China has emerged as a key architect of global autonomous driving rules after helping develop the world's first harmonized technical regulation for the field, a milestone expected to reshape how self-driving vehicles are designed, tested and certified across international markets.
As the first global regulation covering the full life cycle of Level 3 and Level 4 automated driving systems, the new rules — known as ADS GTR — were recently adopted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and were jointly led by China, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Japan.
The regulation establishes a common set of technical requirements spanning system design, testing, validation, deployment and post-market safety management, replacing fragmented national rules with a unified framework, according to the UNECE.
"This is a landmark achievement in the evolution of the global automotive industry," said An Tiecheng, chairman of China Automotive Technology and Research Center, which played a key role in the development of the regulation. "It not only establishes a unified benchmark for market access across different jurisdictions, but also lays a solid foundation for the safe and large-scale deployment of autonomous driving technologies worldwide."
