The mandatory national standard “Safety Requirements for Autonomous Driving Systems for Intelligent Connected Vehicles” was officially released

The Zhitong Finance App learned that on July 30, the mandatory national standard “Safety Requirements for Autonomous Driving Systems for Intelligent Connected Vehicles” (GB 44721-2026) organized and formulated by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology was approved and issued by the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration and the National Standardization Administration. It is scheduled to be officially implemented on July 1, 2027.

In recent years, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation has continued to deepen. China's autonomous driving technology has accelerated iterative breakthroughs, road testing demonstrations for intelligent connected vehicles have progressed in an orderly manner, and two L3 class (conditional autonomous driving) models have obtained conditional entry permits in 2025. In order to actively adapt to the higher demands placed on standardization work by rapid industrial development, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has accelerated the construction of an intelligent connected vehicle standard system and the development of key urgently needed standards, and will organize the National Automobile Standardization Technical Committee to initiate the formulation of mandatory national standards for the “Safety Requirements for Autonomous Driving Systems for Intelligent Connected Vehicles” starting in 2025.

The “Safety Requirements for Autonomous Driving Systems for Intelligent Connected Vehicles” applies to Class M and Class N vehicles equipped with L3 and L4 (highly autonomous driving) systems, and does not apply to automated parking systems. The standard is based on the actual needs of China's industrial development and industry supervision, takes into account technical feasibility, industrial adaptability and implementation practicality, and establishes a safety requirement system with complete dimensions, clear requirements, and adapts to national conditions.

The first is to improve the security guarantee mechanism for the entire life cycle of the enterprise and establish a solid foundation of safety. The standard requires vehicle manufacturers to establish guarantee capabilities covering the entire process of product design, development, manufacturing, and deployment from the four dimensions of safety policy, risk management, safety assurance, and safety improvement to reduce potential safety risks of autonomous driving systems at the source. At the same time, it is clear that vehicle manufacturers should organize and carry out corresponding simulation, site and road tests in the autonomous driving system development and verification process, and ensure that relevant test resources and conditions meet R&D and verification requirements.

The second is to strengthen the system's ability to perform dynamic driving tasks to ensure safe use. The standard requires that the safety level of autonomous driving systems should at least reach the level of being qualified and focused on drivers who are undertaking dynamic driving tasks, and must not cause unreasonable safety risks to users and other road users. On this basis, clarify the safety requirements for the system to perform dynamic driving tasks in various scenarios, and clarify the triggering and execution requirements for minimum risk strategies.

The third is to standardize human-computer interaction and user notification requirements to prevent the risk of misuse and misuse. The standard requires that the activation and exit process of the autonomous driving system should be safe, and that the notification specifications for status information and signals such as readiness, activation, and exit should be clarified. L3 autonomous driving systems should also be equipped with a driver's ability to monitor their ability to take over. At the same time, in addition to product user manuals, vehicle manufacturers are also required to clearly inform users of key information such as driving automation level, range of capabilities, limitations, control strategies, and user role changes through official websites, in-vehicle display terminals, etc., to guide users to correctly recognize and use them.

Fourth, improve multi-dimensional inspection and testing methods to ensure that standards can be implemented. The standard establishes a multi-integrated inspection and testing system of “enterprise assurance capability test+safety file inspection+confirmatory test” to test the integrity and robustness of enterprise safety capabilities and product safety files. On this basis, third-party testing agencies conduct confirmatory tests based on the recommended national standards of GB/T 41798 “Field Test Methods and Requirements for Autonomous Driving Functions of Intelligent Connected Vehicles”, GB/T 44719 “Road Test Methods and Requirements for Autonomous Driving Functions of Intelligent Connected Vehicles”, and GB/T 47025 “Simulation Test Methods and Requirements for Autonomous Driving Functions of Intelligent Connected Vehicles”, using comprehensive methods such as field tests, road tests, simulation tests, etc., to ensure comprehensive inspection and testing of the actual capabilities of autonomous driving systems.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Global Technical Regulation for Autonomous Driving Systems (ADS GTR), which was spearheaded by China, was officially approved and issued in June 2026. Compared with ADS GTR, China's standards put forward more detailed technical requirements for L3 and L4 autonomous driving systems, further clarifying the safety boundaries of products at different levels, improving user usage notifications, operation training, etc., and innovatively constructing a unified standardized test scenario system. While maintaining the coordination of core technical requirements with international regulations, it is more in line with the actual needs of China's road traffic environment and industry management, and is more feasible to implement.

The publication and implementation of the “Safety Requirements for Autonomous Driving Systems for Intelligent Connected Vehicles” has clarified a unified safety entry baseline for autonomous driving products. It is of great significance in standardizing the R&D and application of autonomous driving technology, improving the level of road traffic safety, compacting the main responsibility for corporate safety, and protecting the healthy and sustainable development of the industry. In the next step, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will solidly publicize, interpret and implement standards, strengthen intelligent connected vehicle product entry management, and ensure safe compliance application of autonomous driving systems; at the same time, continue to improve supporting standards such as autonomous driving test methods, safety incident data interaction and management systems, accelerate the construction of a complete intelligent connected vehicle supervision system, accelerate the large-scale industrialization process of autonomous driving technology, and lead the high-quality development of China's intelligent connected vehicle industry.

This article was selected from the “Ministry of Industry and Information Technology” official website, Zhitong Finance Editor: Liu Jiayin.