Even Ice Water Now AI-Powered…'AI Unmanned Bottled Water Refrigerator' Appears in Hwaseong

Hwaseong Special City (Mayor Jung Myeong-keun) is expanding on-site heat wave response services to prevent heat-related illnesses and protect the health of citizens in preparation for prolonged extreme heat in summer.

From the 14th through the end of September, the city will install 'smart unmanned bottled water refrigerators' at three major stations with high foot traffic—Eocheon Station, Byeongjeom Station, and Dongtan Station—to provide citizens with chilled bottled water free of charge.

This project was established to prevent citizen damage from prolonged heat waves and to allow citizens exhausted by the heat to conveniently access cool water at nearby locations. In particular, the refrigerators were installed at major stations with high citizen usage to increase accessibility and convenience.

The smart unmanned bottled water refrigerator is equipment that applies artificial intelligence (AI) technology to enable 24-hour use without separate management personnel. When a user undergoes automatic response system (ARS) authentication by calling the phone number displayed on-site, the identification process is completed and bottled water is automatically dispensed.

Additionally, a smart usage management system is applied to provide one bottle of free bottled water per citizen per day, restricting duplicate collection. Through this approach, the city plans to provide water to more citizens, prevent indiscriminate duplicate use, and operate the system efficiently.

Hwaseong Special City plans to comprehensively analyze citizen usage patterns, satisfaction levels, and operational effectiveness during this pilot operation period. Based on the analysis results, the city will identify additional smart disaster response services that can effectively respond to various disasters including heat waves and review whether to expand the program.

Mayor Jung Myeong-keun of Hwaseong Special City stated, “As the heat wave prolongs, careful responses that citizens can feel in their daily lives are important,” and added, “Since we have installed smart unmanned bottled water refrigerators at major stations with high citizen usage, I hope that a bottle of cool water will help ease the sweltering heat and protect people's health.”