China will back firms in the smart vehicle supply chain to form groups dedicated to spreading innovation, state media said on Monday, as it races to hammer out standards for assisted and autonomous driving functions by 2025.

The world’s largest auto market, which set the target for such standards in July, has made so-called intelligent connected vehicles (ICVs) a long-term strategic focus in a drive to become the leading global player in the still nascent industry.

China will support firms in forming “innovation consortia”, that enable them to learn from each other’s strengths in order to achieve technological breakthroughs, the official Xinhua news agency said…

While level 1 is the least intelligent or automated of China’s five categories of autonomous driving, official data shows that in the first half of 2023, just over 42% of the country’s new passenger vehicles had already attained Level 2.