South Korea will set up safety standards and an insurance system for the launch of Level 4 autonomous vehicles in the country by next year, the transport ministry said Sunday.

Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Won Hee-ryong also said the government will "dramatically" ease regulations involving autonomous cars during his visit on Jan. 7 (local time) to the booth of Motional at this year's CES 2023 in Las Vegas.

Motional is a 50-50 joint venture set up in 2020 between Hyundai Motor Co. and U.S. mobility startup Aptiv to test fully autonomous vehicles for ride-hailing services.

In October, Motional signed a 10-year deal to supply Hyundai's IONIQ 5-based autonomous vehicles to U.S. ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies Inc.

Under the deal, Motional began to supply the all-electric IONIQ 5 driverless robo taxis to Uber from late last year.

The IONIQ 5-based robo taxis are currently available for the 15-minute drive between Luxor Hotel and Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas.

Uber plans to operate the Level 4 IONIQ 5 robo taxis for car hailing and delivery services in the United States for the next 10 years and explore opportunities to advance to other markets with robo taxis.

At Level 4, a vehicle can drive itself under limited conditions and will not operate if all required conditions are not satisfied. At Level 5, a vehicle's automated driving features can drive under any conditions. (Yonhap)