MIIT Approves Two L3 Autonomous Driving Vehicle Models

On December 15, it was learned by Gasgoo Auto that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially approved two L3-level autonomous driving vehicle models.

Image source: Screenshot from the website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

The Chang'an SC7000AAARBEV pure electric car can achieve autonomous driving functions in single lanes on highways and urban rapid roads in congested traffic environments (with a maximum speed of 50 km/h). Currently, this function is only enabled on certain sections of Chongqing's inner ring expressway, new inner ring expressway (from Haitanyan Interchange to Laijia Bridge Interchange), and Yudu Avenue (from Renhe Interchange to Airport Interchange).

The second is the Extreme Fox BJ7001A61NBEV model pure electric car, which can achieve autonomous driving functions in a single lane on highways and urban expressways (with a maximum speed of 80 km/h). Currently, this function is limited to specific sections of roads, including the Beijing-Taipei Expressway (from Jiukou XinQiao in Daxing District to the Airport North Line Expressway), the Airport North Line Expressway (from Daqiu Nanqiao to Daxing Airport Expressway), and the Daxing Airport Expressway (from the South Sixth Ring Road to the Airport North Line Expressway).

This marks a key step for China's Level 3 autonomous driving to transition from the testing phase to commercial application.

In addition, GAC Aion Hyper officially announced that it has recently obtained the "L3-level specific scenario autonomous driving road test" license (Scenario condition: The vehicle is driving on the designated autonomous driving test highway main road, with a speed ≤ 120 km/h).

Image source: Screenshot from GAC AION's official website

On September 17, the First Division of Equipment Industry of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released a "Public Consultation on the Mandatory National Standard 'Safety Requirements for Combined Driving Assistance Systems of Intelligent Connected Vehicles'" (hereinafter referred to as "the Requirements"). It clearly defines the classification of combined assistance driving systems, defining the L3 level assistance driving system (Level 3 driving automation system) as a conditional automated driving system, where users can completely detach from the driving task in specific scenarios.