China cracks down on absurdly fast 0-60 times, sleek EV door handles for safety

The Chinese government has proposed new safety standards for cars that would default to a slower-accelerating mode to enhance road safety, cracking down on the extremely quick acceleration speeds we’re seeing on the market these days, according to CarNewsChina.

The same draft includes regulations on sleek EV door handles and the usage of autonomous-drive systems.

The new safety standard was drafted by China’s Ministry of Public Security and includes several new proposals, the most headline-grabbing of which is a limit on acceleration.

Cars have gotten extremely quick these days, especially with the introduction of electric vehicles, which can achieve low 0-60 times with little effort.

Not only this, but these supercar acceleration times have become democratized by the ease of achieving them with EVs, such that even relatively reasonably-priced vehicles can offer supercar performance.

It seems like having all these super-quick vehicles on the road got to be too much for the Chinese government, and they’re now looking to limit acceleration… at least in default drive modes.

The new regulation would require that any vehicle default to a drive mode which limits 0-100km/h (0-62mph) acceleration to 5 seconds or slower. Other drive modes would still be selectable, and it looks like they wouldn’t even be limited from being used on public roads, simply that the car would start up with the slower default mode selected.

There are a number of other safety features in the same proposal, including a requirement that cars be equipped with pedal misapplication warnings and a system to shut off power when the car detects misapplied pedals.

Over the years, we’ve seen a lot of reports of “unintended acceleration” with EVs, but as is the case with gas cars, the vast majority of these situations are simply pedal confusion – a driver presses the accelerator thinking it’s the brake, panics, and presses harder, not realizing they’re only accelerating the car more. While this can happen with any car, it tends to be more dangerous in quicker vehicles, as drivers have less time to react and can be more surprised by a more powerful vehicle.

The regulation includes another focus point which we’ve heard a lot about lately: door handles.

An automotive trend in recent years has been to include sleek door handles which fold flat against the vehicle body, improving aerodynamics slightly and giving cars a sleeker look. The trend is often credited to Tesla, which has lay-flat door handles (of some type or another) on all of its cars.

But we have also seen recent pushback against this design feature, alongside lawsuits over high-profile deadly accidents which allege occupants were trapped inside the car by poor door handle design. Tesla is facing investigation, but other brands are not immune from the same scrutiny.

So China’s draft regulation requires that each occupant of the vehicle be able to exit through at least two doors (in case one is obstructed somehow), and that all doors have mechanical release handles both inside and outside, and that doors must automatically unlock in emergencies.

Finally, the regulation governs driver assist systems and requires drivers to verify that they have completed training on the limitations of the system before they’re allowed to use it. Drivers can use either biometrics or by logging into an account to verify that they have completed training. And all ADAS systems are required to use driver attention monitoring, both with hand detection and eye detection (a system that Tesla just said it will turn off in “a month or two”).

Electrek’s Take

There are a number of other tweaks in the proposed regulations, but these three are the big ones, and all are related to some current trends in EVs that people have been talking about for a long time.

Quick EV acceleration is great, and it’s great that so many people can get access to performant vehicles. I personally usually keep cars in sport mode all the time so I can have access to the quickest acceleration – but not because I want to speed around, moreso because I want the most responsive pedal available, and other modes sometimes increase pedal latency.

But I also think that some cars are unpleasantly quick these days. my 0-60-in-4-seconds Roadster has never felt slow to me, and always allows me to zip into anywhere I need to be on the road. But the absurdly powerful vehicles I’ve driven that are faster than that are sometimes too twitchy, too punchy, and I don’t really see the need for all that oomph.

And lets be honest, nobody needs 3,000hp. Heck, nobody really needs over, say, 300hp or so.

So, the compromise here of having a default mode, but still allowing faster selectable modes, seems reasonable enough to me. 0-62 in 5 seconds shouldn’t feel restrictive to anyone, and you can always change it when you’re in a place that’s safe enough to allow it. At the very least, drivers will have to make a conscious choice to do so, and hopefully that will mean they’re paying more attention.

The door handle and ADAS changes are welcome as well. These are two other pain points we’ve heard about – door handles are getting harder to operate, and any amount of confusion in a post-crash situation is not helpful for safety. And ADAS systems, with so many different levels and branding and capabilities (and by deliberate marketing…), can confuse a consumer and make them feel like the car can “drive itself” when it really cannot. Requiring verification that that specific driver understands that specific vehicle’s capabilities could help here too.

Overall, this new regulation seems to make a lot of reasonably-smart changes all in one fell swoop, addressing modern concerns with the auto industry in a way that enhances safety while still allowing choice and not adding particular undue burden. Isn’t this how government is supposed to work?

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