Proposals on future of self-driving tech tabled

Automotive executives have put smart driving at the center of attention during the ongoing two sessions with a broad consensus that advancing from Level 2 assisted driving to higher levels of autonomy requires balancing technological innovation with safety.

China's assisted driving technology has advanced with L2 systems in passenger vehicles accounting for more than 60 percent of new passenger vehicle sales in 2025.

Meanwhile, L3 systems are moving toward large-scale commercial pilots as the country has issued the first batch of access permits for such models and the number of L4 pilot zones and test vehicles has increased.

However, China has not yet approved nationwide use of L3 or higher-level vehicles.

Deputy to the National People's Congress and Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun emphasized the need to establish a traffic safety and road civility system for the intelligent vehicle era.

He stressed the need for clarifying automakers' primary responsibilities, strengthening accurate promotion and guidance of assisted driving functions by manufacturers and sellers, enhancing corporate self-discipline in marketing, and educating consumers on the boundaries of intelligent features.

He also proposed accelerating nationwide testing of autonomous driving through cross-regional recognition and expanding pilot programs. Lei also called for creating a dedicated insurance system with clear liability definitions and building a national legal framework with unified terminology standards.

NPC Deputy and XPeng Motors CEO He Xiaopeng believes that China's current advantages in L2 need to be transformed into future competitiveness in the L4 era through policy innovation. He proposed that the industry should skip the L3 stage — burdened by complex liability definitions — and leap directly from L2 to L4 autonomous driving.

He suggested establishing a unified national L4 road testing registration and traffic management system while retaining L2 safety oversight mechanisms, and revising traffic rules based on the characteristics of human-driven and autonomous vehicle driving.

From a legal standpoint, L2 and L4 systems have clear responsible parties: the human driver and the vehicle itself, respectively. L3, which involves human-vehicle co-driving, faces unresolved challenges such as ambiguous liability, inconsistent system alerts and liability disputes. These complexities justify skipping L3 to pursue direct L4 deployment, according to a lawyer specializing in autonomous driving law.

Meanwhile, some deputies focused on advancing L3 commercialization.

Feng Xingya, NPC deputy and chairman of GAC Group, suggested accelerating the opening of L3 testing to users and expanding the application scale and promoting batch demonstration operations for L4 autonomous driving.

NPC Deputy and Changan Chairman Zhu Huarong emphasized that L3 commercialization requires "equal emphasis on safety and innovation", suggesting subsidies for core components and streamlined testing processes. Changan's Deepal brand was among the first to obtain L3 road test permits in December 2025.

As the operational design domain for autonomous and combined driving assistance systems expands, the industrial ecosystem — encompassing vehicle R&D, system validation, software-hardware coordination, standard-setting, safety mechanisms and insurance claims — is becoming more complex.

Zhang Tao, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and director of BMW Brilliance's Tiexi plant in Shenyang, Liaoning province, suggested establishing unified autonomous driving data standards and a sharing platform, setting up a national-level safety assessment center, and improving liability determination and insurance mechanisms.

Other key topics discussed included humanoid robots, flying cars, overseas automotive services and talent cultivation at the two sessions.