On July 29, 2026, the topic of the ban on the 'little blue light' for autonomous driving topped the Weibo trending list. Reports indicated that starting from July 27, 2026, newly certified passenger cars in China will not be allowed to be equipped with external autonomous driving little blue lights. Geely Auto responded that it was aware of the news and would strictly comply with national regulations. That evening, the China Automotive Standardization Institute released an official interpretation, detailing the regulatory basis and safety hazards.
In fact, before this issue escalated, equipping autonomous driving systems with little blue lights seemed to have become an industry consensus. However, after the topic of banning the little blue lights emerged, many people realized that their use did not even comply with national standards. So, where exactly did this consensus on equipping autonomous driving vehicles with little blue lights come from? And why are they suddenly being banned? Today, we will explain this in detail.
01. A Blue Light Driven from Concept Cars to Mass-Production Vehicles
The official name of the little blue light is the ADS Marker Lamp, which stands for Automated Driving System Marker Lamp. This design can be traced back to 2015. That year, Mercedes-Benz released a concept car named F015. When the car entered autonomous driving mode, blue lights would illuminate on the body to indicate the vehicle's operating status to pedestrians.
In 2019, SAE International officially released the J3134 technical standard "Automated Driving System (ADS) Marker Lamp," which for the first time set clear requirements for the lighting of autonomous vehicles, recommending the use of blue-green light sources to indicate the autonomous driving status. This standard provided a technical reference for the subsequent popularization of the little blue light.
However, in China, the actual implementation of the little blue light did not happen until 2022. Li Auto took the lead in equipping its L9 model with an external autonomous driving indicator light, becoming the first domestic brand to mass-produce this configuration. Subsequently, brands such as XPeng, NIO, BYD, AITO, and Xiaomi quickly followed suit. In just a few years, the little blue light evolved from an exclusive feature of flagship models to a standard configuration covering almost all price segments. From 100,000 RMB family sedans to million-RMB luxury SUVs, more than a dozen brands have equipped their models with it.
The rapid popularization of this light is inseparable from the fast penetration of intelligent driving functions in China.
Data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on July27, 2026, showed that since the beginning of this year, the penetration rate of passenger cars with Level 2 combined driving assistance functions has reached 70.5%, and the penetration rate of passenger cars with NOA (Navigate on Autopilot) functions has reached 34.2%. Additionally, according to the "2025 Urban NOA Automotive Assisted Driving Research Report" released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) in January 2026, in the first 11 months of 2025, the cumulative sales of passenger cars equipped with urban NOA functions reached 3.129 million units.
As the number of cars with little blue lights on the road increases, controversies have also emerged.
02. Compliance Controversies Surrounding the Little Blue Light
The large-scale adoption of the little blue light in domestic vehicles has actually always been in a gray area of regulations.
The current mandatory national standard in China regulating the external lighting of vehicles is GB 4785-2019 "Installation Regulations for External Lighting and Light-Signaling Devices on Motor Vehicles and Their Trailers." When this standard was formulated, the little blue light for autonomous driving had not yet been widely applied. The standard explicitly limits the available colors for external lighting on civil vehicles to only four: white, yellow, red, and amber; blue is not within the permitted scope. Meanwhile, among the 26 statutory vehicle light types listed in the standard, there is no category for external autonomous driving indicator lights.
Image source: "Installation Regulations for External Lighting and Light-Signaling Devices on Motor Vehicles and Their Trailers"
In other words, from the perspective of current regulations, the little blue light is outside the scope of statutory permission in terms of both light category and luminous color.
Then why did many automakers dare to install the little blue light even though it was not stipulated in the standard? In fact, in September 2021, the MIIT released the draft for comments on "Light-Signaling Devices and Systems for Motor Vehicles and Trailers," which specifically proposed in Appendix D to add ADS marker lamps for Level 3 and above autonomous driving vehicles, requiring the light color to be blue-green. Many automakers started product development in advance based on this unpublished draft for comments.
Image source: Draft for comments on "Light-Signaling Devices and Systems for Motor Vehicles and Trailers"
Note: This content was deleted in the official version.
However, in the officially released GB 5920-2024 standard in 2024, the relevant clauses from this draft for comments were entirely deleted. From the perspective of regulatory compliance, automakers developing products based on a document that never took effect inherently face compliance risks.
Some industry insiders frankly stated that the ability to install the little blue light in cars is, to some extent, exploiting a loophole in the national standards.
