The revised draft of the Road Traffic Safety Law has entered the review process, and the accident identification principles for "autonomous driving" and "assisted driving" are different

On August 25th, the revised draft of the Road Traffic Safety Law (referred to as the "Draft") was submitted for initial review by the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress. The most noticeable change is the addition of the special chapter "Special regulations for autonomous vehicle". For the first time at the national legal level, different principles for handling traffic accidents that occur in the autonomous driving function (L3, L4) and assisted driving function (L2) states have been distinguished. The draft proposes that if road traffic safety violations occur while the autonomous driving function is activated, the production and import enterprises shall accept the punishment; Driving a vehicle with only auxiliary driving function on the road shall be managed according to the regulations of non autonomous vehicle. In the past two months, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has just issued two mandatory technical national standards for autonomous driving and assisted driving, setting entry thresholds for mass production technology for L2 NOA assisted driving vehicles and L3/L4 advanced autonomous driving vehicles, respectively. Both national standards will be officially implemented on July 1, 2027. It is expected that after the implementation of the new Road Traffic Safety Law, supporting regulations related to the registration of autonomous driving vehicles, illegal handling, accident identification, insurance details, etc. will also be gradually introduced. At present, from the technical threshold of vehicle manufacturing to the responsibility determination of vehicles on the road, relevant technical standards and regulations are accelerating, and it is expected that a preliminary and complete intelligent connected vehicle application ecosystem will be formed by 2027.