Volkswagen Cleared for Level 3 Autonomous Driving Trials in Hefei

Volkswagen Group China has won permission to run real-world Level 3 autonomous driving trials in Hefei, with road tests already underway and technical readiness targeted for 2027.

The authorization follows Hefei's revised Level 3 regulatory framework, which Volkswagen says incorporates updated safety design specifications. The permit allows the carmaker to test in live traffic and collect data at scale — the foundation the company says it needs before conditional automation (a system where the car drives itself in defined conditions, with the driver available to take over) can reach production.

Volkswagen Group China CEO Ralf Brandstätter framed the permit as a safety-first milestone. "At Volkswagen, safety and reliability come first in autonomous driving. Technological progress must never come at the expense of safety," Brandstätter said.

"Our ambition is to combine innovation with the highest safety and quality standards to build trust in new technologies. With this permit, we can test in real traffic in Hefei and collect data at scale. It is the next step on our road to Level 3 readiness," he said.

What's behind the trial fleet?

Two in-house systems anchor the program. Carizon, the group's local intelligent driving facility, engineered Hyper Sense 8, Volkswagen's first proprietary L2++ driver-assistance system (an advanced hands-on assistance tier short of conditional automation).

Validation runs through GAIA 2.0, Volkswagen's internal artificial intelligence world model (a simulated environment used to train and test driving software). The company says GAIA 2.0 evaluates driver-assistance safety through daily simulations equal to five million kilometres of travel.

The data ambition is larger still. To support Level 3 progress, Volkswagen is pursuing the equivalent of 10 million kilometres of training data every day, aimed at strengthening the system's response to uncommon and unforeseen road conditions — the edge cases that typically stall higher automation tiers.

Beyond L3, Volkswagen is simultaneously engineering the C7H, a proprietary system-on-chip prepared for Level 4 deployment, where the vehicle handles all driving tasks within its operating domain without human intervention.

Why China, and why now?

What does this change for Volkswagen's competitive position? In short: access. China offers the broad testing authorisations and regulatory support that European markets have been slower to grant, and the forecasts suggest the stakes are large.

GlobalData — the research firm and parent of Just Auto — projects global sales of fully autonomous vehicles could exceed half a million units by 2030. It forecasts China will command the largest robotaxi fleets, aided by municipal demand, state support, broad testing authorisations and a comparatively supportive regulatory framework. By 2030, China is expected to represent well over half of the planet's driverless vehicles.

That makes Hefei more than a test bed. It's a data engine. Real-traffic kilometers collected under the permit feed directly into the simulation and training pipeline that Volkswagen needs to hit its 2027 readiness date.

The backdrop: a group under pressure

The autonomous-driving push comes against softening volumes. Volkswagen Group's worldwide deliveries fell 14.3% to 1,885,300 units in the third quarter of 2026, hit by North American regulatory headwinds and a downturn in China — its most important single market.

Proprietary software and chips are part of the group's answer: reducing reliance on external suppliers while localizing development in China, where domestic competitors have moved fastest on assisted driving.

What to watch next

Watch for the scale of the Hefei trial fleet, the first confirmed L3 feature set tied to the 2027 readiness target, and any regulatory sign-off that moves testing toward commercial deployment.