(Yicai) Nov. 13 -- China has released a draft version of new regulations governing vehicle safety standards, addressing new risks arising from the rapid adoption of new energy vehicles and assisted driving functions.

The new rules, drafted by the Ministry of Public Security and issued and opened to public comment by the National Public Service Platform for Standards Information yesterday, specify that cars’ acceleration from zero to 100 kilometers per hour should take more than five seconds.

Pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid EVs should have a pedal misapplication prevention function to prevent drivers from stepping on the accelerator instead of the brake. When a car is stationary or creeping, the function should detect pedal errors, reduce output power, and issue warnings.

For battery safety, the draft requires pure and plug-in hybrid EVs to monitor the operating status of the power battery and issue a clear signal, such as audio or visual alerts, when a thermal runaway occurs. Moreover, for pure electric or hybrid buses more than six meters long, the battery compartment should not catch fire or explode within five minutes after the signal is triggered.

Drivers of cars with assisted driving capabilities should be able to activate such a function only after having completed system-use training and having confirmed their identities through biometric identification or account login.

If the assisted driving function is activated when the vehicle runs at over 10 km/h, it should continuously check whether the driver is performing the corresponding dynamic driving tasks, using at least hand-off detection and gaze-off detection methods.

Moreover, when the vehicle in assisted driving mode exceeds 10 km/h, the driver-side display screen must be turned off, and entertainment videos and games should be prohibited from being used.

Nearly 78 percent of new energy passenger vehicles in China were equipped with Level-2 or above assisted driving capabilities in the first four months of the year, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association.

Passenger doors must be equipped with mechanical release handles inside and outside, as well as an emergency interior handle, the draft introduced in response to concerns after casualties were reported in car accidents due to hidden or electric door handles being locked.

In the event of an accident, doors on the non-collision side must automatically unlock, even if the vehicle is locked.

China’s NEV sales climbed 33 percent to 12.94 million units in the first 10 months of the year from a year earlier, accounting for almost 47 percent of the country’s overall vehicle sales in the period, according to the latest data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Editor: Futura Costaglione