With the large-scale application of combined driver-assistance systems, safety concerns have become increasingly prominent.
On September 23, it was learned from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) that from January to July 2025, sales of new passenger cars in China equipped with combined driver-assistance systems reached 7.7599 million units, a year-on-year increase of 21.31%.
This penetration rate represents an increase of 6.5 percentage points compared to the previous year and a surge of 40 percentage points compared to the same period in 2021.
Looking at the entire automotive market, several leading automakers in the NEV sector have performed particularly prominently.
Taking BYD as an example, in August 2025, its sales of models equipped with driver-assistance systems reached 263,700 units, accounting for a remarkable 90% share in the domestic market. As of the end of August, the cumulative sales of BYD models equipped with these systems had exceeded 1.4 million units.
With the large-scale application of combined driver-assistance systems, safety concerns have become increasingly prominent. In recent years, some companies have blurred the lines between ‘driver assistance’ and ‘autonomous driving’ in their promotional activities, leading to some drivers lowering their vigilance and engaging in dangerous behaviors such as taking their hands off the wheel for extended periods or becoming distracted.
In response, the MIIT has organized the National Technical Committee of Auto Standardization to draft mandatory national standards. These standards have now been released for public comment, with the deadline set for November 15, 2025.
The standard establishes a three-tier safety safeguard system based on three dimensions: ‘enhancing product performance,’ ‘strengthening safety guarantee requirements,’ and ‘standardizing system usage methods.’ It requires systems to have capabilities for detecting hands-off-the-wheel and driver inattention. Once the system is activated, if the driver removes hands from the wheel or looks away, the system should issue prompts and warnings.
The standard also strictly defines the system’s ‘Operational Design Domain’ (ODD), requiring that the system can only be activated within its intended ODD. For different functions such as single-lane, multi-lane, and navigation-assisted driving, it sets comprehensive safety technical requirements, including human-machine interaction, functional safety and safety of the intended functionality (SOTIF), information security, and data recording.
According to the plan, the MIIT, the Ministry of Transport, and the Beijing Municipal Government will co-host the 2025 World Intelligent Connected Vehicles (ICV) Conference in mid-next month, where safety issues related to intelligent and connected vehicles will be discussed.
The upcoming introduction of these mandatory national standards will fill the gap in the safety baseline for combined driver-assistance system products in China, providing a technical basis for market access, quality supervision, and post-event tracing.
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