Beijing, China - Beijing's autonomous vehicle regulations, adopted in late December 2024, took effect on 2025-04-01 and set a framework for L3 and higher vehicles covering infrastructure, traffic management and safety. Driverless commercial robotaxis operate in the Yizhuang demonstration area (Apollo Go and Pony.ai permits from March 2023, WeRide from November 2023); airport runs to Daxing were permitted in 2024 with a safety inspector behind the wheel.
Guangzhou, Guangdong, China - Guangzhou's regulations on intelligent connected vehicles took effect on 2025-02-28, supporting mixed human and autonomous traffic pilot areas and autonomous vehicles on urban roads, highways, airports, ports and transport hubs. Pony.ai, WeRide, Apollo Go and Didi operate robotaxis in the city, with Pony.ai and WeRide running fully driverless commercial service.
China (national) - Robotaxi permits are issued by city governments within national pilot frameworks. In June 2024 MIIT and other ministries named nine automakers for the L3/L4 intelligent connected vehicle access and on-road pilot, stressing that selection is not road approval. After the Apollo Go Wuhan outage, regulators ordered an industry-wide safety review and Bloomberg reported (2026-04-29) a pause on new robotaxi permits, fleet additions and city expansions; the review ended in late June and issuance resumed gradually from July 2026. Baidu said in August 2026 that China had issued its first mandatory national standard on safety requirements for L3 and L4 automated driving systems.
Shanghai, China - Shanghai issued its first eight intelligent connected vehicle demonstration operation permits on 2025-07-26 (Pony.ai, Apollo Go, SAIC AI Lab, Jinjiang Taxi, Qiangsheng, Dazhong and others). Fully driverless pilots and commercial services run in Pudong (Jinqiao, Huamu, Lin-gang, Disney-Pudong Airport).
Shenzhen, Guangdong, China - Shenzhen's intelligent connected vehicle regulation, effective 2022-08-01, was China's first; it allows fully autonomous vehicles without human controls or drivers on roads designated by traffic authorities and sets accident liability. Districts issue commercial driverless pilot permits (Pingshan 2023, Nanshan 2025). The city later amended the regulation to explore opening the whole city to robotaxis.
Wuhan, Hubei, China - Wuhan issued China's first commercial fully driverless ride-hailing permits (with Chongqing) in August 2022 and became Apollo Go's largest base. After dozens of Apollo Go robotaxis stalled on 2026-03-31, traffic police attributed it to a system malfunction and operations were suspended pending investigation, then gradually resumed from around July-August 2026.
Pony.ai