Lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties on the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee will visit the Namyang R&D Center, the research and development base of Hyundai Motor and Kia, next week during the third week of the parliamentary audit of government agencies to review the state of South Korea's future mobility technology. Jaehoon Chang, vice chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, is expected to personally explain the group's self-driving, robotics and hydrogen technologies. With the U.S. and China accelerating their push to capture the future mobility market, attention is turning to whether the visit will break the deadlock on industry promotion bills pending in the National Assembly.
According to the National Assembly on the 16th, the committee will conduct its on-site audit inspection on the 20th at the Hyundai Motor and Kia Namyang R&D Center and the Korea Automobile Safety Research Institute of the Korea Transportation Safety Authority, both in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. Chang is expected to greet the lawmakers at the Namyang center and brief them on Hyundai's strategic technologies, including self-driving, robotics, hydrogen commercial vehicles and batteries. The lawmakers plan to watch demonstrations of key technologies and test-drive high-performance electric vehicles at the center's proving ground.
The inspection is intended to assess the competitiveness of the domestic auto industry in future mobility technology and to consider the support measures needed to foster the sector. U.S. and Chinese companies, backed by massive government support, are moving ahead in commercializing self-driving technology, leaving Korean firms behind in the race. Bills meant to support the development of self-driving technology, meanwhile, have made no progress. An amendment to the self-driving vehicle law that would provide subsidies to operators of fully autonomous vehicles has been pending before the committee since it was introduced in November last year. Legislative discussions on promoting the hydrogen industry have also stalled.
A Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker on the committee said the future mobility industry requires not only corporate technology development but also regulatory overhaul and policy support to lead to commercialization and market expansion. "We will work to connect the technological challenges we see on the ground to the review of related bills and to institutional improvements," the lawmaker said.