Tesla’s Self-Driving Offensive

Tesla’s Self-Driving Offensive… Korean Cars on the Edge

7th company to enter the market, following the USA, Canada, and China
GM also unveils its second-generation self-driving system.
Competing in the IT-receptive Korean market

Tesla’s flagship self-driving technology, Full Self-Driving (FSD), has been officially introduced in Korea, the seventh country in the world.
According to the automotive industry, Tesla recently released its ‘supervised FSD’ feature via an over-the-air (OTA) software update.
This update was applied to Tesla Model S and Model X vehicles equipped with the 4th-generation hardware (HW4) produced in North American factories.

This system accelerates, decelerates, changes lanes, and navigate routes on city streets and highways, but it is a Level-2 self-driving system that requires a driver to keep eyes on the road. Based on the test-drive data released by Tesla Korea, advanced features were identified — such as recognizing a speed limit sign, decelerating over a speed bump, and avoiding a stationary vehicle.
There are, however, still many obstacles to overcome before Tesla’s FSD is fully implemented in Korea. The update applied by Tesla this time is restricted to U.S.-produced vehicles. While vehicles imported into Korea under the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) can use the FSD feature without restrictions, vehicles manufactured at the Shanghai plant in China, which account for most domestic sales, are subject to separate safety standards, meaning that it will take longer until fully implemented.
As advanced global self-driving technologies are rapidly being introduced in Korea, technological competition will be also intensified. GM, ahead of Tesla, announced the launch of the Cadillac Escalade IQ this month and announced that advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) ‘Super Cruise’ will be applied. Super Cruise supports hands-free driving on tens of thousands of kilometers of highways and arterial roads.
These characteristics of the Korean market are also evident in sales of imported cars. From January to October of this year, Tesla’s Model Y ranked first in cumulative imported car sales. As 37,590 units were sold as a single vehicle, its sales are at least double those of the BMW 520 (12,408 units). Tesla ranked third among all imported vehicles, selling 47,962 units through October of this year, accounting for more than half of all imported electric vehicle sales.

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