[Naver's autonomous vehicle-in-development is displayed at 2017 Seoul Motor Show. ]
Under a blueprint unveiled by President Moon Jae-in's advisory panel, South Korea will seek the commercialization of semi-autonomous vehicles by 2020 as part of efforts to strengthen the key technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The blueprint calls for the early establishment of test beds and infrastructure for autonomous vehicles, a service to support autonomous cooperative driving, abd "smart roads" for self-driving cars, according to the State Planning Advisory Committee.
Autonomous vehicle technology is acknowledged as the key factor of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. A semi-autonomous vehicle requires its driver to intervene in emergency situations such as an abrupt evasion or a sudden stop when faced with an unexpected road obstacle while full autonomous vehicles do not need a driver to do so.
The world's autonomous vehicle industry is currently led by Tesla and Google. Tesla is operating its "Autopilot" service, a full self-driving feature. Traditional carmakers such as BMW and Mercedes Benz also try hard to develop their own unique autonomous driving technology.
South Korean companies such as Naver, Hyundai and Samsung will benefit from the government's move.
Park Sae-jin = swatchsjp@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
