Taiwanese Legislator Ko Ju-chun pulled out a 1980s "brick" mobile phone during a legislative questioning session on July 12, challenging Premier Cho Jung-tai: if the government forced everyone to use only brick phones and banned iPhones, society would find it absurd — but Taiwan's vehicle regulations are doing exactly that. He slammed local autonomous driving rules as nearly 40 years outdated, leaving Taiwanese people "able to see AI but unable to use AI."
1988 Rules Still Blocking Level 2 Autonomy Until 2032
Ko pointed out that the UNECE R79 vehicle steering regulation, passed in 1988, was only fully enforced in Taiwan in 2025 — a near 40-year-old standard still blocking the public from using the latest automotive technology. Even more absurd, the R171 regulation governing Level 2 driver assistance is not scheduled for full implementation until 2032, while the R157 for Level 3 autonomous driving might not arrive until 2031. "Taiwan makes AI chips for the world, yet locks its own people out of the tech world with outdated regulations," Ko said on the floor.
He proposed two concrete demands: first, to study recognition of the Netherlands' RDW certification for autonomous driving systems, leveraging the long-term cooperation between Taiwan's VSCC and RDW to speed up international alignment; second, to establish a dual-track system that runs both the EU UNECE standards and the US FMVSS self-certification, while the government retains authority to conduct spot checks, recalls, and penalties. Premier Cho promised a report from the Ministry of Transportation within one month.
AI Data Act Stalled for 194 Days, 'AI Coin' Proposed
On sovereign AI, Ko criticized the Ministry of Digital Affairs for stalling the draft "Data Innovation and Utilization Development Act" for 194 days without sending it to the Legislative Yuan. The 34-article draft contains 18 articles filled with the word "may" — "the government may encourage," "agencies may establish" — which Ko mocked as "micro-encouragement." Since local AI training relies heavily on localized corpora, Taiwan's insufficient traditional Chinese data governance directly undermines large language models' understanding of local contexts, making sovereign AI an empty promise without proactive government action.
Regarding AI equity, Ko noted the widening gap between free and paid AI tools. If the government doesn't intervene, it will only deepen educational and urban-rural disparities. Thanks to Ko's efforts, the Ministry of Education approved the "AI in Every Library" policy, which will offer paid AI services like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini at national libraries starting Q4 this year. He further demanded the Executive Yuan launch an "AI Coin" or "Digital Development Coin" modeled after the existing cultural voucher program, with a formal proposal within two months. Premier Cho responded that a study on integrated payment methods would be delivered within two months.
Ko also called for support of the amendment to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act, which would allow foreign low-earth-orbit satellite communication operators to enter Taiwan under special approval, bolstering disaster relief, rural connectivity, and national security communication resilience.