China likely to be second country to recognize L3 autonomous vehicles after Germany

Beijing (Gasgoo)- China local authorities are said to recognize autonomous driving vehicles as part of the open road traffic participants, therefore issuing L3 autonomous vehicles with official license plates, reliable sources told a local media outlet on March 14th. 

Photo credit: Baidu Apollo

Currently, autonomous driving vehicles that are permitted to operate on open roads in China hang specialized paper plates by requirement. If the information has proven true, China will most likely be the second country to greenlight the mass production of L3 passenger vehicles worldwide, after Germany.

L3 autonomous driving is known as conditional driving automation. It adopts various ADAS and AI technologies to make autonomous driving decisions based on the surrounding environment. Human drivers inside the vehicle are not demanded to supervise the system so that one can engage in other activities onboard. However, a human driver must be present, alert, and able to take control of the vehicle at all times in the case of an emergency.

Greenlighting the technology under China’s current traffic regulations means that text and drive are no longer a citable offense when the L3 autonomous driving function is initiated.

On January 26th 2021, the city of Beijing released a report demonstrating the city’s achievements in the autonomous driving road test field in 2021.

According to the report, by the end of 2021, the city has accommodated 170 autonomous driving vehicles from 16 entities, accumulating 3.912 million km of safe autonomous driving road test mileage, growing consecutively for three years. Additionally, 124 of the testing vehicles were with safety drivers, accumulating 2.51 million km of road test mileage, with over 300,000 people participating in the pilot operation.