China’s draft amendment to road traffic law includes autonomous vehicles

China’s State Council approved a major revision of the country’s Road Traffic Safety Law on June 12, sending the draft to the National People’s Congress for legislative review. The revision includes an entire chapter dedicated to autonomous vehicles, marking the first time self-driving technology has been addressed at the national legislative level in China. The move is designed to create a unified legal framework for testing, operating, and assigning liability for autonomous vehicles across the country. Until now, the rules governing self-driving cars in China have been a patchwork of local regulations, with cities like Shenzhen and Beijing writing their own playbooks in 2022 and 2024 respectively. What the law actually covers The draft law tackles the thorniest question in autonomous driving: when a car with no human behind the wheel causes an accident, who pays? The revision explicitly delineates liability among drivers, vehicle owners, system operators, and developers. The legislation is paired with a new mandatory national safety standard, GB 44721-2026, which was approved on July 30. This standard targets Level 3 and Level 4 autonomous systems specifically. For context, L3 me...