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China has issued GB 44721-2026, a mandatory national standard covering L3 and L4 automated driving systems, approved on July 30, 2026 and taking effect on July 1, 2027
China now has a mandatory safety standard aimed squarely at systems that drive the car. Read it with one caveat in front: we can establish that this standard exists, who issued it and when it bites, but we have not read its text.
What we can and cannot tell you: We have not reviewed the text of GB 44721-2026. It does not appear in the SAMR public full-text standards database, which notes that some standards fall outside public disclosure scope. What follows reports the standard's issuance, legal status, scope and effective date, plus the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's own characterisation of it as relayed by state media. It is not a clause-by-clause account of its requirements, and nothing here should be read as the words of the standard.
Bottom line: The standard, titled Intelligent Connected Vehicles, Safety Requirements for Automated Driving Systems, was approved and issued on July 30, 2026 by the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Standardization Administration. It takes effect on July 1, 2027.
Who it covers: Vehicles of categories M and N carrying L3 and L4 systems. It expressly does not apply to automatic parking systems.
The transition: Reported as a one year transition. Newly type-approved models comply from the effective date; models already holding type approval from the thirteenth month.
Why the status matters: This is a mandatory standard, a GB rather than a GB/T. In China that distinction is the whole game: products that do not conform may not be produced or sold.
Primary sources: SAMR public standards database (search 44721) · Ministry of Industry and Information Technology · State Administration for Market Regulation
- Instrument (EN)
- Intelligent Connected Vehicles, Safety Requirements for Automated Driving Systems
- Instrument (ZH)
- 智能网联汽车 自动驾驶系统安全要求
- Number
- GB 44721-2026. The GB prefix, without a T, denotes a mandatory national standard
- Issuing authorities
- State Administration for Market Regulation and the Standardization Administration
- Drafting
- Organised by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology through the National Technical Committee on Auto Standardization, begun 2025
- Approved and issued
- July 30, 2026
- Effective
- July 1, 2027, reported with a one year transition
- Scope
- M and N category vehicles carrying L3 and L4 automated driving systems
- Excluded
- Automatic parking systems
- Do not confuse with
- GB/T 44721-2024, a recommended standard with a different title. See the disambiguation note below
- Primary source
- https://openstd.samr.gov.cn/bzgk/std/std_list_type?p.p1=1&p.p90=circulation_date&p.p91=desc
What we verified, and what we did not
Start with the evidence, because the basis for this piece is unusual and you should be able to weigh it yourself.
We have not read GB 44721-2026. A search of the SAMR public database of mandatory national standards for 44721 returns no result for the 2026 instrument, and the database states that a standard may fall outside the scope of public disclosure. So the text is not available to us through the official channel, and we have not gone looking for it through standards resellers either. Either a text is read and cited properly or it is not used.
What can be established is narrower and firm. Five consistent surfaces report the same operative facts: the state news agency Xinhua in a bylined report sourced to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the government site ncsti.gov.cn, Science and Technology Daily, a longer account carried by Xinhuanet, and China Daily. They agree on the number, the title, the approving authorities, the July 30 approval date, the July 1, 2027 effective date, the transition mechanics, the M and N category scope with L3 and L4 systems, the exclusion of automatic parking, and the mandatory status.
That is enough to report that this standard exists and what it will govern. It is not enough to report what it says.
Not the same standard as GB/T 44721-2024
This is the trap on this story, and it will catch anyone who checks the standards database.
GB/T 44721-2024, titled General Technical Requirements for Automated Driving Systems and dated September 2024, is a recommended standard and remains separately listed. GB 44721-2026, Safety Requirements for Automated Driving Systems, approved July 30, 2026, is a mandatory standard. They share a root number but differ in year, in title, and in legal force. The GB/T to GB shift is the marker: recommended becomes mandatory.
Public reporting describes the 2026 instrument as an upgrade and rename of the 2024 project. That is what the sources say, and we report it as such. It is not confirmation that GB/T 44721-2024 has been formally withdrawn or superseded, and you should not take that from this page.
One more thing if you go checking. A search of the SAMR public database for 44721 returns the 2024 GB/T entry and not the 2026 mandatory standard, which is reported as outside current public disclosure scope. That absence is not evidence the 2026 standard does not exist. It is the disclosure gap described above.
What the ministry says it does
Everything in this section is the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's characterisation of the standard, as reported by Xinhua and other state media. It is not our reading of the text, because we have not read the text. Treat each item as a reported description rather than as a requirement we have verified.
