"2026 is the first year of global autonomous driving. The L3 level is the necessary stage to move towards fully autonomous driving, and there is no way to skip it." On April 11, Jin Yuzhi, CEO of Huawei Smart Car Solutions BU, stated this when talking about autonomous driving at the Smart Electric Vehicle Development Forum (2026).
There are different opinions in the market on whether the L3 level should be skipped in the development process of autonomous driving.
He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO of Xpeng Motors, has stated in public many times that he supports autonomous driving skipping L3. He said: "With today's global technological development, basically the next step up from L2 is L4, with an L3 added in the middle. This actually poses challenges to hardware, software, and laws and regulations."
To this end, He Xiaopeng also submitted relevant suggestions at this year's Two Sessions, which mentioned that the window period for global autonomous driving policies and regulations is rapidly narrowing, and the United Nations and the United States are accelerating the implementation of regulations and mass production deployment bills for L3 and above autonomous driving.
In this context, he believes that promoting autonomous driving from L2 to L3 and directly to L4 is not only a choice of technical route, but also a systematic upgrade of the institutional system, regulatory environment and governance capabilities. Accelerating the breakthrough of key institutional bottlenecks that restrict industrial development will help China's intelligent connected vehicles and autonomous driving industries gain strategic initiative in global competition.
Chinese automobile safety expert Zhu Xishan also made it clear in an interview with the media that he supports skipping the L3 level. He further explained the reason: "The L3 level allows the driver to escape with conditions. He can escape with his eyes and hands, but not his brain. But the question is, can the driver be required to escape with his eyes and hands but not his brain? This assumption may not be true."
But in Jin Yuzhi’s view, from a regulatory perspective, L3’s transfer of responsibility from car owners to manufacturers/solution providers is a key transition period for the compliance and insurance systems. Therefore, he suggested accelerating the opening of L3 to all C-side scenarios, first verifying L4 technology in B-side scenarios such as Robotaxi and limited low-speed scenarios, and steadily promoting unmanned technology.
At present, the domestic regulations regarding L3 level conditionally autonomous passenger vehicles on the road are mainly the "Beijing Regulations on Autonomous Vehicles". The regulations have been implemented on April 1, 2025, providing institutional specifications for L3 and above, clarifying that the manufacturer is primarily responsible for accidents caused by system defects. In addition, Chongqing, Shenzhen, and Shanghai have also successively introduced relevant regulations on intelligent connected vehicle testing.
On an international scale, autonomous driving laws and regulations are also being introduced one after another. Previously, in 2021, the German Federal Motor Transport Administration allowed L3 level self-driving cars to drive on the highway, but there were also restrictions. For example, the speed was not higher than 60km/h, hands could be freed but could not sleep, and a person was required to take over the driving rights of the vehicle if necessary. If an accident occurs under specified conditions, the responsibility lies with the OEM. Japan’s Road Traffic Law stipulates in terms of insurance and liability that drivers still have the obligation to drive safely during L3 autonomous driving. If the driver fails to switch to manual driving mode in time as required by the system due to factors such as drowsiness or drinking, causing an accident, he will bear criminal liability. In addition, when an accident occurs due to an obvious failure such as incorrect operation of the system, the vehicle manufacturer may be liable for negligence.
