Proposed amendments to Road Traffic Act and Intelligent Robot Act
Allow outdoor autonomous robots to drive through sidewalks
Claim to introduce a legal certification system about robot safety
Startup
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Legislation continues to ease regulations in the autonomous driving robot industry.
Lawmaker Il-young Jeong of Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) proposed representatively 'Partial Amendment to Road Traffic Act' on the 25th, to allow autonomous driving delivery robots to drive on sidewalks. It defines outdoor autonomous robot as a moving subject on a pedestrian path and contains details on allowing pedestrian passage.
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Autonomous robots are currently classified as automobiles under Road Traffic Act and cannot drive on sidewalks alone. It also blocks Personal Information Protection Act, in which cameras attached for object recognition must obtain prior consent from unspecified pedestrians.
For this reason, KT, Woowa Brothers, Robotis, and Neubility have not been able to actively enter the delivery business despite having developed autonomous robots. The robot industry has been conditionally conducting demonstrations in local governments that have been approved by the government regulatory sandbox.
The amendment to Road Traffic Act proposed by Rep. Jeong defined 'living logistics service robots' as having speeds of 15 km/h or less and a weight of 60 kg or less. This is to address safety concerns. Speeds of 15 km/h is similar to the speed of an electric wheelchair. Weight was also taken into account for elevator rides.
A provision was also stipulated that states that ‘living logistics service robot’ must slow down or stop temporarily if it obstructs pedestrian traffic.
Rep. Jeong said, “Compared to the US, Japan and the EU, the pace of government regulatory reform is lagging behind and law revision is being delayed," adding that, “We must propose an amendment to allow autonomous delivery robots to drive on sidewalks and to cross roads in order to develop the robot industry, which is a new industry growth engine”
Earlier on the 19th, Rep. Geum-hee Yang, from the People Power Party, also introduced a new definition of an outdoor mobile robot and proposed an amendment to 'Intelligent Robot Act' which contains rationale for introducing a legal certification system for robot safety.
Prime Minister Deok-soo Han also visited Robotis in June to listen to business difficulties and promised regulatory innovation.
The startup Neubility's autonomous driving robot ‘NEUBIE’ was in the spotlight for delivering a bill directly from within the National Assembly. Rep. Jeong took the revised bill delivered by the robot from the cargo box and submitted it to the National Assembly’s Bill Amendment Department.
Neubility conducted autonomous demonstrations for robot delivery in areas with large floating populations, such as Gangnam District 3 in Seoul and Songdo in Incheon. The speed was limited to 7.2 km/h or less, in consideration of pedestrians and safety.
Neubie has been deployed to the National Assembly and run round-trip between the National Assembly Library and the National Assembly Hall to demonstrate its services of robot delivery for borrowed books in the National Assembly.
Sang-min Lee, CEO of Neubility, said, “We plan to continue demonstrating various projects, including demonstration tests in the National Assembly, to further improve our degree of completion,” furthermore, “As the legal basis for autonomous robot to use pedestrian paths is laid with the amendment of Road Traffic Act, we will introduce services that innovate last mile delivery within this year.”
By staff reporter Yoon-sub Song (sys@etnews.com)