Changan Automobile is claiming to be one of the first Chinese OEMs to have been granted Level 3 autonomous driving product access approval, allowing one of its passenger vehicles to operate single-lane automated driving on specified highway and urban expressway sections in Southwest China’s Chongqing.
The approval follows extensive system-level validation of Changan’s Level 3 autonomous driving capabilities, supported by more than 5 million kilometers of real-world road testing. Testing covered a broad range of driving scenarios, spanning 185 categories – 49% beyond regulatory benchmarks – with extreme conditions accounting for 36% of total testing. On average, one complex risk scenario was encountered every 38.9km, demonstrating the system’s ability to operate safely and adaptively within its operational design conditions (ODC).
As one of the first two OEMs to receive Level 3 product access in China (the other being BAIC Motor’s Arcfox), the approval represents a culmination of Changan’s more than four decades of vehicle manufacturing experience and its ongoing transformation toward intelligent mobility.
The approval reflects Changan’s safety-oriented, OEM-led self-development approach to Level 3 autonomous driving. Leveraging its in-house autonomous driving capabilities and the SDA intelligence technology framework, Changan has built experience and implementation know-how spanning system design and development, testing and validation, production and operations, and continuous iteration – supporting self-reliant and secure technological advancement.
Under the SDA intelligence Level 3 program, Changan emphasizes a full-lifecycle, closed-loop safety system designed to safeguard Level 3 operation from development through real-world use. This safety ‘fortress’ is structured across dedicated integration and development processes, multipillar validation, end-to-end quality management, always-on safety monitoring and coordinated risk and incident response mechanisms – forming a continuous feedback loop to enhance safety performance.
To demonstrate safety at an engineering level, Changan has established an integrated development and validation approach for Level 3 autonomous driving that embeds safety requirements across system design, testing and operation. The framework addresses four core areas – functional safety, safety of the intended functionality (SOTIF), cybersecurity and data security – ensuring that automated driving functions are designed and verified with clearly defined boundaries.
Validation is supported by a combination of large-scale simulation, closed-course testing, real-world road testing, data-driven feedback loops and continuous safety monitoring. These efforts are underpinned by national-level intelligent vehicle safety research facilities and dedicated intelligent driving laboratories, providing comprehensive verification coverage from development to on-road deployment.
For operational safety, Changan operates a monitoring platform that has run stably for 18 months, with data accuracy reportedly maintained at 100% and a 100% success rate in issuing safety warnings. The platform conducts continuous, 24/7 cloud-based analysis of cybersecurity and vehicle operating risks, enabling real-time monitoring, early risk alerts and coordinated response during on-road operation, ensuring that Level 3 functions remain within their defined operating conditions when deployed.
Changan’s progress in Level 3 autonomous driving is underpinned by a long-term global technology and R&D framework. The company operates a collaborative R&D network covering six countries across 10 locations, supported by a strong R&D team of more than 24,000 professionals from 31 countries, 44 technology research and product development centers, 20 technology companies and 180 laboratories.
Backed by more than CNY 60 billion in R&D investment and over 14,000 patent applications filed in the past three years, this infrastructure enables the agile and continuous evolution of Changan’s intelligent driving technologies.
On December 10, 2025, Changan reached the milestone roll-off of its 30 millionth vehicle, signaling Changan’s evolution into a global intelligent mobility technology company, and reinforcing the scale and foundation behind the continued advancement of the SDA intelligence program and its focus on delivering more reliable mobility solutions.
In related news, Mercedes-Benz has been approved for 95km/h Level 3 autonomous driving in Germany