[Tour Korea = Reporter Yoo Kyung-hoon] Seoul will begin operating the A741, an early-morning "Dawn Companion" autonomous shuttle, starting on the 30th.
All passengers must be seated; standing is prohibited. The service will be free for the time being, but riders must still tap their transit cards when boarding and alighting, as they do on regular city buses.
The A741 runs as an express variant of the 741 line, shortening part of the existing route and stopping only at major stops.
On weekdays (Mon–Fri) the A741 departs Gupabal Station at 3:30 a.m. It calls at Gwanghwamun, Sinsa and Gangnam before reaching Yangjae, completing a single round trip over a 23.5 km corridor.
The A741 serves 34 of the 741 line’s 64 stops — those with the highest early-morning demand — allowing it to reach many destinations roughly 20 minutes earlier in each direction.
Notably, the A741 will operate the entire route autonomously, including in protected zones for vulnerable road users where manual driving was previously required. That makes it the first bus in the country to run a full route without human driving.
With full-route autonomous operation now feasible, the city said it will work closely with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to rigorously validate safety and proceed with plans to introduce fully driverless buses.
Because the A741 stops only at selected locations on the 741 line, riders are advised to search "Dawn A741" or "A741" on local apps such as Naver or Kakao to confirm exact stop locations in advance.
For safety reasons, standing is prohibited and the bus will not board passengers if no seats remain. Before boarding, check the Bus Information Terminal (BIT) or the front LED seat indicator to confirm seat availability.
Seoul plans to expand autonomous buses on early-morning congested routes to improve mobility for dawn commuters and to address driver staffing challenges during those hours.
By April the city will add two more shortened routes: Sanggye–Express Bus Terminal (a shortened version of route 148) and Geumcheon (Geumcheon-gu Office)–Gwanghwamun (a shortened version of route 504).
Officials say they will continue adding new routes to build an autonomous network that connects Seoul east–west and north–south.
Yeo Jang-kwon, director of Seoul’s Transportation Office, said the city empathizes with residents who start their day early and will continue expanding the Dawn Companion autonomous shuttle to serve vulnerable populations. "We are focusing our efforts on establishing a world-first, autonomous-based 24-hour uninterrupted public transit service," he said, "so that advances in transportation technology benefit socially vulnerable people first."
