Early this year, Chinese automakers enthusiastically announced that they would soon be mass-producing and selling self-driving vehicles.

今年年初，中国汽车制造商纷纷热情宣布将很快量产并销售自动驾驶汽车。

Most of those plans have now been delayed after a deadly crash that drew broad public attention.

但现在，大多数计划在一场引发公众广泛关注的致命车祸后已被推迟。

China’s regulators finally gave the go-ahead last week to only two of the nine automakers that had submitted plans to sell self-driving cars. And the approvals by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology were narrowly tailored to allow little more than further testing, not mass production.

九家提交自动驾驶汽车销售计划的车企中，中国监管机构上周最终仅批准了两家。工业和信息化部的批准文件严格限定了适用范围，仅允许企业开展进一步测试，而非大规模生产。

Beijing Automotive Group and Changan Automobile in Chongqing will be allowed to operate self-driving taxis on three stretches of highway in each company’s hometown, the ministry said, and the taxis will not be allowed to change lanes while under computer control. On any other road, the taxis will need to be under the control of a driver.

工信部表示，北京汽车集团和重庆长安汽车获准在各自城市的三段高速公路上运营自动驾驶出租车，且车辆在电脑控制下不允许变道。在其他任何道路上，这些出租车必须由驾驶员控制。

The limited programs represent a recognition by the Chinese government that objectives set nearly five years ago, to begin mass production for sale to the general public by the end of this year, were too ambitious.

这些有限的项目表明，中国政府承认五年前设定的目标——即到今年年底开始面向公众大规模生产销售——过于雄心勃勃。

China’s regulators began to pull back after a crash of a Xiaomi SU7 in late March killed three women, all university students. News of previous accidents involving assisted driving had been suppressed by China’s censors. But news of the crash in March, on a highway in central China’s Anhui Province, spread quickly and widely.

3月底一辆小米SU7发生致命车祸后，中国监管机构开始收紧政策。该事故造成三名女大学生死亡。此前涉及辅助驾驶的事故新闻常被中国审查机构压制，但3月发生在安徽高速公路上的这起事故迅速广泛传播。

2025年4月上海车展上的小米SU7 Ultra。监管机构在3月小米SU7发生致命车祸后开始收紧政策。

Questions swirled over whether drivers or automakers could be held legally responsible for such crashes.

公众开始质疑驾驶员或汽车制造商是否应为此类事故承担法律责任。

According to Xiaomi, the car was moving at 72 miles per hour in assisted-driving mode when it detected that its lane had been closed because of construction. The car issued an audible warning: “Please be aware of obstacles ahead.” The driver took control of the vehicle, which crashed one second later into a concrete barrier, according to the company.

根据小米公司的说法，事故发生时车辆以116公里的时速处于辅助驾驶模式，系统检测到前方因施工而封闭的车道。车辆发出语音警告：“请注意前方障碍物。”驾驶员接管车辆，但仅一秒后撞上混凝土护栏。

The public discussion of the tragedy prompted China’s Ministry of Public Security to get involved. The ministry issued a statement warning that the assisted-driving technology currently available on mass-produced cars in China was not the same as fully automated driving. It warned motorists against having conversations that might distract them.

这起悲剧引发公众热议，中国公安部随后介入。公安部发布声明，警告称目前量产车上的辅助驾驶技术并非完全自动驾驶，并提醒驾驶员不要进行可能分散注意力的交谈。

“The risky behavior of playing with mobile phones, sleeping, chatting and eating after turning on the assisted-driving function not only violates road traffic safety laws and regulations, but also poses serious threat to the safety of other road users,” the ministry said.

公安部表示：“开启辅助驾驶功能后玩手机、睡觉、聊天、吃饭等危险行为，不仅违反道路交通安全法律法规，也对其他道路使用者构成严重威胁。”

Three levels of assisted or driverless technology are being debated in China.

中国正在讨论三种辅助或无人驾驶技术等级。

So-called Level 2 technology helps steer the car, but drivers are required to keep their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. This is already widely available in China, including on the SU7 that crashed. But a report aired by state television last summer found that none of the domestic manufacturers’ systems were as reliable as those of Tesla, the American automaker that is popular in China.

