South Korea is moving to accelerate its push into autonomous driving with a plan to commercialize Level 4 vehicles by 2027 and launch one of the country’s most extensive real-world testing programs.
The announcement followed a meeting of economic ministers on Nov. 26 and reflects a broader effort to narrow the distance with a global market still led by companies in the United States and China.
The government will establish a full test city next year where more than one hundred autonomous vehicles will operate on public streets to generate training data and demonstrate the technology at scale.
Officials also plan to expand trials of self-driving buses in underserved regions to examine how autonomous transit can address mobility gaps.
To support development, researchers will be allowed to work with unmodified video data to improve perception accuracy.
The government will also permit the use of anonymized footage from private vehicles, with owner consent, to supplement limited datasets from existing test fleets.
Regulatory changes are designed to widen participation in testing and streamline operations. Transportation service providers will be able to obtain temporary operating permits that were previously available only to developers.
Limits that confined certain autonomous vehicle types to designated pilot zones will be relaxed so testing can extend across more varied environments.
Officials said data collection will also be allowed in areas reserved for vulnerable road users when adequate safety measures are in place.
South Korea plans to expand the technical foundation needed for advanced autonomous systems, including securing dedicated computing hardware and building a national AI training center by 2029.
Efforts to develop a domestic supply chain for specialized vehicle platforms, autonomous-driving chips, and other core components are part of the strategy to support long-term production.
As vehicles move closer to operating without human drivers, the government will update rules that assume a driver is responsible for oversight.
A new legal category will define the entity accountable for managing autonomous operations. A separate review will examine how accident-liability structures should apply when autonomous systems are in control.
Officials said changes to defect-liability standards, including easing requirements for presuming defects and allowing courts to request documentation from manufacturers, are intended to reduce the burden on victims and clarify accountability as autonomy advances.
