Conditions for Korean self-driving cars’ success

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Conditions for Korean self-driving cars’ success

Published: 07 Nov. 2024, 19:59

Seo Seung-woo
The author is a professor of electrical engineering at Seoul National University.

The race is getting heated to take the lead in the unmanned autonomous vehicle industry. The United States and China at loggerheads over technological hegemony are nearing the commercialization stage with their respective top-shelf companies like Waymo and Baidu making strides in the robotaxi service.

I took a ride on a self-driving Waymo cab during my visit to San Francisco last July. Before the experience, I expected that it would take at least another 10 years to perfect advanced self-driving skills. One of the trickiest to master would be mimicking human-like intuitive communication among drivers.

Human drivers either knowingly or unknowingly exchange communication with other drivers before shifting lanes or yielding to another car to cut in. It would be extremely hard to teach machines to understand these subtle behaviors as they rely on individual intuition and gut feeling.

But to my surprise, my Waymo taxi impressively drove around smoothly as if a human was behind the wheel. While waiting for the light to change in a narrow intersection, it backed up slightly to make room for an incoming car. It was shocking to learn how quickly self-driving vehicles had established themselves as a common mobility means.

But that’s hardly the case in Korea. Level 4 vehicle commercialization is still far-fetched as unmanned driving cannot even be tested on roads. A driver must be seated to ensure safety according to local regulations on autonomous vehicles made 10 years ago when the technology was still in its infancy. The rule today acts to hamper further technology in self-driving.

Companies are putting off advancing the technology by hiding behind the regulations. Local governments have to roll back or cancel their pilot projects for including companies that have not been verified.

The government-led research and development (R&D) project that cost over 1 trillion won ($713 million) over the last seven years reportedly is in the final stage. But we are yet to hear whether we are ready for commercialization. What can be missing?

First of all, Korea must reignite the waning venturous spirit through the fueling of long-term investments. A fully autonomous driving technology demands lengthy and continuous investments, which have been lacking in Korea.

Waymo and Baidu have invested billions of dollars into the technology for more than 15 years and they are just starting to see some progress. In Korea, the government doles out its budget to multiple companies and expects similar outcomes from them. Companies therefore have no reason to take risks, and they settle for ventures that can ensure funding.

Second, there are too many regulations that get in the way of developing technologies tied to business models. The red tapes in the technology and industry must be fully lifted so that unmanned vehicles can be allowed under any conditions.

If there are no restrictions around schools or protected zones for senior citizens, vehicles can choose to perform on their own or shift to manual mode depending on their embedded technology level. The performance level of each maker must be shared with the public to promote competition to perfect their technology.

Also, given the limitation of resourcing, Korea should prioritize and choose what can be fully localized to raise the competitiveness of the industrial ecosystem.

Other countries are far ahead of Korea as it drags its feet on commercializing fully self-driving vehicles. At this rate, it will be hard to find Korean self-driving technology a decade from now, given how only the top players dominate in computer operating systems or internet search engines.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.