ChinaZero-gravity seats, swivel seats and seat-to-bed functions would have to be locked out while a car is moving under draft rules published in China. The same draft would prohibit foldable and flexible displays. Public comments are open until 10 November 2026.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) published the draft notice jointly with the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the State Administration for Market Regulation, according to CnEVPost on 10 October.
What China’s draft vehicle design rules would ban, test or require
| Area | Draft position |
|---|---|
| Foldable and flexible displays | Prohibited |
| Zero-gravity, swivel and seat-to-bed functions | Blocked while the vehicle is moving |
| Central infotainment screens, large displays, complex head-up displays | Assessed for driving-safety impact, reliability in extreme conditions and crash safety |
| Lights, wipers, defrosting and defogging | Physical controls alongside any virtual ones |
| Door handles | Mechanical redundancy and room for a hand (repeats the 2026 standard’s ban on fully concealed handles) |
| Soft-close doors | Anti-pinch protection and manual opening during a power outage or malfunction |
CarNewsChina reports that the draft also proposes more stringent crash, anti-pinch and reliability tests for these seating functions. The draft would also stop anyone other than the driver from directly operating key safety functions while the vehicle is moving.
The door-handle requirements repeat a mandatory national standard MIIT issued on 2 February 2026, which takes effect on 1 January 2027 and is detailed alongside China’s record door-handle recall.
Dates and testing
- For new models with what the draft calls innovative designs, from 1 January 2027, applications would need extra technical parameters and safety and environmental validation materials.
- Innovative-design models already in MIIT’s catalogue would have to submit those materials by 1 July 2027.
The accompanying technical specification would require passenger vehicles to complete at least 30,000 km of reliability testing. Environmental adaptability testing would have to last at least a year, following a severe-cold, high-temperature, severe-cold sequence described as “2 winters and 1 summer”.
Wipers and windscreen defrost and defog are already on the list of controls China’s physical-buttons rule requires.
