Four Departments Launch Major Inspection on Vehicle Production Consistency; Revised Road Traffic Safety Law Clarifies Liability for Level 3 Autonomous Driving

On August 27, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE), and the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) jointly issued a notice launching a nationwide one-year special campaign to enhance production consistency and product quality of road motor vehicles. The initiative will focus on addressing issues related to production consistency, reliability, durability, and testing and validation of new technologies. On August 25, a draft amendment to the Road Traffic Safety Law was submitted for its first reading at the 24th session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress. The draft includes a dedicated chapter titled "Special Provisions on Automated Driving Vehicles," which clarifies the conceptual boundaries between automated driving vehicles and driver-assistance systems. It stipulates that when traffic safety violations occur while an automated driving function is active, the vehicle manufacturer or importer shall be held accountable. Vehicles whose automated driving functions are not activated, as well as those equipped only with driver-assistance capabilities, will be regulated as non-automated vehicles, with liability resting solely on the human driver. According to data, since 2024, passenger vehicles equipped with Level 2 (L2) combined driver-assistance systems have reached a market penetration rate of 70.5% in China, and the first batch of Level 3 (L3) conditionally automated vehicles has already begun operating on public roads in designated areas. The special campaign requires automakers to thoroughly assess risks associated with new products—including user behavior patterns, potential for misuse, and extreme usage scenarios—conduct rigorous testing of driver-assistance and automated driving functions, implement comprehensive cybersecurity, data security, and AI safety measures, and maintain complete operational logs for incident investigations.