Changan Automobile has successfully secured China’s first-ever official license plate for L3-level autonomous driving, a monumental achievement that propels the nation’s intelligent vehicle industry from a phase of controlled verification into an era of compliant, on-road application. The issuance of the plate, numbered “Yu AD0001Z,” in the sprawling metropolis of Chongqing represents far more than a regulatory approval for a single company; it signals a critical inflection point for the entire sector. This development effectively presses the accelerator on the mass production and commercialization of advanced autonomous systems, marking the official arrival of the L3 era in China and positioning the country to transition from a follower of global technology standards to a leader in shaping the rules for the future of mobility. The event serves as definitive proof that autonomous driving is no longer a distant concept but a regulated, road-legal reality poised for public integration.
A New Era for Autonomous Driving
The awarding of this license has profound implications on a national scale, signaling that China’s autonomous driving sector is now poised to enter a new, advanced phase of compliant commercial use. This landmark achievement is seen as a pivotal move that repositions the country in the global automotive landscape, demonstrating a significant leap in technological sovereignty and industrial maturity. It allows China to move beyond merely adopting international standards and begin actively establishing the rules and frameworks that will govern the autonomous vehicle market worldwide. For Changan Automobile, this moment signifies a critical transition, moving the company’s efforts from the enclosed world of technical verification and validation into the dynamic and complex environment of mass production and real-world application. This milestone is not an isolated event but the culmination of a deliberate, multi-year strategy involving technological innovation, rigorous testing, and robust policy support from government bodies.
Changan Automobile’s success is firmly rooted in a long-term, dedicated investment in research and development, built upon more than four decades of deep experience in vehicle manufacturing. The company’s journey into intelligent technology officially began with the establishment of its dedicated R&D team in 2009, which has since overseen seven distinct generations of technological iteration. A clear and strategic timeline highlights this determined progression: the company initiated the development of advanced driving assistance capabilities in 2014, commenced specific research and development for L3-level autonomous driving in 2017, and began applying this sophisticated technology to its Shenlan vehicle line in 2021. This sustained and focused effort culminated in Changan becoming one of the first enterprises selected for the national L3 autonomous driving pilot program. The company subsequently completed all requisite product testing and safety evaluations, officially obtaining its product access permit from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology just prior to receiving the historic license plate.
The Foundation of Safety and Rigor
At the very core of this technological prowess is the Tianshu intelligent technology system, an internally developed platform that powerfully underscores Changan’s commitment to self-research capabilities and innovation. The foundational principle of this entire system is an unwavering and uncompromising commitment to safety, which serves as the non-negotiable prerequisite for all technological advancements. To this end, Changan Automobile has meticulously engineered a comprehensive, full-life-cycle closed-loop safety system. This intricate framework covers every stage of the technology’s existence, from initial design and development through exhaustive testing and verification, stringent quality management, continuous real-time safety monitoring, and proactive risk and emergency management protocols. This holistic and deeply integrated approach is specifically designed to provide robust, multi-layered safety guarantees for the operation of L3 autonomous driving systems on public roads, ensuring user confidence and system integrity at all times.
The reliability of Changan’s L3 system was proven through an exceptionally exhaustive testing regimen conducted on the notoriously complex and three-dimensional “8D” road network of Chongqing, a city known for its challenging urban topography. The cumulative test mileage for the system has already surpassed an impressive 5 million kilometers, providing a vast repository of real-world data. The testing parameters employed by the company far exceed established national standards, incorporating an extensive library of 191 types of test scenario elements, a figure that is ten times greater than the national requirement. A significant 36% of these scenarios are classified as “extreme” to push the system to its absolute limits, and the overall scenario elements surpass the national standard by a remarkable 49%. Critically, throughout this extensive and demanding testing period, the system has maintained a perfect record of “zero accidents and zero violations,” powerfully demonstrating its capability, stability, and reliability under the most strenuous conditions.
A Blueprint for Success
Changan’s groundbreaking achievement was not accomplished in isolation; rather, it was made possible by an innovative and highly effective model of city-enterprise collaboration that stands as a benchmark for the industry. The ambitious project received extensive and coordinated support from multiple national ministries, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and the Ministry of Transport. At the local level, the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee and Government, along with its Public Security Bureau and Traffic Management Bureau, provided indispensable and proactive assistance throughout the process. The Chongqing Traffic Management Bureau, in particular, offered “all-around” dedicated services by creating a special team to facilitate and streamline the application, review, testing, and licensing procedures, eliminating bureaucratic hurdles and accelerating the path to approval for this pioneering technology.
This unique and synergistic partnership between the city of Chongqing and Changan Automobile established an incredibly efficient mechanism for rapid policy innovation, the safe opening of public roads for advanced testing, and the implementation of robust on-road safety guarantees. The collaboration is strongly supported by Chongqing’s “33618” modern manufacturing cluster system, which aims to foster high-tech industrial development. Moreover, the city’s uniquely challenging and varied road conditions provided a rigorous, real-world verification environment that proved to be instrumental in refining and hardening the L3 system’s capabilities against a diverse array of traffic and infrastructure scenarios. This successful model of public-private cooperation is now strategically positioned to set a new standard for the nation, fostering a common and unified direction for future technological breakthroughs at the national, industry, and enterprise levels, thereby accelerating the entire country’s progress in autonomous mobility.
Putting Theory into Practice
The practical, on-road application of Changan’s advanced L3 technology was spearheaded by its forward-thinking Shenlan vehicle brand. The first Shenlan vehicles were equipped with the “Yu AD0001Z” license plate and served as the pioneer implementers of the sophisticated Tianshu intelligent technology. Shenlan directly benefits from Changan’s vast and integrated research and development ecosystem, which includes a dedicated self-research team of over 3,000 highly skilled specialists. The brand also leverages the “Tianshu large-scale model,” which is powered by group-level cloud supercomputing for massive data processing, and draws from an extensive real-driving data ecosystem covering more than one billion kilometers. A unified development system ensures that technological advancements are seamlessly and consistently transitioned from the research phase to mass production, maintaining quality and reliability across the entire product line.
The initial pilot program, operated by Chongqing Changan Vehicle Connectivity Technology Co., Ltd., received approval for specific, high-traffic arterial roads within the city of Chongqing. These routes included sections of the Inner Ring Expressway, the New Inner Ring Expressway, and Yudu Avenue. These particular roadways were deliberately chosen for their inherent complexity, characterized by frequent and severe vehicle congestion, intricate merging and diverging traffic flows, higher-than-average accident rates, and the constant presence of ongoing road construction. These challenging and dynamic environments served as the ultimate “examination rooms” for the L3 system, facilitating its continuous real-world training and enabling a rapid, iterative upgrading process based on actual road conditions. This deployment marked a successful transition from controlled environments to the unpredictable nature of public roads, validating the system’s readiness for wider application.
