"Korea's Autonomous Driving Data at 1/40th Level of US and China... Urgent Need for Support"

KAIA Hosts Forum on 'Current Status and Development Tasks of Autonomous Vehicle Industry'
Investment and Skilled Workforce Lag Behind Major Countries
"Need for Policies to Promote Investment Activation and New Startups"

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Hyun-seok] It has been revealed that the mileage of autonomous vehicle pilot services in South Korea is only about 1/40th of that in the United States and China. While the U.S. and Chinese governments are leading industrial paradigm shifts by investing massive funds and manpower into autonomous vehicles, domestic concerns point out that South Korea is falling behind in competition due to a lack of government interest and support. The industry urges the government to boldly support the autonomous driving business by implementing regulatory free zones and applying negative regulations to enhance competitiveness and global market share.

According to the Korea Automobile Industry Association (KAIA), which held the Automotive Industry Development Forum on the 15th under the theme "Current Status and Development Tasks of the Autonomous Vehicle Industry," South Korea's autonomous driving pilot service mileage was only 720,000 km, about 1/40th of the 32 million km by Waymo in the U.S. and 21 million km by Baidu in China.

The difference was significant because South Korea operates only about 30 pilot service vehicles compared to over 1,000 vehicles in the U.S. and China.

Jung Manki, chairman of KAIA, evaluated, "Domestic autonomous driving pilot services are deployed with about 30 pilot service vehicles on standardized routes in only some sections of seven regions, making data accumulation and technology development very weak compared to leading countries." He added, "In contrast, the U.S. and China have more than 1,000 autonomous vehicles participating in pilot services, advancing technology sophistication by securing large-scale demonstration data in various environments."

The global autonomous vehicle industry is expected to grow rapidly from $7 billion in 2020 to $655.6 billion by 2030. This is why major countries worldwide are aggressively investing. However, KAIA diagnoses that South Korea's government interest and support are relatively lacking, causing domestic companies to lag significantly behind major overseas firms in commercialization levels.

In particular, the domestic share of autonomous vehicle public transportation markets such as taxis, buses, and unmanned commercial vehicles is extremely minimal. According to the forum, the robo-taxi sector, one of the major autonomous driving industries, is expected to grow rapidly at an average annual rate of about 137%, from 617 vehicles in operation globally last year to 1,445,822 vehicles by 2030.

Cho Chang-sung, head of the Smart Safety Office at the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA), said, "While U.S. and Chinese companies are conducting unmanned pilot operations, most pilot operations in South Korea have a backup driver on board." He added, "Major countries operate autonomous driving services by freely setting driving routes within designated pilot zones, but domestic companies provide pilot services only on specific routes within pilot zone areas."

He emphasized the need for proactive completion of systems to establish a foundation for revitalizing the autonomous driving industry. Cho stressed that regulations should be improved to allow various mobility services by ▲establishing safety standards and reasonable insurance systems suitable for the production and launch of Level 4 autonomous vehicles and clarifying liability ▲flexible designation and operation of pilot operation zones ▲allowing taxi-type autonomous driving services.

There was also a call for financial and policy support as prerequisites. Im Won-taek, CEO of Ace Lab, said, "Domestically, the goal is full commercialization of autonomous driving by 2027, responding from a long-term perspective," but pointed out, "Compared to leading countries, investment funds and specialized manpower are inferior."

He emphasized, "Policies to activate investment for private-sector-led commercialization of autonomous driving technology and to promote new startups are necessary," adding, "National support should be provided in parallel to build large-scale demonstration beds, nurture new talent through industry-academia-research cooperation, prevent the outflow of excellent personnel in related fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), and attract them domestically."

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