Legislative Acts

Autonomous Driving Deployment Initiative

Current Progress: Advocating for legislation and inter-ministerial coordination (30%)

Resource Hub

Timeline

2025

• 2025.11.25 [General Inquiry] Call to Allow FSD Public Road Testing Legislator Ge Rujun pointed out during the Legislative Yuan’s general policy inquiry that global autonomous driving technology has matured, and Taiwan should not adhere to outdated 2018 regulations. He urged the Executive Yuan to immediately establish an inter-ministerial platform to study allowing Full Self-Driving (FSD) public road testing, preventing Taiwanese citizens from becoming “third-class citizens in transportation technology.”

  Play

• 2025.10 [Facility Launch] Changhua ARTC Smart Vehicle Autonomous Driving Test Site Built with a 1 billion NTD investment from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, featuring all-weather, full-speed testing capabilities and simulations of extreme weather conditions like dense fog and heavy rain, providing an international-grade verification environment for Taiwan’s autonomous driving industry.

2024

• 2024.05.27 [Committee Review] Transportation Technology Regulatory Stagnation During the Transportation Committee’s review of the “AI Basic Act,” expressed serious concerns about the slow progress of amendments to the Unmanned Vehicle Technology Innovation Experimentation Act.

  Play

2019

• 2019.02.25 [Facility Launch] Tainan Shalun Taiwan CAR Lab Taiwan’s first closed autonomous vehicle testing site was launched, providing basic scenario testing including tunnels and pedestrian crossings.

2018

• 2018.12.19 [Legislation] Unmanned Vehicle Technology Innovation Experimentation Act Promulgated The starting point for Taiwan’s autonomous vehicle development, establishing a sandbox experimentation mechanism, but also marking the beginning of subsequent regulatory stagnation.

Key Issues & Q&A

Q1: If autonomous vehicles are allowed, who is responsible when accidents occur?

A: Following the UK model, responsibility lies with the “system” not the “individual.” Currently, the public’s biggest concern is liability attribution. Legislator JU CHUN KO advocates following the UK’s Automated Vehicles Act: when a vehicle is certified as operating in “autonomous driving” mode, legal responsibility for accidents should be borne by the vehicle manufacturer or software operator, not the passengers or “supervisors” in the vehicle. This not only protects user rights but also incentivizes manufacturers to improve safety.

Q2: Taiwan’s road environment is so complex (many motorcycles)—can autonomous vehicles really work here?

A: Precisely because it’s complex, AI assistance is more necessary. Human drivers get fatigued, distracted, and emotional—AI doesn’t. Tesla FSD data shows that driving on urban roads (the most complex environment) is 5 times safer than human driving. Taiwan has advanced testing facilities like Changhua ARTC that can simulate extreme scenarios such as motorcycles weaving through traffic and backlight glare. We should first allow testing in sandboxes and specific road sections to let AI learn Taiwan’s local road conditions, rather than outright prohibition.

Q3: What benefits does allowing autonomous vehicles bring to Taiwan’s industry?

A: Taiwan is a hidden champion in automotive electronics—what’s missing is a “training ground.” Taiwan has a powerful semiconductor and automotive electronics supply chain (like TSMC, Foxconn, Pegatron, etc.), but due to the lack of local autonomous vehicle road regulations, our technology can only be deployed abroad. Allowing autonomous vehicles on roads would enable Taiwanese manufacturers to obtain valuable real-world testing data locally, accelerate technology iteration, and truly achieve “developed in Taiwan, deployed in Taiwan, marketed globally.”

Call to Action: Technology waits for no one; regulations should not be stumbling blocks. Support Legislator JU CHUN KO in promoting autonomous vehicle legalization to make Taiwan’s transportation safer and industries more competitive!

The Global Wave of Autonomous Driving

Traffic accidents remain a major global public health challenge. According to the World Health Organization, roughly 1.35 million people die each year in road traffic crashes, and over 90% of these incidents are caused by human error. Fatigue, distraction, intoxication, and speeding—the frailties of human drivers—make roads one of modern society’s most hazardous environments.

Technological Breakthroughs: AI Safer Than Humans

The core value of autonomous driving is removing these human factors through AI. Tesla’s 2024 safety report showed FSD (Full Self-Driving) vehicles achieve a fivefold reduction in collisions on urban roads and an overall safety increase of seven times compared to human drivers across combined road types.

Autonomous systems rely on multiple sensor suites—LiDAR, radar, high-resolution cameras—to form a 360° perimeter view, compute optimal trajectories in milliseconds, predict other actors’ behavior, and perform emergency braking when necessary. Crucially, AI doesn’t get tired, distracted, or emotional—it operates at peak performance 24/7.

