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Follow what Martin Wöhrle has been up to. imo SK is poised to become a real leader the future of transportation. I've been fortunate enough to have taken the la

by neom 6y ago

Follow what Martin Wöhrle has been up to. imo SK is poised to become a real leader the future of transportation. I've been fortunate enough to have taken the last year off as a sabbatical and spent almost a year in Seoul both getting to know my in-laws and getting to know the Korean tech ecosystem. There is a real push by the top of SK to have the Chaebols play well together on "paradigm shifting" transit technology. I had the pleasure of meeting some super cool people (mostly French and German) at Hyundai(/and kia) working on really really interesting transit models.

r00fus 6y ago
Man, I’d love to hear more about those details if you’re able to share.
- neom 6y ago
  Honestly probably what you already know. When you're effectively a nation state like SK (with all due respect), it's super easy to have conversations among all the players about linking (all) the traffic management systems to the modalities to the consumer experience, air or ground. Koreans are very used to multimodal transit, and have a rapid adoption rate of new technologies. If you're comfortable creating an integrated("open") information traffic system, agree to conform to standards, things like literally leaving your car stuck in traffic to drive itself to the office and switching to an electric scooter that your car automatically booked for you just up the street from your location becomes a lot easier. A lot of the primitive to create new transit systems are there, it's the cooperation/integration and government will that is missing, South Korea has these in spades.
  - albertshin 6y ago
    curious to see what you think about the government's reluctance to adapt though. south korea is one of the few developed countries where UberX still can't operate, and a similar Korean rideshare company (Tada) was forced to pivot after taxi drivers protested. on the topic of mobility: e-scooter businesses are also now at risk technically you need a literal drivers license to ride one since November...
    - neom 6y ago
      They "adapt" just fine, actually changing regulation to block foreign companies is them adapting. it seems to work pretty well, Uber isn't in the Chaebol so why should uber operate? It provides no value to further the ecosystem in SK. It's much easier for kakao to watch how other companies do it and simply copy it. SK is more similar to China in that regard, and it's probably to their favour. As of December 10th, scooters got reclassified to bikes, so now you just need to be over 10 and you do not require a drivers license. People of all ages use Lime in Seoul, there is no verification.
      - tooltalk 6y ago
        >>They "adapt" just fine, actually changing regulation to block foreign companies is them adapting. Can you give an example of "blocking" foreign companies? My understanding is that under recent trade agreement with America, for instance, American import cars are exempt from South Korean's regulation and don't even have to satisfy Korea's local safety standard. There are also similar arrangements with EU and Japan. Also due to the country's lax product liability laws that often favor business than consumers, a lot of domestic, foreign car makers have been getting away with defects that would have certainly raised ire elsewhere. The share of imported cars likewise has been increasing quite a bit: in 2019, there were 1.5M new passenger car registrations in South Korea; 250K were imports -- mostly Germans though -- or about 16% of all registered cars. The share of foreign companies' cars almost tripled in 10 years. >> It's much easier for kakao to watch how other companies do it and simply copy it. SK is more similar to China in that regard ... Uber isn't in the Chaebol so why should uber operate?... I don't think I could agree with this either. Both Uber and other domestic ride hailing services, most notably Kakao and Tada, faced significant pushback from taxi drivers. Tada as mentioned by @albertshin was forced to shutdown after the National assembly essentially made it illegal after such pushback from organized labor unions and the taxi industry: https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3076144/south-korea-ride-hailing-apps-face-against-powerful-taxi-unions https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3076144/sou... Perhaps you are unfamiliar with the militant labor movement in SK, but I don't there is hardly anything equivalent to this elsewhere in China.
deleted 6y ago
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by neom 6y ago

r00fus 6y ago

Man, I’d love to hear more about those details if you’re able to share.

neom 6y ago
Honestly probably what you already know. When you're effectively a nation state like SK (with all due respect), it's super easy to have conversations among all the players about linking (all) the traffic management systems to the modalities to the consumer experience, air or ground. Koreans are very used to multimodal transit, and have a rapid adoption rate of new technologies. If you're comfortable creating an integrated("open") information traffic system, agree to conform to standards, things like literally leaving your car stuck in traffic to drive itself to the office and switching to an electric scooter that your car automatically booked for you just up the street from your location becomes a lot easier. A lot of the primitive to create new transit systems are there, it's the cooperation/integration and government will that is missing, South Korea has these in spades.
- albertshin 6y ago
  curious to see what you think about the government's reluctance to adapt though. south korea is one of the few developed countries where UberX still can't operate, and a similar Korean rideshare company (Tada) was forced to pivot after taxi drivers protested. on the topic of mobility: e-scooter businesses are also now at risk technically you need a literal drivers license to ride one since November...
  - neom 6y ago
    They "adapt" just fine, actually changing regulation to block foreign companies is them adapting. it seems to work pretty well, Uber isn't in the Chaebol so why should uber operate? It provides no value to further the ecosystem in SK. It's much easier for kakao to watch how other companies do it and simply copy it. SK is more similar to China in that regard, and it's probably to their favour. As of December 10th, scooters got reclassified to bikes, so now you just need to be over 10 and you do not require a drivers license. People of all ages use Lime in Seoul, there is no verification.
    - tooltalk 6y ago
      >>They "adapt" just fine, actually changing regulation to block foreign companies is them adapting. Can you give an example of "blocking" foreign companies? My understanding is that under recent trade agreement with America, for instance, American import cars are exempt from South Korean's regulation and don't even have to satisfy Korea's local safety standard. There are also similar arrangements with EU and Japan. Also due to the country's lax product liability laws that often favor business than consumers, a lot of domestic, foreign car makers have been getting away with defects that would have certainly raised ire elsewhere. The share of imported cars likewise has been increasing quite a bit: in 2019, there were 1.5M new passenger car registrations in South Korea; 250K were imports -- mostly Germans though -- or about 16% of all registered cars. The share of foreign companies' cars almost tripled in 10 years. >> It's much easier for kakao to watch how other companies do it and simply copy it. SK is more similar to China in that regard ... Uber isn't in the Chaebol so why should uber operate?... I don't think I could agree with this either. Both Uber and other domestic ride hailing services, most notably Kakao and Tada, faced significant pushback from taxi drivers. Tada as mentioned by @albertshin was forced to shutdown after the National assembly essentially made it illegal after such pushback from organized labor unions and the taxi industry: https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3076144/south-korea-ride-hailing-apps-face-against-powerful-taxi-unions https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3076144/sou... Perhaps you are unfamiliar with the militant labor movement in SK, but I don't there is hardly anything equivalent to this elsewhere in China.

deleted 6y ago

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