China has approved its first mandatory national safety standard for L3 and L4 autonomous driving, setting a unified bar for vehicles that can drive themselves.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s standard, Safety Requirements for Autonomous Driving Systems of Intelligent and Connected Vehicles, was formally approved on 30 July and takes full effect on 1 July next year. It covers M-class passenger and N-class goods vehicles running L3 (conditional automation) and L4 (high automation). Automated parking is excluded.
Makers must build safety assurance across the full lifecycle, from design and manufacturing to post-deployment, to shut down hazards at the source. The system’s safety must at least match that of a competent, attentive human driver, and it must not pose unreasonable risk to other road users. When it cannot cope, it needs a minimal-risk strategy: safely pulling over out of the way.
Drivers must get clear signals on when the system is ready, active, or disengaged. L3 cars must also monitor whether the driver is attentive and ready to take over. Makers have to state plainly, on their websites and in-car screens, what the car can and cannot do.
To reach the road, a vehicle must clear three gates: simulation, which is optional, then a field test, a road test, and a third-party comprehensive inspection. No step can be skipped.
China led the UN’s global technical regulation, ADS GTR, published this June, but the national standard goes further, with clearer level splits, more specific user disclosure, and a unified standardised test-scenario system the drafters say fits Chinese road conditions better. Two L3 models already won conditional market access in 2025, and the standard is meant to draw a clear safety baseline for large-scale commercialisation.
Original report: Shenzhen News Network.
Translated and adapted from Shenzhen News Network (sznews.com).