Regulatory Model: UK Leads the Way

Technological maturity must be matched by thoughtful regulation. The UK’s Automated Vehicles Act (2024) set a global precedent by clarifying liability: when a vehicle is certified to be operating in autonomous mode, legal liability for collisions rests with the manufacturer or operator, not the human occupant. This “liability-driven safety” approach forces manufacturers to internalize safety costs and fosters safer systems.

Taiwan’s Dilemma: Trapped by 2018

Taiwan has world-class semiconductor manufacturing and a robust automotive electronics supply chain. TSMC chips power many modern vehicles, while companies like Foxconn and Pegatron are essential automotive electronics partners. Yet, despite this industrial strength, Taiwan is handicapped by outdated regulations that make real-world testing and deployment difficult.

The Limits of the Sandbox Approach

Taiwan’s current framework derives from the 2018 Unmanned Vehicle Technology Innovation Experimentation Act, which effectively adopted a sandbox-based approach—limiting testing to closed sites or specific road segments. Such sandboxes cannot emulate the real-world complexity of Taiwan’s roads: motorcycle weaving, chaotic intersections, inconsistent road-user behavior, and localized traffic norms. Only extensive on-road testing can yield the localized data needed to train resilient AI models.

Existing test sites—Tainan’s Taiwan CAR Lab and Changhua ARTC—are valuable, but they are greenhouses, not battlefields; autonomous driving needs real-world exposure.

The Cost of Regulatory Stagnation

From 2018 to today, Taiwan’s regulations have not kept pace with the industry’s rapid advancement. While global progress moved from Level 2 to Level 4 automation in many cases, Taiwan’s rules remained largely experimental, leading to:

1. Data scarcity: Without widespread on-road testing, local roadway data is insufficient to train localized AI.
2. Industry flight: Taiwanese manufacturers make world-class hardware but cannot build software and system integration know-how locally.
3. Lagging benefits: While citizens abroad gain safety and convenience from advanced driver assistance, Taiwan’s public mainly hears about these benefits secondhand.

Legislator JU CHUN KO’s Reform Actions

To break the deadlock, Legislator JU CHUN KO has pushed a concrete reform agenda in the Legislative Yuan.

Create an Inter-Ministerial Coordination Platform

Autonomous driving spans multiple ministries: the Ministry of Transportation (road rules, vehicle standards), the Ministry of Economic Affairs (industry policy), the Ministry of Science and Technology (R&D), and financial regulators (insurance and liability). Administratively, this has been a coordination failure. Legislator Ge calls for an Executive Yuan–level platform to centralize authority, break down bureaucratic silos, and accelerate regulatory adaptation.

Allow Conditioned FSD Testing on Public Roads

Legislator JU CHUN KO proposes conditional public-road testing for internationally-certified systems like Tesla FSD—not an unregulated opening, but a controlled, data-driven approach:

• Require on-site safety monitoring for test vehicles
• Define explicit routes, time windows, and environmental constraints
• Implement real-time telemetry reporting and a clear incident investigation process
• Regularly review safety metrics and scale testing based on demonstrated performance

Only by letting AI learn Taiwan-specific driving patterns can locally suitable systems be constructed.

Align Liability Rules with International Models

To address public concerns about “who’s responsible when things go wrong,” the proposal draws on the UK model:

• When the system operates in ADAS (assisted) mode, the human supervisor retains responsibility
• When the system operates in ADS (automated) mode, legal responsibility shifts to the vehicle manufacturer or operator

Clear rules protect users and incentivize manufacturers to enhance safety.

Future Vision: A Safer, More Efficient Taiwan

Legalizing and regulating autonomous driving responsibly is not merely a technical issue—it determines whether Taiwan can fully realize the benefits of the technology.

Toward a Zero-Death Vision

Taiwan records roughly 3,000 traffic fatalities and over 400,000 injuries annually. If autonomous vehicle deployment cut accidents by half, it could save around 1,500 lives and prevent roughly 200,000 injuries each year. That is a true “technology saves lives” outcome.

Alleviate Driver Shortages in Transport

Taiwan faces a severe shortage of professional drivers across logistics, passenger transport, and taxis. Autonomous driving can ease labor shortages, increase system efficiency, and improve service quality.

Industrial Upgrading and Global Competitiveness

If Taiwan becomes a friendly market for autonomous vehicle testing and deployment, the local supply chain—semiconductors, telematics, antennas, and system integrators—can evolve from contract manufacturing to full-stack solution providers. Taiwan can move from “made in Taiwan” to “designed and created in Taiwan,” securing higher value capture in the global automotive ecosystem.

Autonomous driving is not science fiction; it is happening worldwide. Taiwan should not let stagnant regulations keep it on the sidelines. Support Legislator JU CHUN KO’s reform agenda to put technology at the helm of Taiwan’s transportation safety and industrial future.