To revitalize the domestic autonomous driving robot industry, the private sector-led 'Autonomous Driving Robot Alliance' was launched, led by related industries and associations.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on the 18th that it attended the launch ceremony of the 'Autonomous Robot Alliance', held a meeting with participating companies and discussed public-private collaboration plans to fully open the autonomous robot market.

According to data released by Research & Markets in April, the global market for autonomous robots reached $1.61 billion last year and is expected to grow rapidly at an average annual rate of 34.3% to $22.15 billion by 2030.

In Korea, indoor autonomous robots, such as restaurant serving robots, are already popular, and outdoor autonomous robots, such as delivery and patrol robots, are also at a stage where technology has been secured. However, in the case of outdoor areas, sidewalk traffic is restricted under current law, and is only operated in regulatory sandbox demonstration special cases and regulatory special zones.

The government has included regulatory improvements to support the commercialization of autonomous robots in its 2020 "Robot Industry Preemptive Regulatory Innovation Roadmap." It is also preparing to revise the Intelligent Robot Act to reflect standards for allowing autonomous robots to pass on sidewalks, a safety certification system, and regulatory exceptions.

The Autonomous Driving Robot Alliance was formed with the aim of supporting the commercialization of autonomous driving robots through the voluntary participation of the private sector. It plans to realize the commercialization of autonomous driving robots by establishing guidelines for the operation of outdoor autonomous driving robots, creating joint businesses, and discovering demand sources.

The alliance will be comprised of 18 indoor and outdoor autonomous robot companies, and will be operated in four divisions: indoor driving, outdoor driving, technology cooperation, and business cooperation. The Korea Robot Industry Association will serve as the secretary.

Park Jae-young, Director General of Manufacturing Industry Policy, said in his congratulatory remarks, “Autonomous robots will be the vanguard that will lead the ‘with-robot’ era, a society where we live together with robots in the future.” He added, “I hope that the Autonomous Robot Alliance will become a place that identifies the difficulties of the industry at the private level and drives the growth of the domestic autonomous robot market.” He also announced that the government will actively provide support.