[Inside Chodong] Perfect Autonomous Driving: Between Mirage and Innovation

New Car Sales Slow Amid Economic Downturn
Argo AI and Others Face Shutdowns and Restructuring
Even Major Corporations Stand at a Crossroads for Survival

What Tesla drivers truly valued was not so much the fact that the car runs on electricity, but its autonomous driving capabilities. Driving a car with zero carbon emissions and less environmental impact was seen as a passing trend that briefly brushed past Hollywood celebrities in the early 21st century when hybrids first appeared. More significant was the expectation that driverless driving, once only seen in movies, would soon become a reality. Rather than grand discussions about the climate crisis, they likely wanted to be seen as early adopters enjoying cutting-edge technology.

The advanced driver-assistance feature Tesla named “Full Self Driving (FSD)” got embroiled in false advertising lawsuits in the U.S. and was involved in various accidents. It was also criticized for excessively collecting information and treating consumers as beta testers. Still, there was a belief that in the near future, technology enabling cars to drive without driver intervention would be realized. This belief underpins Tesla’s position as the world’s most valuable automaker by market capitalization, despite some decline.

An intuitive example of how difficult it is to implement autonomous driving is when driving on snowy roads. Humans recognize the presence of snow and slow down or increase the distance from the car ahead?a relatively simple response. According to the current principles of autonomous driving development, the system must individually analyze countless falling objects from the sky, identify them as snow, and adjust speed or steering accordingly. It might even mistake a low pile of snow for a curb and stop or turn around. No matter how fast the computer is, can it respond as smoothly as a human?

Last year, an engineer developing autonomous driving at Tesla demonstrated a new version of FSD and emphasized that slowing down in rain should be the priority. Videos of ordinary people testing Tesla’s FSD in snowy or rainy conditions still frequently appear on YouTube. While some reactions are amazed, others are concerned about safety. The risk of accidents is real. A 2-ton object traveling at just 30 km/h can deliver an impact comparable to falling from the second floor of an apartment building if it hits a person.

Until two or three years ago, when most automakers worldwide were still profitable, pursuing autonomous driving seemed like a natural path. But with the economic downturn clearly slowing new car sales, the atmosphere has completely changed. Argo AI, a joint venture for autonomous driving technology development in which Volkswagen and Ford invested nearly 5 trillion won, has shut down.

General Motors (GM)’s autonomous driving subsidiary Cruise cut a quarter of its workforce at the end of last year. Aptiv, a U.S. tech company that had formed a joint venture with Hyundai Motor Group to operate a robo-taxi business, declared it would no longer provide funding. The joint venture Motional is losing hundreds of billions of won annually. With the rapidly changing business environment forcing even large corporations to consider survival, it is at least outwardly difficult to insist on focusing on a mirage-like technology whose implementation timeline is uncertain.

Another issue is that even if autonomous driving is technically perfected, it is useless unless our society’s laws, regulations, and perceptions change accordingly. If an autonomous vehicle causes an accident, can the manufacturer be held responsible? If the driver is responsible, can it truly be called autonomous driving? Attitudes toward automobiles, honed over more than a century, must also change. Humanity’s progress has been built on countless engineering failures. Will autonomous driving be treated the same way in the distant future? I hope this pessimistic prediction proves wrong.

Choi Dae-yeol, Deputy Head of the Industrial IT Department

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