China makes its L3 and L4 automated-driving safety standard mandatory from July 2027
MIIT said on August 4 that GB 44721—2026 had been approved as a mandatory national standard, replacing the recommended version and setting a single safety baseline for conditional and high automation.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on August 4 that GB 44721—2026, “Intelligent and connected vehicle — Safety requirements for automated driving system,” had been approved and issued on July 30 by the State Administration for Market Regulation and the National Standardization Administration. The ministry said the standard was intended to take effect on July 1, 2027.
It applies to M- and N-category vehicles carrying L3 conditional or L4 high automation systems, and does not cover automated parking. The national standards platform records it as fully replacing GB/T 44721-2024, the recommended standard on general technical requirements for automated driving systems, under a project opened at the end of 2025 with a 16-month cycle.
MIIT described four groups of requirements. Manufacturers must build lifecycle safety assurance across safety policy, risk management, safety assurance and safety improvement, spanning design, production and the period after deployment, and must run simulation, test-track and road testing during validation. The system’s safety level must reach at least that of a competent and attentive driver carrying out the dynamic driving task, with defined triggers for minimum-risk strategies. Activation and exit must be safe, the system must indicate its ready, active and exited states, and L3 systems must monitor whether the driver is able to take over. Conformity is checked through a combination of enterprise assurance-capability inspection, safety-dossier inspection and third-party confirmatory testing under three existing recommended standards covering track, road and simulation methods.
The ministry noted that two L3-level models received conditional approval in China during 2025, and that the standard sets more detailed requirements for L3 and L4 than the United Nations automated driving global technical regulation approved in June 2026.
Source: MIIT, Equipment Industry Department I, August 4, 2026. Standard record and superseded standard from the national standards information platform.
Source: Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Equipment Industry Department I