The government said on the 26th that it will designate an Autonomous Driving pilot city next year. For now, self-driving cars can operate only on certain road sections designated by the government. In a pilot city, self-driving cars will be able to drive freely across the entire city. San Francisco and Los Angeles in the United States, and Wuhan and Shenzhen in China, are designated as Autonomous Driving pilot cities.
The government held a meeting of the ministers of the economy and the growth strategy task force (TF) that day and announced a plan to enhance the competitiveness of the self-driving car industry. A government official said, "Compared to the United States and China, Korea's self-driving car competitiveness is at a disadvantage." The official also said, "In Korea, pilot projects have been limited and centered on Start - Up companies, which has been identified as a cause, so we are trying to ease related regulations."
The self-driving car industry is categorized from level 0 (no Autonomous Driving) to level 5 (full Autonomous Driving) depending on a country's technological level. The United States and China are assessed to have entered level 4. Level 4 is the stage right before full automation, where vehicles move on their own under an automated system and can handle emergencies on their own. In contrast, Korea remains at level 3. Level 3 does not require watching the driving environment with one's eyes, but in case of a system request, the driver must intervene; it is "conditional driving automation."
The government said it will begin improving related regulations this year with the goal of Korea entering level 4 the year after next. A representative policy is the creation of an "Autonomous Driving pilot city." In designated cities, large corporations and Start - Up companies will deploy more than 100 self-driving cars together to enable learning of driving data. The government also decided to allow local governments to directly designate "pilot operation zones" where self-driving cars can operate on certain sections within their jurisdictions. Currently, when a local government applies, the Minister of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) decides whether to designate it once every half year.
The government decided to revise the law to allow companies developing self-driving cars to use raw data related to vehicle driving for research and development (R&D). Currently, video data must be collected using vehicles marked as filming in progress, then used after pseudonymization. In the United States and China, raw video data can be used for R&D purposes. Furthermore, a plan is being pursued to allow corporations to collect video data not only from R&D self-driving cars but also from personal vehicles and use it after anonymization or pseudonymization.
Along with deregulation, related systems will also be overhauled so that corporations can be held civilly and criminally liable when accidents occur. For self-driving cars at level 4 or higher without a driver, it is currently unclear who would face criminal punishment in the event of a traffic accident. In response, the government will introduce the concept of a "safety manager" into the self-driving car road operation law or the Road Traffic Act to assign responsibility when violations occur. In addition, a task force (TF) will be created, led by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT), to discuss how to apportion civil liability for damages.