May 22, 2025
Blocked by autonomous driving regulations, SMEs turn to unmanned ground vehicles as an alternative.
With the commercialization of urban autonomous driving services pushed back indefinitely by regulatory hurdles and gaps in the legal framework, South Korea's autonomous driving SMEs are increasingly pivoting to Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) as an alternative avenue for putting their technology to work. These companies bring core UGV capabilities to the table — obstacle recognition and navigation systems built around LiDAR, cameras, and radar.
Industry sources reported on the 21st that ACEWORKS, an autonomous driving tech company, saw its defense-sector UGV revenue grow by roughly 30% year-on-year in 2024. From just 200 million KRW in 2021, sales climbed to 1.5 billion KRW last year.
ACEWORKS' core business is the development and verification of software for electric vehicles and autonomous mobility platforms. The company currently supplies autonomous driving system design and control technologies for defense UGVs under development by South Korean defense firms. Its UGV work extends beyond defense: earlier this year, ACEWORKS completed a government-commissioned project to develop autonomous driving-based emergency vehicle traffic support technology, demonstrating its capabilities through a fully functional autonomous ambulance for patient transport. "Since 2010, we've spent 15 years developing autonomous vehicles across seven generations — building up the full stack of technologies that go into an autonomous driving system," said CEO Seung-beom Park. "With the UGV market on a clear growth trajectory, we intend to lean further into that business."
ThorDrive, the startup that turned heads with its autonomous taxi SNUver at Seoul National University's Gwanak Campus back in November 2015, has also set its sights on UGVs. The company signed a pilot agreement with E-Mart in 2019 and launched what was South Korea's first urban autonomous delivery service — but ultimately couldn't break through the wall of regulations standing between pilot operations and full commercialization. Refocusing on environments where autonomous technology can operate without those constraints, ThorDrive has begun South Korea's first demonstration of cargo-towing UGVs for airport baggage and air freight handling, with commercial deployment targeted for 2026.
Samhyun, a mobility motion control manufacturer, is making its own move into UGVs through the recent acquisition of KASLAB, an AI autonomous driving firm gaining traction in the industrial robotics space with capabilities in autonomous forklifts, heavy-load transport robots, and intelligent sensor systems. Industry observers see the acquisition as a bid to get ahead in the defense UGV market — a read reinforced by Samhyun's April launch of its own multipurpose UGV, HOPLON. Meanwhile, AI platform company maum.ai has kicked off a push into the global construction robotics market, integrating its VLM (Vision-Language Model)-based autonomous driving technology into products from robotics manufacturer Gore Robotics.
The industry's growing focus on UGVs reflects a broader frustration: there is no clear commercial path for robotaxis or other autonomous vehicle services in South Korea. While the US and China have achieved genuine commercialization of robotaxi services, South Korea remains stuck at the pilot stage, held back by regulations and an incomplete legal framework. According to Statista, the Korean autonomous vehicle market was worth around $500 million last year and is forecast to reach only $700 million by 2026 — modest growth compared to China, where government support is driving expansion from $3.3 billion to $4.9 billion over the same period, and the US, where the market is projected to grow 30% from $9.7 billion to $12.7 billion.
UGVs, by contrast, offer a much more expansive opportunity. Applications are multiplying across defense, logistics, agriculture, and disaster response, and the numbers reflect that: according to Global Information, the global UGV market is projected to surge 192% — from approximately $4.8 billion in 2025 to around $13.8 billion by 2035.
"UGVs are a product of the times — they go where it isn't safe to send people," one industry insider noted. "Defense UGVs in particular are tied directly to national security, which is why that segment has the strongest growth story of all."
Source: Seoul Economic Daily, Reporter Woo-in Park wipark@sedaily.com