Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the first batch of conditional entry permits for L3 level autonomous driving vehicles in China, marking the official breakthrough of commercial L3 level autonomous driving. This breakthrough not only reshapes the driving mode of automobiles, but also has a disruptive driving effect on various links of the intelligent driving industry chain. Listed companies in the industry chain actively embrace the commercialization wave of L3 level autonomous driving with technological upgrades. Industry insiders say that under the joint promotion of policies, technology, and costs, the autonomous driving industry chain will move from "testing and demonstration" to "mass production". However, it cannot be ignored that the technological maturity, regulatory adaptability, and industry chain synergy in this field still need to be improved. On December 15, 2025, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially announced the first batch of L3 level conditional autonomous driving vehicle models in China. The Changan Shenlan SL03 and the Jihu Alpha S6, which are respectively suitable for urban congestion and highway sections, will be piloted in designated areas of Chongqing and Beijing, with maximum speeds of 50km/h and 80km/h respectively. This marks a crucial step for China's L3 level autonomous driving from the testing stage to commercial application. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology stated that in the next step, it will work with relevant departments and local regulatory authorities to strengthen vehicle operation monitoring and safety protection, timely summarize experience, continuously improve the management and standard regulatory system for the admission of intelligent connected vehicles, and promote the high-quality development of China's intelligent connected new energy vehicle industry. Subsequently, Changan Automobile obtained the first L3 special license plate "Yu AD0001Z" in China on December 20, 2025, and Jihu Automobile obtained the L3 special license plate "Jing AA0001Z" on December 23, 2025, launching a compliance commercial pilot program. According to the "Classification of Automotive Driving Automation" standard, autonomous driving is divided into L0 to L5, corresponding to six levels: "emergency assistance, partial driving assistance, combined driving assistance, conditional autonomous driving, highly autonomous driving, and fully autonomous driving". The opening of the first batch of L3 level autonomous driving access permits by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is an important milestone in the development of this field. From a technical perspective, in recent years, the continuous improvement of computing power, iterative upgrading of sensor solutions, integration and optimization of large models and decision systems, coupled with a significant reduction in core hardware costs such as LiDAR, and the continuous improvement of industry chain maturity have laid the foundation for the landing of L3 level autonomous driving. From a policy perspective, the new regulations have made flexible adjustments in the division of responsibilities, retaining some of the driver's responsibilities. This design reduces the concerns of car companies and accelerates the industry forward. ”Professor Yang Ming from Shanghai Jiao Tong University said in an interview with reporters. In fact, as early as June 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, and other four departments have orderly launched pilot projects for the admission and on road access of intelligent connected vehicles. Nine consortia composed of automobile manufacturers and users such as BYD, NIO, and Changan have been identified to carry out pilot projects for the admission and on road access of intelligent connected vehicles in seven cities including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. The pilot products cover three major categories: passenger cars, buses, and trucks. According to a research report by Haitong International, "With the accumulation of pilot experience and the gradual improvement of regulations, the L3 level autonomous driving function is expected to move from partial demonstration to wider opening up, and may become a key node for the mass production and landing of L3 level autonomous driving in China by 2026. ”Guangting Information, a provider of automotive electronic software development and services for industrial chain upgrading, stated in its 2025 semi annual report that "the continuous breakthroughs in autonomous driving and vehicle interconnection technology are expected to further promote the expansion of the intelligent connected vehicle market. According to Frost Sullivan's prediction, the global sales of intelligent connected vehicles will reach 95.8 million in 2029, of which the sales in the Chinese market will reach 22 million, accounting for 23.0% of the global total sales." "L3 level autonomous driving requires extremely high system reliability and safety redundancy, which will force the technological iteration and upgrading of the entire industrial chain, such as perception hardware, computing power platforms, software algorithms, etc. ”Shanghai Hong Kong Securities stated. Faced with market opportunities, listed companies in the industry chain are accelerating their positioning and actively embracing the commercialization wave of L3 level autonomous driving through technological upgrades. Recently, Dianlian Technology disclosed on an interactive platform that the company's automotive connectors can adapt to L3 level autonomous driving scenarios. In order to comply with the development trend of advanced intelligence in automobiles, the company continues to strengthen the strategic layout of Ethernet products related to automotive intelligence based on close collaboration with core customers, strengthen cooperation with intelligent driving solution providers and LiDAR manufacturers, enhance the automation production capacity of high-frequency and high-speed products, expand production capacity, and improve the technological accumulation of the company's