China Solicits Opinions on Rules for Automotive Product Innovative Design

According to People's Daily, four departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology publicly released a draft notice on October 10. The document focuses on further strengthening management regarding automotive product innovative design and development testing verification, addressing door handles, virtual controls, novel interaction systems, and large-angle seats. Under the proposed technical guidelines for innovative automotive design, vehicle manufacturing enterprises would need to advance safety risk assessments to the development and design phase. They would need to conduct failure mode analysis under complex operating conditions and extreme scenarios, identifying risks and barring substandard innovative designs from being installed on vehicles. The proposed requirements would mandate that emergency controls relating to safety, such as vehicle emergency escape devices, emergency braking devices, and drive system power cut-off devices, would need to possess physical controls and clear markings. Products featuring innovative door handle designs would need to maintain mechanical redundancy design alongside adequate hand operating space. The proposed rules would explicitly prohibit vehicle products from being equipped with fully concealed door handles. Automobile manufacturers would need to also employ technical means to restrict seat usage scenarios, prohibiting the use of zero-gravity seats, rotating seats, or seats reclined into beds during driving, while evaluating displays for driving safety.