From July, Autonomous Vehicles Will Be Available for Purchase... Establishing Safety Standards for Autonomous Cars

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 5th that it has introduced the world's first safety standards for partial autonomous vehicles (Level 3). This is expected to enable the launch and sale of Level 3 autonomous vehicles starting this July.

Level 3 refers to a level where the autonomous driving system maintains the lane and drives by itself without the driver holding the steering wheel, and responds to emergency situations. However, direct driver operation is required in situations demanded by the system, such as unexpected construction conditions. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) currently classifies vehicles from Level 3 as autonomous vehicles. This is an improved technology level compared to Level 2, where the driver must continuously hold the steering wheel even when lane-keeping functions are activated.

Through this revision, safety standards related to autonomous driving functions, which previously only allowed Level 2-level remote parking assistance and manual lane-keeping functions, have been expanded to include Level 3-level safety standards such as lane keeping and driver monitoring functions.

Specifically, new safety standards have been established, including the "Operation after confirming drivability" standard, which only activates when it is confirmed that the driver can immediately take manual control upon system request, and the "Situation-specific driving transition request," which issues a driving transition warning 15 seconds before scheduled manual driving situations such as highway exit entry, and issues an immediate warning in unexpected situations.

Along with this, the Level 2-level manual lane change function, where the vehicle automatically changes lanes when the driver operates the turn signal, has also been institutionalized. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to introduce Level 3-level lane change functions, where the autonomous vehicle decides to change lanes on its own, in the future.

The revised safety standards for partial autonomous vehicles will be enforced six months after their promulgation. Before enforcement, the Ministry plans to prepare enforcement rules including test methods for verifying autonomous vehicle performance based on the safety standards.

Lee Chang-gi, Director of Advanced Vehicle Technology Division at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, “We will continue to make efforts to ensure that there are no obstacles to industrial development due to insufficient regulations in the autonomous vehicle sector.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.