According to the latest data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, from January to July 2025, the sales of new passenger cars equipped with combined driving assistance systems in China reached 7.76 million units, with a penetration rate of 62.6%, an increase of 5.7 million units and 40 percentage points compared to the same period in 2021. Combined driving assistance systems have become a highlight of new models in the market and an important consideration for consumers when making purchases.

Currently, the models sold in the market mostly belong to the L2 level category, which is combined driving assistance. The system can only undertake some basic driving operation tasks, such as controlling speed and lane keeping. The so-called "intelligent driving" does not possess "autonomous driving" capabilities, and the driver remains the ultimate responsible party.

The development of intelligent driving has accelerated in recent years under the push of policies in China. The year 2025 has become a period of intensive policy implementation. In July, the State Council passed the "Artificial Intelligence +" action plan, emphasizing the integration of AI and automobiles; in August, eight departments jointly issued the "Automobile Industry Stable Growth Work Plan," promoting pilot applications of "vehicle-road-cloud integration" and supporting conditional approval for L3 level autonomous driving access, paving the way for advanced intelligent driving. At the same time, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a document to standardize the promotion of car companies, preventing the exaggeration of driving assistance functions.

On September 17, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology publicly solicited opinions on the mandatory national standard "Safety Requirements for Combined Driving Assistance Systems of Intelligent Connected Vehicles" (hereinafter referred to as "the Standard"), which mainly involves three dimensions: enhancing product capability performance, strengthening safety assurance requirements, and standardizing system usage methods.

Changjiang Securities released a research report stating that the national standard for L2 level driving assistance is expected to be established, and the intelligent driving industry may accelerate its development. The introduction of this "Standard" is expected to provide strong technical support for regulatory authorities and guide the intelligent driving industry chain to focus on technological innovation and product quality improvement, thereby accelerating industry development and benefiting the entire industry chain. It is recommended to pay attention to: 1) intelligent driving algorithm providers; 2) intelligent driving-related hardware providers; 3) Robotaxi operating platforms.

Guohai Securities' research report maintains a "recommended" rating for the driving assistance industry. Leading manufacturers' driving assistance solutions are gradually improving, and under the trend of accumulating AI capabilities, continuous R&D investment in high-performance chips and models is high. From the perspective of operational effectiveness, car companies no longer forcefully dominate the full-stack self-research of driving assistance but instead engage in rich strategic cooperation to further promote the penetration rate of intelligence, such as collaborations between car companies and solution providers, and with overseas car companies. The supply chain pattern is emerging, with domestic suppliers of lidar, cameras, millimeter-wave radar, domain controllers, and driving assistance chips further strengthening their industry influence during the development process and moving towards integrated hardware and software solutions to achieve comprehensive capability enhancement across domains.

Related concept stocks:

Hezhi Ma Intelligent (02533): As one of the earliest domestic autonomous driving chip companies committed to promoting "driving assistance equity," Hezhi Ma Intelligent is a core target benefiting from the commercialization explosion of L2+ level technology and breakthroughs in L3 and L4 level technology scenarios. As early as June 2020, Hezhi Ma Intelligent released the automotive-grade high-performance intelligent driving chip Huashan® A1000 and A1000L, becoming the first chip in China to support L2+ driving assistance Horizon Robotics-W (09660): Huachuang Securities released a research report stating that Horizon's Journey series chips have achieved mass production, surpassing 10 million units. The company expects to reach a mass production target of 10 million HSD (Horizon SuperDrive) units in the next 3-5 years. HSD is an end-to-end urban auxiliary driving system based on the high-performance Journey 6P (560 TOPS), and is a leading integrated smart driving solution following Huawei. The company has established its European headquarters in Munich and has built deep connections with international clients such as Bosch, Continental, and Volkswagen, which is expected to lead Chinese smart driving solutions to go global.

Suteng Juchuang (02498): Suteng Juchuang's high-line number laser radar products have been the first to achieve mass production for vehicles. Recently, the new generation super five-seat smart SUV "IM LS6" released by IM Motors and the ultra-luxury SUV "ZEEKR 9X" released by ZEEKR both feature Suteng Juchuang's 520-line digital laser radar.

Youjia Innovation (02431): Recently, Youjia Innovation officially launched its unmanned logistics brand "Xiao Zhu Unmanned Vehicle" and introduced two debut models, T5 and T8, officially entering the unmanned logistics track. This is another layout by Youjia Innovation in the L4 level autonomous driving field following the RoboBus, demonstrating its continuous advancement in the commercialization of high-level autonomous driving. Youjia Innovation started with pre-installed mass production auxiliary driving and, after more than a decade of technological accumulation, has formed a complete product matrix covering L1 to L4