所谓L2级技术可辅助转向，但要求驾驶员双手握方向盘、眼睛注视道路。这种技术在中国已广泛应用，包括事故中的SU7。但今年夏天央视报道显示，国内厂商的L2系统在可靠性上均不如在中国颇受欢迎的特斯拉。

Under Level 3 technology, drivers do not need to keep their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road, but must be in the driver’s seat and ready to take control of the car.

L3级技术允许驾驶员无需一直握方向盘或注视道路，但必须坐在驾驶座并随时准备接管车辆。

Level 4 involves robot taxis with no drivers at all; passengers sit in the back seat and may be blocked by a partition from even reaching the empty front seats. More than a dozen Chinese cities, notably Wuhan, are testing robot taxis.

L4级涉及完全无人驾驶的出租车，乘客坐在后排，甚至可能被隔离板挡住无法触及空置的前排座位。中国已有十多个城市（尤其是武汉）在测试自动驾驶出租车。

Days before the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology approved the two limited taxi services for Level 3, Geely Auto, China’s second-largest automaker, had tried to reassure regulators and the Chinese public about traffic safety. On Dec. 12, Geely opened the world’s largest automotive safety testing center in Ningbo.

在工信部批准两家有限的L3级出租车服务前几天，中国第二大车企吉利汽车试图安抚监管机构和公众对交通安全的担忧。12月12日，吉利在宁波启用了全球最大的汽车安全测试中心。

Jerry Gan, chief executive of Geely, said his company had already begun shipping some of its Zeekr cars with the hardware needed for Level 3 operations. “This represents the highest safety standard for assisted driving for the L3 era,” he said.

吉利首席执行官淦家阅表示，公司已开始交付部分搭载L3级运行所需硬件的极氪汽车。“这代表了L3时代辅助驾驶的最高安全标准，”他说。

China’s state-run television followed the Xiaomi crash with a report in July that was widely viewed on Chinese internet. Tests of Level 2 technology on 36 car models from 20 brands had found that slightly fewer than half the cars could safely avoid a crash when they encountered trucks near a construction site at night, the report stated.

小米车祸后，央视7月播出一期广受关注的报道。报道称，对20个品牌36款车型的L2级技术测试显示，夜间在施工现场附近遇到卡车时，仅不到一半的车辆能安全避撞。

Only the two Tesla models in the test had assisted-driving systems that were reliable in a wide range of safety situations.

测试中，只有特斯拉的两款车型在各种安全场景下辅助驾驶系统表现可靠。

Some Chinese automakers, like Geely, were so certain that Level 3 self-driving systems would be approved soon that they had already begun mass-producing cars with the necessary cameras and other equipment. But for now, the cars are being sold with only Level 2 software because of Beijing regulators’ tilt toward greater caution.

一些中国车企（如吉利）曾确信L3级系统很快获批，因此已开始批量生产配备必要摄像头等硬件的车辆。但由于北京监管机构倾向于更加谨慎，目前这些车辆仅搭载L2级软件销售。

吉利在中国宁波的新安全中心，一台强大的滑轨加速器正在进行碰撞测试。吉利安全中心库房中的碰撞测试假人。

Geely, XPeng Motors and Li Auto are among the companies with licenses to continue testing Level 3 cars on roads. But unlike the taxi affiliates of Changan and Beijing Automotive, they do not yet have licenses allowing them to start commercial service with these cars.

吉利、小鹏汽车和理想汽车等公司获得继续在道路上测试L3级车辆的许可。但与长安和北汽的出租车子公司不同，它们尚未获得允许用这些车辆开展商业服务的许可。

“What looked like an imminent L3 rollout was, in hindsight, a marketing-led acceleration running ahead of governance, insurance frameworks and public trust,” said Bill Russo, an electric cars consultant in Shanghai.

上海电动车顾问比尔·拉索表示：“回顾来看，看似即将来临的L3级大规模推广，其实是营销驱动的加速，超前于治理框架、保险体系和公众信任。”

The government’s decision on taxi services, he added, “formalizes a pause — not to stop progress, but to slow it down, narrow the scope and put guardrails around it.”

他补充说，政府对出租车服务的决定“正式确立了一次暂停——不是停止进步，而是放慢速度、缩小范围并设置护栏。”