At a self-driving discussion hosted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) on September 24, some participants from the industry and academia requested a moratorium on the adoption of foreign autonomous driving technology until 2027. The stated reason is to delay market opening for two years to protect domestic industries. One of the technologies specifically targeted for this delay is Tesla's FSD (Full Self Driving Supervised).
Despite various safety concerns, countries worldwide are relaxing regulations and going all-in on commercializing autonomous driving services. It's well known that China fully supports self-driving as a key national industry. Even conservative Japan recently pivoted its policy to actively introduce foreign self-driving tech, allowing US companies like Waymo and Tesla to begin commercial services nationwide and setting up a fast-track approval process.
If we create yet another regulation—a two-year delay—in the current climate, the gap with foreign technology will likely widen significantly. During that time, overseas companies will establish cyclical learning frameworks, gaining more data through commercial services and further boosting their technological prowess. The era where simple tech development was paramount is long gone. Now, what matters more is securing sustainable business models. From this perspective, a two-year delay not only blocks citizens from experiencing new technologies but could actually hinder healthy competition among companies in developing tech and business models.
The government has recently recognized problems uncovered during the process of national projects and decided to invest 100 trillion KRW into the AI sector based on the principle of selection and concentration. Instead of distributing learning GPUs among various research teams, they decided to establish data centers for shared use. Going forward, the success or failure of new tech development will be determined by the scale of capital investment. For technologies that are difficult to develop internally in the short term, instead of adopting a 'Galapagos strategy' and locking the doors, we should prioritize introduction through strategic alliances with proven foreign companies and gradually achieve improved service competitiveness and technology localization.
Written by Seo Seung-woo, Professor, SNU Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Director, SNU Intelligent Vehicle IT Research Center. SNU B.S./M.S. Electrical Engineering, Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, Penn State University. Former Asst. Prof. Computer Science, Penn State; Researcher, Princeton University (POEM Lab, Intelligent Systems). Currently researches convergence tech (Intelligent Vehicles, Smart Mobility). Member, Infrastructure/Technology Subcommittee of MOLIT Autonomous Vehicle Convergence Future Forum. Operational Director, SNU-LG Electronics Smart Car Joint Research Center. Visiting Professor, Stanford CARS (2013–2014).
"The industry wants to pull a 'Galapagos Strategy' to save their rice bowls, but commenters are roasting them, reminding them of the infamous WIPI failure and the power of 'Weapon Cars' (Hyundai/Kia) lobbying."
#FunContinue Browsing
