Korean gov’t unveils plans to ease regulations in future mobility industry

[Courtesy of SK electlink]

The South Korean government is making efforts to support the future mobility industry that involves eco-friendly vehicles and autonomous cars.

During an emergency economic meeting of related ministers on Thursday, the Ministry of Economy and Finance announced plans to ease regulations in the mobility industry.

The plan includes mobility regulatory sandboxes, which support technological innovation in various transportation areas. The regulatory sandboxes are referenced under the new law aimed at facilitating mobility innovation, which was enacted in April and is set to take effect on October 19.

The economy ministry identified that existing regulatory sandboxes in the areas of information and communication technology (ICT), industry, and finance cannot adequately cover the mobility industry, resulting in a new set of sandboxes focused on the mobility sector to boost innovation.

A regulatory sandbox is a system that temporarily postpones or exempts existing regulations when new products or services are launched.

Out of 918 approved regulatory sandbox cases, 148 were in the mobility sector, accounting for 16.1 percent of the total, as of July.

“With the introduction of mobility regulatory sandboxes, practical projects will be enabled in the mobility sector, such as late-night autonomous shuttle buses and taxis, parking robots, amphibious passenger services, and autonomous cleaning vehicles,” said Kim Jin-myung, director-general of the policy coordination bureau at the economy ministry.

The proposed mobility sandboxes include plans to establish standards for installing facilities to enable wireless EV charging at gas stations, to expand the EV charging infrastructure and facilitate the transformation of gas stations into future-oriented, multi-purpose facilities.

Other proposals include a partial relaxation of the EV battery discharge tests in line with U.S. standards.

The government has also included measures to alleviate the regulatory burden in the environmental and chemical sectors.

Criteria will be set up for exempting registration when recycled chemical substances are identical to pre-registered chemical substances, according to the government’s plan.