# China's transport ministry requires an onboard safety officer in conditionally and highly automated taxis, and caps remote safety officers at one per three fully driverless taxis

Page: https://flyvolo.ai/en/changes/ev-20231121-ride-hail-driver-4
Date: 2023-11-21 · Stage: Constraint
Can this record move a task judgement? yes
Occupation: https://flyvolo.ai/en/careers/ride-hail-driver

## Scope

Mainland China, and the document is a trial guideline from the ministry's General Office rather than a statute, so its force runs through provincial transport authorities and the licences they issue. Read it as two things at once: it legitimises commercial autonomous passenger and freight operation, and in the same breath it sets a personnel floor. Section 6 requires one onboard safety officer in a conditionally or highly automated taxi; a fully automated taxi may use a remote officer only in a designated area, with the municipal government's consent, and at a ratio no lower than one officer per three vehicles. Officers must be trained on the specific automation level and route and must hold the relevant professional qualification. The ratio is a floor on that permitted configuration, not a measurement of what operators actually staff, and it says nothing about any other market — nor about how it will be enforced.

## Source

- 中华人民共和国交通运输部办公厅 —《自动驾驶汽车运输安全服务指南(试行)》,交办运〔2023〕66 号 — https://xxgk.mot.gov.cn/2020/jigou/ysfws/202312/t20231205_3962490.html (primary source)

## What this means

In mainland China, the ceiling on how far the driver can be removed is written down. A conditionally or highly automated taxi still carries a person. A fully driverless one can move that person off the vehicle, but not out of the count: one officer per three cars is the floor, and only in a designated area a municipal government has agreed to. The remote-operations job on this page is therefore a regulated position in China, with a training requirement and a professional qualification attached.

## What it does not show yet

A floor is not a forecast. One in three is what a regulator permits, not what an operator staffs, and nothing here says how many vehicles are actually running under either configuration. It is also a trial guideline from a General Office rather than a statute, so what it means in practice is decided province by province, through permits, and can be tightened or relaxed without a new document at this level. And a ratio can move: the number that matters to a driver is what it says three years from now.

## How to verify it yourself

Find the operating rules your city published for its designated autonomous area and look for two numbers: the permitted ratio, and how many vehicles are licensed under it. The second number is what turns a ratio into a headcount, and cities publish it far less often than they publish the first.


More: https://flyvolo.ai/llms.txt