Will Tesla's Full Self-Driving Launch in Korea Accelerate? Expert Recruitment Notice in Korea...

[Asia Economy Reporter Su-yeon Woo] Tesla is hiring experts in Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) in South Korea. This is seen as a preliminary step to introducing the latest Full Self-Driving (FSD) service domestically.

According to comprehensive reporting on the 30th, Tesla recently posted a job opening for an ADAS test engineer to work in Gangnam, Seoul. Tesla is recruiting ADAS test engineers in 13 regions worldwide, including its headquarters in Palo Alto, California. The workplaces are mainly concentrated in the United States, Northern Europe (Finland and Denmark), and Asia. The Asian recruitment locations are Yokohama, Japan; Taipei, Taiwan; and Seoul, South Korea.

ADAS is the fundamental system of autonomous driving technology. The National Institute of Technology and Standards classifies autonomous driving levels from 0 to 5, with ADAS, a driver assistance device, corresponding to level 2. Level 3 and above are considered partial autonomous driving, and level 5 is full autonomous driving. Most vehicles currently on the market are at level 2. Automakers are competing to be the first to mass-produce level 3 vehicles.

Tesla, which entered the autonomous vehicle market early, is highly regarded for its technological capabilities. Tesla's Autopilot function supports not only adaptive cruise control that adjusts the distance from the car ahead but also automatic lane changes, automatic parking, and vehicle summon.

In 2021, Tesla piloted the Full Self-Driving (FSD) service in the North American market. In addition to Autopilot features, FSD enables the vehicle to stop or adjust speed according to traffic lights and signs and perform autonomous driving within city streets. Despite these technological advances, it is still evaluated at level 2.5. This means it is not yet sufficient to be called level 3 autonomous driving. Since extensive data collection and testing are still required, the FSD service carries a 'beta' label.

Domestic consumers can purchase vehicles with the FSD option, but not all functions are currently available. Official service is expected only after data collection tailored to domestic road regulations and conditions is completed. Therefore, the industry interprets the current recruitment of ADAS test engineers as a preliminary step toward introducing the FSD service in South Korea. The engineers to be hired will investigate domestic road conditions and design routes through Autopilot test scenarios.

There are already Korean-origin autonomous driving experts active within Tesla. At Tesla's AI-Day technology presentation held last October, Korean-American Kate Park, a technical project manager, spoke about the development direction of FSD. The presentation video included scenes of pilot operation vehicles collecting data on Korean roads.

Meanwhile, in March, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced plans to provide FSD service in the European market as early as summer, but this has not yet been realized. Tesla plans to expand the services tested in the North American market to various regions by hiring ADAS experts in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.