Technology gap with the US is 13.6 months... China surpasses Europe by 8.4 months

Technology gap with the US is 13.6 months... China surpasses Europe by 8.4 months

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Jang Hana = While Korea's autonomous driving technology has not narrowed the gap with the leading country, the United States, for three years, the related budget was found to have decreased by 43%.

According to data submitted by Jang Jong-tae, a member of the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Ministry of Science and ICT, and the Korea Transportation Safety Authority on the 27th, Korea's autonomous driving technology was found to be 13.6 months behind the United States as of last year.

The autonomous driving technology gap with the United States narrowed by only 1.1 months over two years, to 14.7 months in 2023 and 14.5 months in 2024.

On the other hand, China narrowed the gap with the United States by 3.8 months (12.2 months in 2023 → 8.4 months in 2025) over the same period, and also surpassed Europe, which had an 11.0 month gap with the United States as of last year.

In terms of commercialization, America's Waymo and China's Baidu have entered the stage of making profits by carrying general passengers with level 4 unmanned robotaxi, while Korea has no level 4 robotaxi operation district and only 19 level 3 taxis in Gangnam, Seoul and 1 unmanned demonstration vehicle in Sangam are in operation.

In this situation, investment is actually decreasing.

According to the lawmaker's office, the autonomous driving research and development (R&D) budget of four ministries - the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and the National Police Agency - decreased by 43% from 156.8 billion won in 2023 to 89.5 billion won this year, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's autonomous vehicle commercialization budget decreased by 78% from 42.9 billion won in 2024 to 9.4 billion won in 2025.

The government's goal for Level 4 commercialization is next year, but the current autonomous driving R&D project ends in 2027, and the scale and start date of the project thereafter have not been confirmed.

Meanwhile, accidents are increasing at test sites. Accidents in the pilot area increased from 2 in 2022 to 37 in 2025, and 8 of the 66 cumulative accidents were caused by errors in the autonomous driving system.

The number of pilot operation zones has increased to 57, and in March of last year, the entire 5,381 km section of the highway was designated ex officio, and 7 self-driving trucks are in operation. However, it was found that there was no risk assessment data for each section.

The standards for determining liability for accidents are not scheduled to be established until 2027, so there is currently no system to determine responsibility after an accident.

Rep. Jong-tae Jang said, “Competitors are ahead, but we reduced the budget and expanded only the demonstration special case to the entire highway without safety management even though accidents increased 18 times.” He emphasized, “The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport must confirm the scale and start timing of follow-up R&D after 2027 and conduct a risk assessment for each highway section and make it public.”