MIIT Proposes Rule: Vehicles Without L3 or Higher Autonomous Driving Systems Prohibited from Installing Autonomous Driving Marker Lights

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Over the past few years, more and more cars on the road have been displaying a small blue-green light. Some people find it techy, some have been dazzled by it, and others assume that when the light is on, the car is "driving itself." There has never been a unified answer to whether this light should be on, who is allowed to have it, and what it means when it is on.

Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released a draft for public comment that would set rules for this light: put simply, vehicles that do not have an L3 or higher autonomous driving system would be prohibited from installing an autonomous driving system marker light.

According to public reports, industry estimates put the bill-of-materials cost of a single LED module at roughly 50 to 200 yuan; for a full set of front, rear and side lights plus wiring that meets national standards, the cost could be several hundred to over a thousand yuan.

The light is the "external symbol" of a smart driving system. Whether a car can, in L3 mode, have the system bear driving responsibility depends on investment in perception hardware, computing power, algorithms, redundant design, safety validation and more.

A module costing a few dozen to two hundred yuan is used by automakers as an external marker of "smart driving identity," and the resulting perceived premium at the point of sale may reach several thousand yuan. That is the real "financial story" of this light.

Its own material cost may not be high, but its marketing leverage as a symbol is. By keeping L2 models outside the threshold, regulators have, to some extent, also eliminated the mismatch of "low-cost symbol, high-premium perception."

The most core layer: why should the threshold for the little blue light to come on be drawn at the L3 autonomous driving level? Because what separates L2 and L3 is not the technology level, but the four words "subject of responsibility."

At the L2 stage, the driving subject is the driver;

If an accident occurs while the L3 system is active, the subject of responsibility points to the automaker.

If the marker light were displayed on L2 models, it would objectively lead people to mistakenly believe that "this car can be driven hands-free," while the legal responsibility behind it still rests with the driver. The new rule reserves the marker light, the "little blue light," for the L3 level, essentially realigning the light signal with the attribution of legal responsibility.

When a light changes from a "marketing symbol" to a "responsibility signal," what changes is not just the light itself; it also clarifies "who bears the consequences" in the smart driving industry. Only by separating the symbol from the system and marketing from responsibility can the true cost and real value of intelligent driving have a chance to be correctly priced.

(Source: CCTV News) Mid-article embedded advertisement