A clear regulatory signal is circulating in China’s auto industry: the external ‘blue light’ that marks a car’s assisted-driving system as active will be banned on all passenger cars, because it fails the national standard GB4785 on the installation of exterior lighting and light-signal devices.
The blue light is a recent add-on from many new-force carmakers, designed to tell pedestrians and other road users that the vehicle’s assisted-driving function is running. Multiple manufacturers have internally confirmed receiving formal notices, and Geely publicly said it is aware of the requirement and will strictly follow national rules as it adjusts its models, pending further detail from the regulator.
From 27 July 2026, all new-model certifications must not carry a non-compliant blue-light configuration – the rule has entered the enforcement phase. The current standard permits only white, yellow, red and amber for exterior lamps; blue was never among the allowed external-light colours. In other words, the assisted-driving blue light was never a compliant exterior lamp to begin with.
Analysts expect carmakers to resolve the legacy issue on existing models through over-the-air updates. Many ADAS blue lights reuse the same lamp module as the turn signal, so a software change to display colour and trigger logic can bring a vehicle into line without hardware modification.
Source (Chinese original): Sohu IT
Translated and adapted from Sohu IT (it.sohu.com).