The automobile is evolving at speed. The industry was once the very picture of traditional mechanical engineering. Building on high-performance engines, carmakers would release facelift versions each year with partial changes to appearance and features, then gather the fruits of their R&D into a next-generation full-change model. As that industry has moved through the information age and into the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it has been shifting rapidly from a hardware base toward software. With the commercialization of connected cars integrating wireless communication systems, vehicles can now exchange data in real time, enabling navigation services over real-time wireless links, online traffic information, weather, travel and charging station information, locating a parked vehicle, and even remote signaling and ignition.
From a Mechanical Industry to a Software Industry
Wireless communication is not confined to ancillary services; it now extends to software updates that affect a vehicle's driving and performance. Some predict that the car of the future will no longer stand for mechanical engineering at all but will be a smartphone on wheels. Amid this shift, as the automobile moves in earnest from a mechanical industry to a software industry, we welcome the government's temporary authorization, granted through the regulatory sandbox, of wireless software updates to automotive electronic control units ("Over The Air" service, or "OTA").
For details, please see the link below.
[Legal Times Column] Over-the-Air Updates for Automotive Electronic Control Units
For attorney Junhoon Song's profile, please see the link below.