products in L3 level intelligent driving scenarios, in order to continuously increase the market share of domestic and foreign customers. Huayi Technology stated that the company closely follows the rapid development trend of the autonomous driving industry and has successfully developed and achieved mass delivery of IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) products and GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System). With the ability to not rely on external signals, high reliability, and integrate with other sensor data of the vehicle, these products significantly improve the accuracy of vehicle positioning and become an important positioning system for L3 level and above autonomous driving vehicles. At the same time, the company has laid out V2X and wireless communication products, which are also important components of L3 level and above autonomous driving. Yuncong Technology stated that for autonomous driving scenarios, the company focuses on the "Human Vehicle Road Collaboration Platform" and "Vehicle Road City Integration Solution", and promotes the "Vehicle Road Cloud" collaboration system as its core product. In terms of technical reserves, the company combines high-level video surveillance with high-precision perception equipment and AI algorithms (such as identifying road water accumulation, illegal parking, road occupation, etc.) to provide real-time monitoring and early warning for unmanned driving; Utilizing cross mirror tracking Re ID technology to supplement pedestrian and vehicle recognition capabilities in complex scenarios significantly improves the prediction and safety of pedestrian trajectories in autonomous driving. At present, the company's related products and solutions have been successfully implemented in some scenarios. Li Ang Wei stated that the strict requirements for the reliability and safety redundancy of the perception system in L3 level autonomous driving are expected to push the laser radar to the position of a "core safety component", and its market demand and technical specifications will be improved. As a contract manufacturing platform specializing in compound semiconductor RF and optoelectronic chips, the holding subsidiary of the company, Li Ang Dongxin, has widely used VCSEL chip products in intelligent driving for LiDAR products and has achieved large-scale shipments. China Automotive Research Institute revealed that in the pilot work of "Intelligent Connected Vehicle Access and Road Traffic", China Automotive Research Institute fully utilizes its technological advantages, actively assists national ministries and some pilot consortia in policy and regulation research, testing and verification, and other aspects, and carries out multiple key tasks, providing strong support for the promotion of the pilot project. The industry believes that L3 level autonomous driving is a key turning point from assisted driving to advanced autonomous driving, and policy dividends have opened up a commercialization window for the industry. However, the maturity of technology, regulatory adaptability, and industry chain synergy still need to be improved. Enterprises should balance technological iteration and cost control, and regulatory authorities should also simultaneously promote regulations and infrastructure, jointly promoting the popularization of L3 level autonomous driving from pilot projects. Despite favorable policies in the industry, L3 level autonomous driving still faces multiple challenges in terms of technology, regulation, and industry chain. ”Yang Ming said. Firstly, at the technical level, the issue of insufficient reliability and adaptability to different scenarios has become prominent. The technical shortcomings of L3 level autonomous driving are mainly reflected in the ability to cope with non-standard scenarios and sensor performance limitations. For example, the construction section is a typical non-standard scenario, where there is a lack of unified standard markings, missing map data, dust and metal facilities that can easily interfere with laser radar and millimeter wave radar, and insufficient training data for the construction scene, resulting in weak system generalization ability and a high risk of triggering long tail events; Extreme weather is also the 'enemy' of sensors, and rainy and foggy weather can cause lidar misjudgment; Under strong backlighting conditions, the target recognition and perception ability of the camera significantly decreases. The above issues all require breakthroughs in technical path iteration and high-quality data accumulation. ”Yang Ming said. In addition, the popularization of L3 level autonomous driving urgently requires the establishment of a targeted user education system and supporting rules such as supervision and insurance. ”Yang Ming stated that the imperfect human-machine interaction system is a key obstacle for the landing of L3 level autonomous driving. Unlike L2 level autonomous driving, which is entirely responsible for safety by humans, the blurred boundary of responsibility for L3 level autonomous driving places higher demands on drivers' emergency response capabilities. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a specialized driver's license assessment system to train drivers in emergency operation skills in response to system takeover prompts. At the same time, the compatibility between current traffic rules and L3 level autonomous driving scenarios is insufficient, and the standards for determining accident liability are still unclear. Clear new regulations need to be introduced to regulate them. In terms of scenario applications, it is recommended to strengthen the implementation verification of limited scenarios such as highways and urban expressways. Industry insiders say that the bottleneck of L3 level autonomous driving is the systemic difficulties encountered by its definition of "conditional autonomous driving" at the engineering, legal, and human levels. It is not a simple technological upgrade, but a complex social engineering involving technology, law, insurance, ethics, and consumer education. (New Society)