The South Korean government aims to commercialize Level 3 autonomous driving in three years time so that self-driving cars would be on Korean roads hopefully as fast as Japan that is racing to deliver smart vehicles by 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

In a keystone to the second policy outline to respond to fast changes in the motor vehicle industry, the nation’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport set a goal to accelerate commercialization of Level 3 self-driving cars that still requires human drivers at the driver’s seat while the car takes control most of the time.

The U.S. Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) defines six levels in automated driving from 0 to 5. Korean carmakers have reached Level 2 standard in self-driving.

The race is heating up in the global driverless car market. The Japanese government and businesses have teamed up to roll out autonomous cars in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Japanese carmakers such as Toyota and Honda hope to master Level 3 autonomous cars by then. Germany’s BMW, the world’s biggest chip maker Intel and Israel’s auto software firm Mobileye have joined forces to release high-performance driverless cars by 2021.

The U.S. market research firm Strategy Analytics estimated that some 14.63 million self-driving cars would be on the roads by 2025.

By Chun Jung-hong

Copyrights Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea. All Rights Reserved.

Source: Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea (Feb. 14, 2017)