Jul. 16 at 3:31 PM
$WRD 🇨🇳
China didn’t impose a nationwide freeze on L4 autonomous vehicle licenses. Following the Wuhan Baidu robotaxi incident in March, media reported that China had suspended new L4 approvals. According to authorities and CATARC, that was not the case:
• The April regulatory review focused on strengthening safety oversight, not halting autonomous driving.
• Some cities temporarily slowed reviews of new applications while conducting safety assessments: local decisions, not national policy.
• China still has no national approval framework for L4 robotaxis. Commercial operation continues under local city and provincial permits, exactly as before.
• National homologation currently applies to L3 passenger vehicles entering production, not L4 robotaxis.
• China’s strategy remains unchanged: improve safety while continuing commercial deployment.
• China operates ~5,000 fully driverless commercial robotaxis and several 100 autonomous buses, making it the world’s largest commercial L4 market
