China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced that the mandatory national standard, "Safety Requirements for Intelligent and Connected Vehicles - Autonomous Driving Systems," has been approved and released. This standard, drafted and managed by the MIIT, is scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2027, and will establish a unified safety baseline for autonomous driving product approvals.

In recent years, China's autonomous driving technology has accelerated its development, with test demonstrations for intelligent connected vehicles progressing in an orderly manner. In 2025, two L3-level (conditional automation) vehicle models were granted conditional access permits. To meet the higher demands for standardization driven by the rapid industrial growth, the MIIT has expedited the development of the intelligent connected vehicle standards system and the creation of critical, urgently needed standards.

The newly released standard applies to M-class (motor vehicles with at least four wheels used for passenger transport) and N-class (motor vehicles with at least four wheels used for goods transport) vehicles equipped with L3 and L4 (high automation) systems, but does not cover automated parking systems. The standard requires that the safety level of an autonomous driving system must be at least equivalent to that of a qualified and attentive driver currently performing the dynamic driving task, while also ensuring it does not pose unreasonable safety risks to users or other road users.

Building on this foundation, the standard specifies the safety requirements for the system to execute dynamic driving tasks in various scenarios. It also clarifies the requirements for triggering and executing a minimal risk condition. Additionally, the standard regulates human-machine interaction and user information requirements to prevent risks from misuse and abuse. It mandates that the activation and deactivation of the autonomous driving system must be safe, and standardizes the specifications for status information and signals indicating states such as ready, activated, and deactivated. For L3-level systems, the standard also requires a driver takeover capability monitoring function.

The MIIT stated that it will strengthen the management of intelligent connected vehicle product access to ensure the safe and compliant application of autonomous driving systems. Concurrently, it will continue to improve supporting standards, such as those for autonomous driving test methods and safety event data interaction and management systems, to accelerate the construction of a comprehensive regulatory framework for intelligent connected vehicles and speed up the industrialization and large-scale adoption of autonomous driving technology.