Ministry of Public Security: False advertising of autonomous driving may face a sentence of up to 2 years

On April 18th, the Road Traffic Safety Research Center of the Ministry of Public Security posted an article on its WeChat public account "Jiaotong Yanjiu She" (Traffic Research Society), warning drivers to be wary of the "high-level intelligent driving" trap, and emphasizing that assisted driving is not the same as autonomous driving, and that "taking hands off the wheel and eyes off the road" is risking one's life. Recently, there have been numerous traffic accidents caused by drivers incorrectly using assisted driving, which has sparked public discussion. The article points out that the root cause is that some drivers have a misunderstanding of assisted driving, mistakenly believing that "assisted driving=autonomous driving." After activating the assisted driving function, they engage in dangerous activities such as using their phones, sleeping, chatting, or eating, which not only violates road traffic safety laws and regulations, but also poses a serious threat to the safety of other road users. Automated driving for vehicles is divided into 6 levels. Levels 0-2 are considered assisted driving, where the system assists the human driver in executing driving tasks, with the human driver still being the main driver. Levels 3-5 are considered autonomous driving, where the system replaces the human driver in executing driving tasks under specific conditions, and the system becomes the main driver when the function is activated. The article from "Jiaotong Yanjiu She" states that based on information from some car manufacturers' official websites or press conferences, although the names of intelligent driving systems may vary, they all emphasize the "assisted" attribute, and the technical features fall under the 2nd level standard as defined in China's "Automated Driving Classification" (GB/T 40429-2021), without obtaining certification for level 3 or above. This is mainly constrained by three factors. Firstly, the reliability of perception algorithms in complex scenarios has not yet overcome technical bottlenecks. Secondly, based on considerations of legal risk management, car manufacturers voluntarily classify functions as level 2 to maintain the legal position of the human driver as the responsible entity. Thirdly, China is progressing with admission and on-road pilot programs, and currently, no level 3 autonomous driving vehicle has obtained admission approval. The article states that currently, the assisted driving systems installed in mainstream domestically-produced vehicles are still at level 0-2, falling under the category of "shared driving between human and machine." If a driver "takes hands off the wheel and eyes off the road" while driving the vehicle, they may face administrative penalties, civil compensation, and criminal liability. Therefore, even if the vehicle's assisted driving function is activated, the driver must remain at the driver's seat at all times, monitoring the road conditions in real-time. According to the Road Traffic Safety Research Center of the Ministry of Public Security, according to Article 28 of the "Advertising Law," if a car manufacturer fabricates or exaggerates the functions of assisted driving through advertising or promotional materials (such as describing a level 2 assisted driving as "autonomous driving"), misleading consumers into purchasing, the market supervision department can impose fines of 5-10 times the advertising fees for false advertising, and in severe cases, revoke their business license. If false advertising leads to serious consequences (such as causing traffic accidents resulting in injuries or fatalities), it may violate Article 222 of the "Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China," where individuals may be sentenced to less than 2 years of imprisonment or detention, with or without a fine. In addition, there are "cheating devices for assisted driving" sold on some e-commerce platforms, commonly known as "intelligent driving gadgets," using physical weights, strong magnetic adsorption, and other technical means to deliberately deceive the driver monitoring system (DMS) of the vehicle's assisted driving system, causing the system to misjudge the driver's monitoring status as normal, enabling extended periods of hands-off the wheel and eyes off the road, violating regulations. This behavior not only seriously undermines the safety redundancy of intelligent driving design but also places the driver and other road users at significant risk. According to Article 146 of the "Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China," the "intelligent driving gadgets" do not meet the national standards or industry standards to ensure personal and property safety (such as interfering with vehicle safety monitoring systems). If they lead to serious consequences (such as traffic accidents causing injuries or fatalities), producers and sellers may be sentenced to less than 5 years of imprisonment or detention, with fines ranging from 50% to 2 times the sales amount; in cases of particularly severe consequences (such as multiple injuries or fatalities), the penalties can extend to more than 5 years of imprisonment. If the design or promotion of the "intelligent driving gadgets" directly induces drivers to deviate from proper supervision (such as promoting "hands-free" or "no supervision required"), leading to major traffic accidents, it may be considered a threat to public safety and could result in the death penalty. This article was originally published by "Jiemian News," written by Hou Ruining; edited by Xu Wenqiang for GMTEight.