China's Autonomous Driving License Issuance Not Suspended: Regulatory Self-Inspection Paves Way for Large-Scale L3 Deployment

Recent foreign media claims that "China has suspended the issuance of high-level autonomous driving licenses" have sparked heated discussions in the industry. After verification, this statement is a misunderstanding of regulatory policies — China is strengthening safety supervision through "self-inspection and rectification," steadily promoting the autonomous driving industry from technological breakthroughs to large-scale safe deployment. The penetration rate of L2-level technology has exceeded 69%, L3-level pilot projects have achieved remarkable results, and L4-level demonstration applications are continuously expanding.

Regulatory Clarification: Strict Review Not Suspension, Safety Inspections Lay Solid Foundation

The misunderstanding originated from a joint meeting on intelligent connected vehicle road testing held by multiple ministries on April 14, 2026. The meeting proposed "conducting comprehensive self-inspection and evaluation" and "strengthening full-process safety supervision," which was misinterpreted by some foreign media as a "suspension of license issuance." Qin Kongjian, chief expert of China Automotive Technology and Research Center (CATARC), clearly responded that China has never stopped approving high-level autonomous driving licenses. Only licenses for driverless operation models are subject to "stricter review and prudent expansion" to regulate industry development through safety risk inspections.

Local governments have quickly responded to regulatory requirements. On May 8, Inner Mongolia held a special seminar to clarify the strict implementation of self-inspection and rectification; pilot cities for autonomous driving such as Chongqing and Beijing have simultaneously refined testing rules. Among them, Chongqing's new regulations require L3-level test vehicles to accumulate a total safe mileage of no less than 2,000 kilometers per batch, and L4-level single vehicles to reach 10,000 kilometers. Currently, the city has opened 2,357 kilometers of test roads and built 561 "smart intersections."

Technology Deployment: Three-Level Phased Advancement, Dual Growth in Penetration and Operational Data

China's autonomous driving is accelerating deployment following a clear path of "L2 popularization — L3 piloting — L4 breakthrough." Data shows that from January to February 2026, the penetration rate of L2-level combined driving assistance in new passenger vehicles reached 69.15%, a year-on-year increase of 10 percentage points, and advanced driver assistance functions have become standard equipment for mainstream models.

L3-level conditional autonomous driving has entered a critical pilot phase. Since the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued the first batch of access licenses in December 2025, Changan Deep Blue SL03 and BAIC Arcfox Alpha S have launched pilot operations on congested roads in Chongqing and highway sections in Beijing respectively. As of May 2026, the cumulative activated mileage of Changan's pilot vehicles has exceeded 150,000 kilometers. Seven automakers including BYD, NIO, and GAC have entered the "pre-qualification" channel for L3 pilots, and more models are expected to be approved from the end of 2026 to 2027.

L4-level and above demonstration applications have achieved commercial breakthroughs in specific scenarios. Changan Automobile obtained the L4-level full-scenario driverless test license in March 2026; WeRide's Robotaxi operates in Guangzhou, Singapore and other places, with Q1 revenue increasing by 115.8% year-on-year and an average of over 17 orders per vehicle per day. In the freight sector, Mainstream Technology's L4-level autonomous trucks have reduced the takeover rate to 0.1‰ in port operations, improving efficiency by 20%, while Neolithic autonomous vehicles have exceeded 150 million kilometers of cumulative driving.

Enterprise Competition: Parallel R&D and Cooperation, In-depth Empowerment by Tech Giants

Leading enterprises are seizing the intelligentization track through dual efforts of independent R&D and ecological cooperation. Changan Automobile has established a R&D team of over 5,000 people, planning to mass-produce end-to-end large-model urban navigation in 2026; Huawei's ADS 5.0 system has been installed on more than 1.7 million vehicles, and Jin Yuzhi, its senior vice president, predicts that 2026 will be the "global autonomous driving first year."

International automakers are accelerating localized adaptation: Volkswagen released the "All-Scenario Intelligent Agent AI" roadmap, planning to mass-produce on-board AI agents in 2026; BMW localizes 70% of its source code development, and its new-generation models are equipped with full-scenario navigation systems; Mercedes-Benz and Audi are cooperating with Chinese technology partners to improve the handling capacity of key scenarios through reinforcement learning large models. In addition, new forces such as XPeng and Xiaomi are taking frequent actions — XPeng plans to launch Robotaxi operations in Guangzhou, while Xiaomi SU7 has realized dialect interaction and multi-task closed-loop functions, with all models recently raising prices by 4,000 yuan due to cost pressures.

Industry Outlook: Policy Support + Ecological Collaboration, Trillion-Yuan Market Taking Shape

As a strategic emerging pillar industry in the 14th Five-Year Plan, China has established a four-in-one safety regulatory system consisting of "national laws and regulations + mandatory national standards + pilot detailed rules." With the implementation of the "Regulations on the Safety Management of Autonomous Driving Vehicle Transportation Services," the issue of liability attribution for L4-level accidents has been clarified, removing key obstacles for commercialization.

Industry experts point out that the autonomous driving industry has shifted from "parameter competition" to "equal emphasis on safety and experience." The cost of core hardware such as lidar has dropped to 2,000-3,000 yuan, and intelligent driving solutions have entered the "3,000-yuan class" era, driving high-level intelligent driving to sink into mid-range models priced at over 100,000 yuan. With technological maturity, improved supervision and expanded application scenarios, China's autonomous driving is steadily moving towards a trillion-yuan industrial scale, becoming a core driver of global automotive industry transformation.​