As the areas where unmanned (robot) taxi services are being implemented in China and the United States increase, there are calls for Korea to accelerate commercialization. Korea is also attempting to foster the autonomous vehicle industry, but it still faces many limitations due to a lack of regulations and related data.

At a forum titled ‘Policy Tasks for the Automotive Industry Desired by the New Government’ recently held by the Korea Automobile Mobility Industry Association (KAIA), experts collectively noted the need to enhance the competitiveness of future vehicle technologies, including autonomous driving. They emphasized that compared to China, Korean corporations are inevitably lagging in terms of securing funds.

The interior of the autonomous driving car 'Apollo RT6' released by China's Baidu in July last year. It features advanced autonomous driving technology at the 'Level 4' level, which does not require driver intervention. The steering wheel is detachable./Courtesy of Baidu

Unlike Chinese corporations, which are aggressively increasing research and development (R&D) for future vehicles with the support of the government and local governments, Korea’s related budget is either decreasing or stagnant. According to the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade (KIET), last year’s automotive industry R&D budget was cut by 10% compared to the previous year. This year (423.6 billion won) saw a slight increase, but it still falls short of 2023 (434.7 billion won).

The industry consensus is that continuous investment is necessary in the future vehicle sector, including autonomous driving, from a mid- to long-term perspective, covering personnel, research and development, and facilities. Since the market has not fully blossomed yet, it is difficult to guarantee early business revenue, thus both small startups and large corporations are expressing concerns about the expense burden.

Hyundai Motor Group underwent a massive organizational restructuring last year due to the failure of its department in charge of autonomous driving development and its subsidiary Motional, among others, to achieve performance. Motional withdrew from its unmanned bus business that had been operating in the Gwanghwamun area at the end of last year due to deteriorating revenue. Motional also halted its robotaxi pilot operation project being conducted in the United States.

The Ioniq 5 robotaxi from Hyundai's autonomous driving subsidiary Motional./Courtesy of Motional

Compared to a few years ago, regulations and constraints for pilot operations have almost disappeared, but laws and systems to support commercialization are still lacking. Social consensus is also needed regarding issues such as liability in case of accidents, conflicts with taxis, and job concerns.

There is also a lack of data. The development of autonomous driving technology requires not only driving-related information but also data on pedestrian gaze, movement analysis, and more. While Korea conducts pilot operations in some areas, such as downtown Seoul, China and the United States have already accumulated autonomous driving data under various conditions, including high speed and long distances, by operating thousands of robotaxis.

Since starting the robotaxi business in China in 2013, Baidu’s actual autonomous driving operations have reached 11 million rides, with a cumulative driving distance exceeding 170 million kilometers. Google’s Waymo has a cumulative driving distance of 53 million kilometers and a cumulative number of rides totaling 5 million. The cumulative driving distance of Autonomous A2Z, ranked first in Korea, is 620,000 kilometers.

According to global market research firm MarketsandMarkets, the global robotaxi market size is expected to grow rapidly from $400 million (approximately 579.4 billion won) in 2023 to $45.7 billion (approximately 66.1964 trillion won) in 2030. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is projected to reach 91.8%.