03. What Exactly Went Wrong with the Little Blue Light?
After the news of the ban on the little blue light spread, two viewpoints emerged. Supporters felt the light was too glaring at night, while opponents believed it was the most intuitive indicator of the autonomous driving status. In fact, the little blue light was banned because it exposed some issues in actual use.
The most direct issue is actually the violation of light color regulations; blue light has no legal place under the current national standards. Moreover, blue has a special meaning in the domestic road traffic system. Special vehicles such as police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances all use blue lights. The use of blue lights by civilian vehicles can easily cause identity confusion.
Another issue is glare interference. The China Automotive Standardization Institute pointed out in its official interpretation that the little blue light turned on at night can easily cause glare for other road users, making it visually glaring, and particularly interfering with surrounding drivers' judgment of road conditions. Ma Lin, Vice President of NIO, also publicly stated that the little blue lights on some models are even brighter than the taillights, which is glaring for following cars.
There is another rather interesting issue: not only did the little blue light fail to provide protection, but it also turned on autonomous driving cars into targets for being cut off. Some car owners reported that after turning on the little blue light, the following distance left by the system was more than half a car body longer than when driving manually. Some vehicles, upon seeing the blue light, deliberately cut in front. Sometimes, they were cut off four or five times in just a one-kilometer drive. Some car owners simply turned off the little blue light in the system, and the situation of being cut off significantly decreased. The original intention of this light was to remind surrounding vehicles that the car is in autonomous driving, but it ended up causing nearby cars to accelerate and cut in.
Zeng Qinglin, General Manager of the Yijing auto brand, stated that there are two core reasons for halting the little blue light. One is that there is no unified standard for the brightness and flashing frequency of the blue lights among different manufacturers, which affects traffic safety. The other is that some drivers, upon seeing vehicles with blue lights on, deliberately cut in or block the car to test the limits of autonomous driving. He believes that for models with weaker autonomous driving capabilities, the little blue light sometimes becomes a roadblock.
04. Will the Little Blue Light Disappear Completely After the Ban?
Currently, the ban mainly targets newly certified models, and existing vehicles already on the road can still be used normally. For sold vehicles, the illumination of the little blue light during driving may be restricted in the future through methods such as OTA (Over-The-Air) updates.
In fact, compared to the ban itself, many people are more concerned about whether there are any alternative solutions after the little blue light is banned. One approach is to use existing daytime running lights or turn signal lights to create dynamic effects, displaying white during normal driving and switching to an amber breathing or flowing water effect when autonomous driving is activated. This does not require new hardware, nor does it involve regulatory issues, and can be pushed via OTA.
Another approach is to rely on the in-car instrument panel and HUD (Head-Up Display) to display the autonomous driving status, completely eliminating the need for external light prompts. In fact, in June this year, China's first mandatory national standard targeting Level 3/Level 4 autonomous driving, "Intelligent Connected Vehicles - Safety Requirements for Automated Driving Systems," mentioned that Level 3 and above autonomous driving requires clear markings.
Appendix B of the standard requires that the ADS must provide a continuous optical prompt when activated. The prompt methods may include steering control devices or vehicle markings with the words "A" or "AUTO."
Image source: Intelligent Connected Vehicles - Safety Requirements for Automated Driving Systems
It should be noted that clause B.2.3 belongs to the human-machine interaction chapter, and the target audience is always the fallback user, which is the driver inside the car. It merely lists the forms that can be adopted for in-car status prompts and does not explicitly state that this marking can prompt vehicles at the rear.
Of course, the little blue light for prompting surrounding vehicles will not necessarily disappear completely. Reports indicate that the National Automotive Standardization Technical Committee is also promoting the revision of GB 4785, and the new standard plans to add specific clauses for ADS marker lamps. However, whether the new version of the standard will require mandatory installation for Level 3 vehicles and whether it will allow Level 2 assisted driving vehicles to continue using similar lights currently have no clear conclusions.
Ultimately, the halting of the little blue light this time is actually a cleanup of the gray areas of the past few years by industry regulators. From beginning to end, the policy level has never officially issued a national standard mandating the installation of the little blue light. Automakers rushed to install it in their cars, but the door of regulations was closed. The rise and fall of this light, to some extent, also reflects the trajectory of China's intelligent driving industry moving from wild growth to standardization.
For consumers, whether the little blue light is banned or not only affects whether that external light is on or not. What truly determines driving safety has never been the color of the light, but the driver's clear understanding of the boundaries of assisted driving functions. Regardless of the ultimate fate of the little blue light, the driver is always the first person responsible for safety.
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