South Korea Fails to Establish Standards for Core Autonomous Vehicle Technologies

US-China Agree on Vehicle-to-Everything Communication Standard
Technology Already Installed in Commercial Vehicles
Korea Faces Inter-Ministerial Conflicts Hindering Legislation

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] While the United States and China have rushed to establish national standards for the core autonomous vehicle technology of 'vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication' and have entered commercialization, it has been confirmed that South Korea has yet to set even a standard due to conflicts between ministries. Without national standards, the development of autonomous vehicle technology is bound to slow down. Given that autonomous vehicles are a key future industry, there are calls to urgently secure national standards.

According to the telecommunications and automotive industries on the 17th, the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport are unable to find common ground as they each advocate different standards for autonomous vehicle 'vehicle-to-everything communication' technology. The Ministry of Science and ICT and the telecommunications and automotive industries argue that the standard should be based on mobile communication technology, which offers high data transmission speed and usability. On the other hand, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport insists on technology based on short-range dedicated communication methods.

The two ministries plan to conduct demonstration projects until next year and then establish the standard in early 2024. Even if this schedule is followed, South Korea will lag behind the United States and China, which finalized a single standard last year, by more than two and a half years. Since autonomous vehicles operate by reflecting real-time traffic information, vehicle-to-everything communication technology is regarded as the most important among core autonomous vehicle technologies.

While the lead ministries are engaged in a power struggle, industrial competitiveness continues to decline. Assemblyman So Byung-hoon of the Democratic Party of Korea cited data from the China Communications Society, revealing that China has filed 52% of the world's patents related to mobile communication-based vehicle-to-everything communication technology. The United States and Europe also account for 20% and 18% of patent filings, respectively. In contrast, South Korea's patent filings account for only 7%.

After setting mobile communication-based technology as a single standard last year, China and the United States are accelerating the commercialization of related technologies by their domestic telecommunications and automotive companies. While competing countries are launching commercial services, South Korea, which has yet to establish even a standard, faces concerns that it may fall significantly behind in the future autonomous vehicle commercialization market.

Professor Jang Kyung-hee of Inha University said, "Although the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has invested in vehicle-to-everything communication technology for a long time, it is not a technology designed with autonomous driving as the goal. The United States and China are adopting and fostering mobile communication-based technology at the national level, so South Korea must also speed up the selection of standards from a macro perspective."

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