On February 28th, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Administration for Market Regulation jointly issued a notice on further strengthening the management of access, recall, and software online upgrade of intelligent connected vehicle products. In response to the development characteristics of the key period of strategic transformation and upgrading of the intelligent connected vehicle industry, a regulatory system covering the entire chain of research and development, production, sales, and use has been established. The new regulations focus on the current combination of driving assistance systems (L2 level autonomous driving) accelerating their penetration into complex road conditions in urban areas, as well as the safety hazards brought by the normalized application of online vehicle software upgrades (OTA) functions. Through institutional innovation, they strengthen the quality and safety management of the entire chain.
According to the new regulations, vehicle manufacturers need to establish an adaptability capability system based on the "Management and Technical Guidelines for Access, Recall, and Online Software Upgrades of Intelligent Connected Vehicle Products", and implement systematic testing and verification of product development and OTA upgrades, including clarifying functional boundaries, establishing safety response mechanisms, optimizing control strategies, and other key technical links. Enterprises need to implement full lifecycle management responsibilities in product development, manufacturing, and market operations, and continuously improve product performance by strictly fulfilling consumer disclosure obligations and improving safety management mechanisms.

In terms of innovative regulatory mechanisms, the new regulations highlight the full process control of quality and safety, requiring local regulatory departments to establish cross departmental linkage mechanisms and focus on supervising the implementation of corporate responsibilities. The two departments will collaborate to promote the optimization of the technical standard system, rely on professional institutions to carry out regulatory technology research and development, synchronously regulate enterprise marketing and publicity behavior, and prevent the risk of false advertising. It is worth noting that this policy integrates the new car admission and in use vehicle recall management system, innovatively implements the "sandbox supervision" mechanism, which not only constructs a full chain closed-loop supervision of pre admission review, dynamic monitoring during the event, and post defect tracing, but also leaves flexible space for enterprise technological innovation.
Compared to the previous decentralized management model, the new regulations significantly improve regulatory efficiency through optimized management mechanisms. According to disclosure, intelligent connected vehicle products that have obtained admission qualifications need to supplement technical parameter filing before June 1, 2025. The State Administration for Market Regulation will simultaneously establish an OTA upgrade filing information sharing platform to implement classified control over OTA activities involving core parameter changes or autonomous driving function upgrades. Policy makers have stated that this institutional design not only strengthens safety bottom line thinking, but also effectively activates industrial innovation vitality by reducing compliance costs.