MIIT's account, as relayed by state media, describes four strands. The first is a whole-lifecycle safety assurance obligation on vehicle manufacturers, spanning safety policy, risk management, safety assurance and safety improvement, and covering design and development, manufacture and the period after deployment, with simulation, closed-course and road testing during development and validation.
The second is a benchmark for how well the system must drive. MIIT is reported as saying the safety level of an automated driving system should at least reach that of a competent and attentive driver performing the dynamic driving task, and that it should not create unreasonable safety risk for users or other road users, with requirements for when a minimum risk manoeuvre is triggered.
The third concerns the handover. The reported account covers safe activation and exit, prescribed signalling for ready, active and exit states, and for L3 systems a function that monitors whether the driver is in a position to take over. Manufacturers are described as being able to inform users about automation level, capability boundaries, limitations and role changes through the owner's manual and also through official channels and in-vehicle displays.
The fourth is how conformity gets tested: a three part regime combining inspection of the manufacturer's assurance capability, inspection of a safety dossier, and confirmatory testing, with third party testing drawing on separate recommended standards for closed-course, road and simulation methods.
We are deliberately not going further than that. Thresholds, test protocols, signal timing and the contents of the safety dossier are exactly the kind of clause-level detail that would require reading the standard.
Why a July 2027 date is a now problem
The temptation with a standard that bites in eleven months is to file it under later. That is the wrong read for two reasons.
The first is the transition mechanics. As reported, new type approvals face the requirement from the effective date, while models that already hold type approval get until the thirteenth month. If you are bringing a new L3 or L4 model to the Chinese market, the binding date is the earlier one, and type approval work runs well ahead of launch.
The second is the conformity regime. A safety dossier and an assurance-capability inspection are not artefacts you assemble in the last quarter. They describe processes that have to have been running during design and development. A manufacturer that starts building the record when the standard takes effect has already missed the period the record is supposed to document.
The scope boundary is worth holding onto as well, because it is narrower than the coverage suggests. This standard is aimed at systems that perform the driving task, L3 and L4, on M and N category vehicles. Automatic parking is expressly outside it. Driving assistance sits under a different mandatory standard with a different number and a different date.
China approved GB 44721-2026, a mandatory national standard for L3 and L4 automated driving systems, on July 30, 2026, effective July 1, 2027 with a reported one year transition. It covers M and N category vehicles and excludes automatic parking. We have established its issuance, status, scope and dates. We have not read its text, so nothing here is a statement of what the standard says, and the substantive description is the ministry's own account as relayed by state media.
Source File
https://openstd.samr.gov.cn/bzgk/std/std_list_type?p.p1=1&p.p90=circulation_date&p.p91=desc
To check this yourself: open the SAMR public standards platform and search the mandatory national standards list for 44721. At the time of writing that search returns the 2024 GB/T entry and no 2026 entry, and the platform notes that a standard may fall outside the scope of public disclosure. That is the disclosure gap this piece describes, not an absence of the standard. For the announcement itself, look for the Xinhua report of August 4, 2026 sourced to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Search on the number with the year attached, GB 44721-2026, because the root number alone will return the 2024 recommended standard.
No verbatim text is quoted in this piece. The text of GB 44721-2026 is not available through the SAMR public database, so nothing here is presented as the words of the standard.
FAQ
Is GB 44721-2026 in force?
No. It was approved and issued on July 30, 2026 and takes effect on July 1, 2027, with a reported one year transition. Newly type-approved models comply from the effective date and models already holding type approval from the thirteenth month.
What vehicles and systems does it cover?
Vehicles of categories M and N carrying L3 and L4 automated driving systems. It expressly does not apply to automatic parking systems.
Is this the same as GB/T 44721-2024?
No. GB/T 44721-2024 is a recommended standard from September 2024 with a different title. GB 44721-2026 is a mandatory standard. Reporting describes the 2026 instrument as an upgrade and rename of the 2024 project, but that is not confirmation the 2024 standard has been formally withdrawn.
What does the standard actually require?
We cannot tell you at clause level, because the text is not in the SAMR public database and we have not read it. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's characterisation, as reported by state media, describes lifecycle safety assurance duties, a benchmark that the system should at least match a competent and attentive driver, human-machine interaction and takeover-monitoring requirements for L3, and a three part conformity regime.
Why does the mandatory versus recommended distinction matter?
A GB standard without the T is mandatory. Products that do not conform may not be produced or sold. A GB/T standard is recommended.
Does this cover driving assistance features?
No. Driving assistance sits under a separate mandatory standard with a different number and effective date. This one is aimed at systems that perform the driving task.