China Drafts Rules Barring Exaggerated Assisted-Driving Claims and Requiring Clear Limits

October 10 (IT Home) — Today, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and three other departments jointly issued a draft notice on further strengthening the management of innovative design and R&D testing and verification for automotive products, which stresses the primary responsibility of car manufacturers.

Specifically, car manufacturers should strictly fulfil their primary responsibility for product consistency and quality and safety, carry out testing and verification in accordance with the requirements of the Technical Guidelines for Innovative Design and the Technical Specifications for R&D Testing and Verification, and based on relevant national, industry or corporate standards, truthfully produce the relevant verification materials, strengthen supply chain management and their ability to ensure production consistency, ensure that mass-produced vehicles match the specifications and parameters of the models type-approved in the Announcement and those holding CCC certification, and effectively improve the safety and environmental performance of automotive products. If defects are found, car manufacturers should promptly file a recall plan with the State Administration for Market Regulation, carry out the recall on their own initiative and eliminate risks without delay.

Marketing and promotional activities must be regulated. Car manufacturers should conduct marketing and promotion truthfully and objectively, giving a truthful account of the usage boundaries, limitations and R&D testing and verification of innovative designs. They must not make false, exaggerated or misleading claims, must not use scenes that violate road traffic regulations to promote product functions, and must not induce drivers to disregard their responsibility for safe driving, so as to ensure that consumers correctly understand and use functions related to innovative automotive design.

The duty to inform must be strictly fulfilled. Car manufacturers should produce concise, easy-to-understand, illustrated user manuals and user training materials for innovative automotive designs, and give consumers complete and accurate information about the correct way to use the design, its functional boundaries, conditions of use, emergency procedures and precautions, ensuring that users can grasp the relevant information in an easily understandable way. They must not conceal the technical limitations of innovative designs, and must prevent the risk of consumer misuse.

The after-sales service management system must be improved. Car manufacturers must fulfil their warranty obligations, clearly state after-sales service commitments and emergency measures relating to innovative designs, provide after-sales service, and ensure that during the promised warranty period they supply users with quality-assured spare parts and repair and consultancy services, while strengthening their ability to handle after-sales disputes. Car manufacturers are encouraged to buy product liability insurance for systems and components involved in innovative designs that could cause safety accidents during use.

The mechanism for recording and assessing safety incidents and accidents must be improved. When car manufacturers learn that a product they have made and sold has suffered a safety incident, such as abnormal functioning of an innovative design feature, or a safety accident such as a collision, they should take the initiative to investigate and analyse it, identify safety risks, and record the key data needed for analysis while ensuring that the data is authentic and complete. When public security organs conduct traffic accident investigations in accordance with the law, car manufacturers should promptly provide data and technical assistance.