China's industry ministry announced on Tuesday a set of mandatory safety requirements that apply to vehicles equipped with conditional or highly automated driving systems. The rules will take effect on July 1, 2027, and set a baseline that automated systems must not fall below when compared with human driving performance.
Under the new regulations, the ministry requires automated driving systems to achieve safety levels that are at least equal to those of a qualified and attentive human driver. The ministry emphasized that these systems must not introduce unreasonable safety risks for either vehicle occupants or other road users.
The standards specifically target vehicles fitted with Level 3 and Level 4 automated driving systems. The ministry's definitions for those categories were reiterated: Level 3 systems permit the vehicle to handle driving tasks but require a human driver to be ready to take over when the system requests intervention; Level 4 systems are designed to carry out all driving tasks without human intervention within certain operating conditions or in designated geographic areas.
Automated parking systems have been carved out from these requirements and are explicitly excluded from the new safety rules. The ministry's announcement did not extend the same mandatory thresholds to those parking systems.
The regulation establishes a clear compliance timeline by naming July 1, 2027 as the date when the mandatory requirements come into force. The directive centers on a comparative safety standard - that automated driving solutions must attain a level of safety at least matching that of a qualified, attentive human driver - and on preventing unreasonable safety risks to occupants and other road users.
While the announcement outlines the scope of covered automation levels and the exclusion for automated parking, it leaves procedural details of compliance and enforcement to follow-up guidance. The published mandate focuses on the safety performance expectation and the statutory effective date but does not, in the announcement, provide further operational or testing protocols.
Summary of the rule set:
- Mandatory safety requirements announced by China's industry ministry, effective July 1, 2027.
- Systems must meet safety at least equal to a qualified and attentive human driver and must not create unreasonable safety risks.
- Applies to Level 3 and Level 4 automated driving systems; automated parking systems are excluded.