Software-defined vehicle (SDV) technology developed by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) has been adopted as the first SDV international standard by the International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T).

The Ministry of Science and ICT and ETRI said on Wednesday that an international standard recommendation and a technical report related to SDV services were formally adopted at an ITU-T Study Group 21 meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland, last month.

The ministry, the Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP) and ETRI have pursued a project titled "Development of guidelines and interface standards for software-defined vehicle services" since 2024, investing 1.1 billion won. The newly adopted recommendation defines technical requirements for application functions such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), service management functions such as wireless updates, and connectivity and networking functions such as cloud integration.

The goal is to provide a blueprint that automakers and software companies can commonly refer to when developing SDV products and services, reducing development burdens caused by differences in company specifications and improving service compatibility.

The technical report includes the SDV concept, wireless updates and cloud-based vehicle management technology, as well as standardisation and industry trends and future standardisation directions. It is expected to be used as a common knowledge base for governments and companies in each country when establishing SDV policy and technology development directions.

Cha Hong-gi (차홍기), head of ETRI's Intelligent Information Standard Research Laboratory, served as the principal investigator. Senior Researcher Kim Seong-han (김성한) served as the recommendation editor, and Senior Researcher Hong Jeong-ha (홍정하) served as the technical report editor.

Cha was appointed the international chair of the ITU-T working group for autonomous driving and in-vehicle multimedia standardisation, in recognition of his contribution to developing the standard. This is the first time a South Korean has been appointed to the full chair position, which has been held by people from the United States and Japan.

Park Tae-wan (박태완), director-general for information and communications industry policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "It is a remarkable achievement that the Republic of Korea, a strong automotive nation, can now lead not only vehicle manufacturing but also international software standards." He added, "We will also actively support research into international standards related to end-to-end (E2E) autonomous driving, following SDV."