Legislator Ko Ju-Chun: Taiwan's Autonomous Driving Regulations Lag the World by 40 Years! Should Issue "AI Coin" Modeled After Culture Coin

Legislator Ko Ju-Chun on the 12th held up a 1980s "Black Brick" mobile phone during questioning at the Legislative Yuan, criticizing Taiwan's self-driving regulations as nearly 40 years behind, leaving Taiwanese people "able to see AI but unable to use AI." He demanded that the Executive Yuan study an international certification dual-track system within one month, and within two months propose an "AI Coin" plan modeled after the Culture Coin. Premier Cho Jung-tai pledged on the spot to instruct the Ministry of Transportation to cooperate, with a response on the AI Coin direction within two months. (Prior context: Legislator Ko Ju-Chun raised "VASP tax incentives"! Cho Jung-tai promised a Bitcoin ETF report within three months) (Background: Ministry of Education's "AI in Every Library": library card holders use ChatGPT and Claude for free, being rolled out at all 47 national universities) - Taiwan's UNECE R79 vehicle regulations passed in 1988 will only be fully implemented in 2025, and Level 3 self-driving regulations will come into effect by 2031 at the earliest - Ko Ju-Chun demanded that within one month, the recognition of the Netherlands' RDW certification and a dual-track system with the US's FMVSS be studied; Cho Jung-tai promised the Ministry of Transportation would cooperate - Modeled on the Culture Coin, an "AI Coin" would subsidize public use of paid AI tools; the Executive Yuan promised to propose a plan within two months Taiwan makes the world's most advanced AI chips, yet its own people have to wait until 2032 just for Level 2 driving assistance? During his general interpellation at the Legislative Yuan on the 12th, Legislator Ko Ju-Chun pulled out a 1980s Black Brick mobile phone and addressed Premier Cho Jung-tai: if the government required everyone to use only a Black Brick to make calls and banned iPhones, society would certainly find it absurd — but Taiwan's vehicle regulations are playing out exactly that scenario. Ko Ju-Chun pointed out that the UNECE R79 vehicle steering regulation passed in 1988 will not be fully mandated in Taiwan until 2025 — a nearly 40-year-old standard is still blocking the public from using the latest transportation technology. Even more absurdly, R171, which governs Level 2 driving assistance systems, is not expected to be fully implemented until 2032, and R157, governing Level 3 autonomous driving, may not arrive until 2031. Ko Ju-Chun: "Taiwan cannot make AI chips for the whole world while letting its own people be locked out of the tech world by outdated regulations." He proposed two concrete demands: first, to study recognition of certification results from the Netherlands' RDW (road transport authority) for autonomous driving systems, leveraging the long-standing cooperation between Taiwan's VSCC (Vehicle Safety Certification Center) and RDW to accelerate international alignment. Second, to establish a dual-track system that runs European regulations alongside the US's FMVSS self-certification, allowing safe and compliant new technologies onto the road faster while the government retains the powers of spot-testing, recalls, and penalties. Cho Jung-tai pledged on the spot that the Ministry of Transportation would submit study results within one month. On the issue of sovereign AI, Ko Ju-Chun criticized the Ministry of Digital Affairs for stalling the "Regulations for the Promotion of Data Innovation and Utilization Development," pre-announced last year, for 194 days without submitting it to the Legislative Yuan. Of the 34 articles in the draft, 18 are full of the word "may" — "the government may encourage," "agencies may establish." He sarcastically said it might as well be "slight encouragement." Because locally oriented AI training relies on large amounts of local corpus data, but Taiwan's Traditional Chinese data governance is severely inadequate, directly diminishing large language models' understanding of Taiwan's context. Without an active government stance, sovereign AI is just empty talk. On AI equality, he pointed out that the functional gap between free and paid versions of AI tools is significant, and without government intervention, it will only deepen educational and urban-rural divides. Following Ko Ju-Chun's advocacy, the Ministry of Education has approved the "AI in Every Library" policy, providing paid AI services such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini at national libraries starting in Q4 this year. He further demanded that the Executive Yuan launch an "AI Coin" or "Digital Affairs Coin" modeled on the Culture Coin, with a formal plan within two months. Cho Jung-tai responded that an integrated payment direction would be studied within two months. Ko Ju-Chun also called for support of amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act to grant project-based approval for foreign low-Earth-orbit satellite communication service providers to operate in Taiwan, strengthening resilience in disaster prevention, remote areas, and national security communications. What is the dual-track self-driving system proposed by Ko Ju-Chun? The European regulations (UNECE) run in parallel with the US's FMVSS self-certification system, with the government retaining the powers of spot-testing, recalls, and penalties, allowing autonomous vehicles certified by international bodies such as the Netherlands' RDW to enter Taiwan's roads faster without having to be tested from scratch. What is the AI Coin, and when will it launch? Modeled on the Culture Coin, the government would subsidize public use of paid AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude. The Executive Yuan has pledged to propose a formal plan on integrated payment direction before July 2026, with the exact distribution timeline yet to be confirmed.