The Self-Driving Ban: I Watched Shanghai’s Auto Show Scramble After China’s Overnight Rule Change
After watching the first day Shanghai Auto Show, and wow what a chaotic scene! The convention center is packed. You can barely move through some sections without bumping elbows with other journalists all trying to get the perfect shot of the newest models. Over 70 car brands from around the world have crammed into these massive exhibition halls, with more than 100 new or refreshed models fighting for attention. The coffee is terrible, my feet are killing me, but the energy here is undeniable.
Chinese Brands Take the Spotlight
Remember when we used to joke about Chinese cars? Yeah, those days are long gone. The exhibition floor layout tells you everything you need to know about who’s running the show now. BYD and Geely have the prime real estate—massive, gleaming displays with dramatic lighting and crowds three-deep trying to get a glimpse.
I bumped into Min Zhang, who’s been covering the auto industry here for years. “Five years ago, people laughed at Chinese EVs,” she told me over lunch at a noodle shop across from the convention center. “Nobody’s laughing now.”
What struck me most at BYD’s display was how they’re putting advanced tech in cars regular people can afford. Their “God’s Eye” driver assistance package—which honestly works better than similar systems I’ve tested from certain American manufacturers comes standard even on their entry-level models. When I asked a BYD rep about this strategy, he just smiled and said, “Why should only rich people have safe cars?”
The Regulatory Curveball
The timing couldn’t have been worse. Just three days before the show opened, Chinese authorities dropped a bombshell regulation banning terms like “smart driving” and “autonomous driving” in all advertisements. You should’ve seen the panic this caused!
Walking around yesterday, I noticed painters lovering up banners at the Zeekr booth. Their marketing director (who begged me not to use his name) looked like he hadn’t slept in days. “We had to reprint everything overnight,” he told me while nervously checking his phone. “Our CEO was furious.”
The catalyst was pretty serious a fatal crash last month involving one of those driver assistance systems. Three people died when their car hit a cement pole and caught fire. The government response was swift and severe.
It’s fascinating to see how quickly these companies can pivot, though. Presentations that were cuilt around autonomy features have been hastily reworked to focus on safety and driver responsibility instead. One presenter had handwritten notes scribbled all over his printed speech.
Tesla’s Conspicuous Adjustments
Tesla doesn’t have an official booth here (they haven’t since that wild protest in 2021 when a customer climbed on a car roof), but everyone’s talking about them anyway. They’ve already halted their “Full Self Driving” trial program in China and awkwardly renamed it “intelligent assisted driving” to stay on the right side of these new regulations.
I grabbed coffee with Jia Chen, who’s analyzed the Chinese auto market for over a decade. “Tesla used to be the cool kid everyone wanted to hang out with,” she said. “Now they’re struggling to keep up with local innovations. Have you seen the new interface on the Xpeng? It makes Tesla’s screen look dated.”
Battery Technology Takes Center Stage
With autonomous driving suddenly off the marketing menu, everyone’s scrambling to highlight other technologies. Battery tech is the new hotness. Geely’s press conferences now focus heavily on their hybrid systems and battery chemistry advances.
I got to check out BYD’s Blade Battery demonstration yesterday. They drove a nail through it on stage to show it wouldn’t catch fire! The engineer running the demo had sweat pouring down his face can’t blame him for being nervous about puncturing a lithium battery in front of hundreds of people.
“Battery tech isn’t as sexy as self-driving cars,” a BYD rep admitted to me while sharing a taxi back to my hotel, “but it’s aore important to everyday drivers who just want their car to go farther and not explode.”
As I head back for day two, my takeaway is clear: despite these regulatory speed bumps, China remains where the automotive future is being written. The technologies I’m seeing here this week will eventually make their way to driveways across America and Europe just maybe with slightly toned-down marketing claims.
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