On April 1, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Emergency Response, and the General Administration of Customs jointly issued the Notice on the Trial Implementation of the Automotive Safety Sandbox Supervision System to jointly launch the pilot work of automotive safety sandbox supervision.
What is sandbox supervision? What role will this system play in the regulation of automobile safety? For the first time, Weshejun interviewed Wang Yunpeng, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and vice president of Beihang University, to send you a detailed explanation.
Why promote sandbox regulation?
In recent years, the mainland's new energy vehicles and intelligent networked vehicles have developed rapidly. In 2021, the annual sales of new energy vehicles in mainland China exceeded 3.521 million units, an increase of 167% year-on-year, and the market share increased to 13.4%, ranking first in the world for seven consecutive years.
The outline of the "14th Five-Year Plan" proposes to "focus on strategic emerging industries such as new energy vehicles and accelerate the innovative application of key core technologies". The "New Energy Automobile Industry Development Plan (2021-2035)" also pointed out that "it is necessary to adhere to the development direction of electrification, networking and intelligence, promote the high-quality and sustainable development of the mainland new energy automobile industry, and accelerate the construction of an automobile power".
Under the guidance of policies and markets, the National Development and Reform Commission estimates that the number of connected cars in the world will be close to 74 million in 2025, of which the number of connected cars in China will reach 28 million, and China will become the world's largest smart car market. Mainland China has become a major driver of growth leading the global market for new energy vehicles and intelligent and connected vehicles.
The mainland new energy automobile industry has entered the fast lane of development, and the integrated development of electrification, intelligence, networking and sharing has injected new momentum into economic growth, while also deriving new security issues such as software security, network security, and industrial supply chain security, which has brought great challenges to automobile safety supervision.
Wang Yunpeng introduced that there are three main aspects of the challenge:
Automotive safety risks present a new model. The "end-network-cloud" architecture of intelligent networked vehicles brings new network security risks to automobiles, the automotive information domain and physical domain are closely integrated, and the network security threat sources are widespread, and network intrusion may lead to the risk of large-scale high-speed mobile vehicles being maliciously controlled.
The safety state of the car is unstable. Due to the introduction of OTAs (over-the-air download technology), cars that were considered safe when put on the market may become unsafe due to software upgrades that make adjustments to code or parameters, making it a challenge to supervise the entire life cycle of the car.
The harm of automotive safety problems is expanding. In the application scenario of big data, the use environment of automobile data is more open, especially the frequent cross-border flow of data, which not only leads to the risk of personal privacy and commercial data leakage, but also may also leak national roads, geography and other information, endangering national security.
How is sandbox regulation implemented?
The "Intelligent Vehicle Innovation Development Strategy" proposes to "build a collaborative and open intelligent vehicle technology innovation system" and "to build a scientific and standardized intelligent automobile product supervision system".
In response to the new risk challenges, regulators believe that it is necessary to introduce sandbox supervision in the field of automotive safety in the mainland.
As a useful supplement to the traditional supervision method, sandbox supervision is a flexible regulatory system for technological innovation, providing enterprises with a test platform and test cycle, on the basis of not violating the principled access standards and regulatory bottom line, encourage enterprises to voluntarily carry out further testing when they do not fully grasp the product risks, so as to prevent product application risks to the greatest extent.
Wang Yunpeng believes that at present, the mainland's regulatory model for automobiles is mainly based on traditional supervision methods, and it is difficult to cope with the new challenges brought about by the rapid development of new automotive technologies, and it is urgent to introduce a forward-looking regulatory model, change passive supervision to active supervision, and include the safety problems that may be caused by cutting-edge technologies into the scope of supervision earlier.
"Sandbox supervision is to set up a 'safe space' for a specific innovation entity to have a controllable risk scale in the real market environment, allowing it to test innovative technologies or products in it, and the innovative entity and the regulator jointly solve the potential risks and institutional loopholes found in the testing process." Wang Yunpeng analyzed that sandbox supervision shows the unity of principle and flexibility of supervision, which fully reflects the connotation of tolerance and prudence, "The sandbox supervision system emphasizes the emphasis on innovative characteristics, highlights the high tolerance for innovation to break through traditional behavior, and essentially creates a relaxed environment for new format innovation." ”
According to reports, the sandbox regulatory system originated in the United Kingdom, and more than 20 countries and regions such as the United States, Germany, and Japan are actively promoting the implementation of finance, automobiles, energy and other fields. It can improve the real-time and flexibility of regulatory response to risks, prevent excessive supervision from inhibiting scientific and technological innovation, better balance technological innovation and safety risks, actively advocate best safety practices, and provide new regulatory ideas for promoting the prosperous, healthy, safe and orderly development of the mainland automobile industry.
Relevant departments said that sandbox supervision encourages enterprises to conduct in-depth safety tests on cutting-edge technologies that have been applied to listed vehicles within a certain time frame, to a certain extent, to fill the regulatory gap caused by lagging standards, which is conducive to the regulatory authorities to include the quality and safety problems caused by cutting-edge technologies into the scope of supervision earlier and better ensure the bottom line of product safety. Enterprises participating in the pilot should take the initiative to fulfill their quality and safety responsibilities and accept the management supervision, tracking and evaluation and quality services of the regulatory authorities. The two sides work together to find product safety issues, improve product design and manufacturing, and reduce product safety risks.
"This is a typical embodiment of the inclusive and prudent supervision of new formats," Wang Yunpeng said, adding that the trial implementation of the sandbox supervision system in the field of automobile safety supervision not only conforms to the development trend of emerging industries and technologies, but also can properly respond to the conflict between supervision in supporting innovation and risk prevention and control, and better protect the personal and property safety of consumers. (Co-producer: People's Daily Central Kitchen Spicy Finance Studio)
Author: Lin Lili
Source: People's Daily Economic and Social WeChat public account