This feeling was only accentuated by what we learned on our tour of their facilities: they can control the cameras remotely and zoom in on anyone or anyone’s vehicle. Firstly, they said that some fees are automatically removed from some people’s vehicles if they are a patriot, among other things. Secondly, the phrasing ‘patriot’ is a bit concerning in itself, because I highly doubt it means the veteran sense, given forced conscription, so that ambiguity is a bit unsettling. Third, to know which vehicles don’t get taxed, one must imagine that they can also tell who is driving each vehicle, which is certainly a loss of privacy if anything. I don’t see any malicious intent in this information, and having it can definitely do a lot of good. It is just a question of how people respond to this lack of privacy.

And it is clear that in Korea, this is fully accepted as a trade-off between privacy and efficiency, but I wonder how US citizens would react if this were implemented on a large scale in America. I know that there is surveillance in the US, and maybe even to a similar degree. Still, it is certainly far less transparent, which is honestly a really respectable practice and one that builds much more trust in the collection of potentially sensitive personal data.

They also showed us how this technology is applied to subway and bus systems, monitoring the number of people in each train car and on each bus to provide routes that are quick yet not completely crowded. They showed how it could communicate with popular apps and suggest which subway car to get on if it had lower volume, or to wait for the next train entirely, which is honestly a super useful and clearly advanced feature I never saw anywhere else.

Finally, they discussed their plans, which primarily focused on integrating autonomous vehicles. They first talked about the positive impact they had already seen with their level 3 vehicles (self-driving with a driver behind the wheel as a safety measure) and how they have provided much-needed transportation for those who travel to work extremely early, before buses run. Then they mentioned their next steps: fully autonomous vehicles that could be remotely controlled from TOPIS, which is really cool but also a bit frightening, since your vehicle could be remotely operated.

After our tour concluded, we tried some classic Korean snacks, like fruit on shaved ice and a dough filled with seeds and honey, both of which were very delicious. We then headed to a cooking class where we made glass noodles and Gimbap, which was a super fun experience to wrap up the trip with, as it is a piece of Korean culture that we can take back with us and prepare at home, which I think is very fitting for the trip’s end.

I have been thinking a lot about this trip and how impactful it has been in my life, from making new friends to exploring a new culture and city to gaining more perspective on how companies are changing all of our futures through smart systems. I have also been thinking about how great an opportunity it was not only to see everything we did, but also to take the time to write about and reflect on it through this blog. At some point, I will write a more in-depth conclusion on this trip once I have had some more time to process everything we did. Still, in the meantime, I would like to thank everyone who put this trip together and the people who made it memorable, like Dr. Yun, Chris, Ester, and Aakash, as well as the Swanson School of Engineering for funding part of my trip. I couldn’t be more thankful for this experience, and can’t wait to see where my journey takes me next, but for now, this is my final blog.

– John Malone