– Ministry of SMEs and Startups regulatory special temporary permit… Uchi Park demonstration extended for 2 years
– Improvements in 4 laws and 3 regulations, including the Automobile Management Act, were achieved through 4 years of empirical testing.
– Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport Autonomous Vehicle Pilot Zone 2022 Performance Operation Evaluation ‘Excellent’
– Nurturing and supporting the autonomous driving industry… Effect of creating new growth engine for local economy
As the demonstration operation of the unmanned street sweeper at Uchi Park has been extended for two years, the autonomous vehicle commercialization project being promoted by Gwangju City has gained further momentum.
Gwangju Metropolitan City (Mayor Kang Ki-jeong) announced on the 1th that the Ministry of SMEs and Startups approved a temporary permit for the demonstration operation of an unmanned street sweeper in Uchi Park as of December 2, extending the project period by two years.
In December 2019, Gwangju City designated 7㎢ of 16.79 areas, including Pyeongdong Industrial Complex, Suwan District, Uchi Park, and Bitgreen Industrial Complex, as a regulation-free special zone. 18 special zone operators, including the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, have been recognized for empirical special cases in five regulatory sandboxes, including the Automobile Management Act, Road Traffic Act, Park and Green Space Act, and Personal Information Protection Act related to unmanned autonomous driving, and have traveled 5 km without accident for a total of 721 hours. A verification run was conducted.
However, in the case of Uchi Park, there were concerns that the demonstration operation would be halted due to the Park and Green Space Act's restrictions on power devices weighing more than 30 kg from entering other than the park roadway. This regulation has not been revised due to reasons such as the absence of safety standards, but the business period has been extended as the Ministry of SMEs and Startups recently converted it to a temporary permit as a follow-up measure for the special regulation-free zone.
※ Ministry of SMEs and Startups Notice No. 2023-106 (Special follow-up measures for regulation-free special zones, December 2023.12, 1)
In addition, in March 2021, the regulations related to the Automobile Management Act were revised to define the driver concept according to autonomous driving operation and enable remote control, and in April 3, the concept of the autonomous driving system was reflected in the Road Traffic Act to improve the implementation of unmanned autonomous vehicles. Driving on the road became possible.
The existing Personal Information Protection Act only covered closed-circuit television (CCTV) as video information processing devices, but in March of this year, the concept was expanded to include fixed and mobile video information processing devices, and regulations were established for the processing of pseudonymized information generated during autonomous driving. done.
As the laws related to autonomous driving were revised through the regulation-free special zone project, which enabled the nation's only road demonstration of unmanned specially equipped vehicles, Gwangju City took a step closer to commercializing fully autonomous driving.
Gwangju City's AM Specialty Co., Ltd., which operates an unmanned road sweeper at Uchi Park, is actively responding to requests from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, which is in charge of the Park and Green Space Act, including safety verification, and will finalize the revision of the enforcement ordinance within two years and establish an unmanned road surface. We plan to accelerate the commercialization of garbage trucks.
In particular, Gwangju City received an ‘excellent’ rating in the 2022 operation performance evaluation of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport’s self-driving car pilot district, allowing it to accelerate the commercialization project for self-driving cars. Among the 14 pilot districts nationwide, this has received good evaluations for two consecutive years along with Sangam in Seoul and Pangyo in Gyeonggi Province, which can be interpreted as recognition of Gwangju City's efforts to improve the legal system for operating unmanned autonomous vehicles.
※ Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport Announcement No. 2023-1522 (Announcement of evaluation results of autonomous vehicle pilot operation district operation performance (2022), 2023.11.30.)
In addition, the unmanned street sweeper and unmanned industrial waste collection vehicle developed through the special zone project were designated as innovative prototypes of the Public Procurement Service last September, and will participate in the innovative prototype product pilot purchase project promoted by the Public Procurement Service in 9. Gwangju City plans to continuously secure empirical data in addition to improving the performance of these vehicles.
Jin Yong-seon, head of the Future Automotive Industry Division, said, “Regulations for autonomous driving have been resolved to some extent, but there is still a long way to go before commercialization of fully autonomous driving,” adding, “We will actively cooperate with central ministries such as MOLIT, MOTIE, and MSS to foster and develop the autonomous driving industry.” “We will do our best to support it and establish it as a new growth engine for the local economy,” he said.