China bans public beta testing of automated driving systems

Carmakers in China will not be able to test or send over-the-air updates to vehicles already delivered to customers without regulatory approval according to media reports of a meeting of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology that took place earlier this month.  

China is also setting new rules for advertising of assisted driving features, with a ban on companies using misleading terms, including “smart driving” and “autonomous driving”.

The changes followed a fatal high-speed crash that occurred on 29 March involving a Xiaomi SU7.  The vehicle had been operating in an assisted driving mode just before the collision, which killed three people.    Before the changes were announced, the American carmaker Tesla had been planning to offer its misleadingly named “Full Self Driving” feature during a limited trial between 17 March and 16 April.  That trial was put on hold several days before the Xiaomi collision.

Tesla’s FSD Autopilot feature is available in the United States but has been linked to hundreds of crashes.  It is unavailable in Europe as it is incompatible with UNECE and EU regulations.  FSD is a Level 2 assisted driving system which requires constant driver monitoring, not a full self-driving system as its name implies.

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