Self-driving car market race heats up; S. Korean regulations lag behind: report (Yonhap) South Korea is lagging behind in revising regulations to prepare for the commercialization of autonomous vehicles compared to other major countries such as the US, Germany and Japan, a Seoul-based think tank said Sunday. The market size of autonomous, or self-driving, vehicles is expected to grow from $7.1 billion in 2020 to $1 trillion by 2035, a report by the Korea Economic Research Institute showed. More than half of the newly launched cars to be sold in 2030 are expected to be equipped with level three autonomous driving technology. Level three autonomous driving means that the driver can hand over control to the vehicle, but must be ready to take over when prompted in a limited number of areas such as on the freeway. Autonomy in vehicles is often categorized in six levels from level zero to five according to a system developed by the US-based SAE International.