On The Eve of L3 Mass Commercialization: How Autonomous Driving Will Reconfigure a Trillion‑Yuan Service Market

Envision a vehicle that autonomously locates parking, charges itself, schedules car washes and maintenance, and plans the owner’s journey end‑to‑end. Such capabilities would fundamentally transform daily vehicle use.

As L3 conditional autonomous driving approaches large‑scale commercialization, a trillion‑yuan service ecosystem driven by perceptive, decision‑capable vehicles is accelerating into view. At the inaugural Autonomous Driving Mobility Ecosystem Forum on November 7, industry authorities concurred that 2025–2027 will be a pivotal window for scaled commercialization of autonomous driving, and that a convergent industrial ecosystem spanning manufacturing, digital technology and services is rapidly coalescing.

Zhang Yongwei, Chairman of Chebaihui, stated at the forum that the service ecosystem is emerging as the industry’s third pillar after vehicle manufacturing and digital/AI capabilities. He projected the automotive service market to exceed 8 trillion yuan by 2028, effectively becoming a second automotive industry. Zhang argued that intelligence will be a primary development vector for automotive services and called for pilots and demonstration projects that leverage digital and AI technologies and the aggregation power of autonomous driving firms to cultivate national and international service providers and advance coordinated development of vehicle and service intelligence.

The forum published the report Autonomous Driving Mobility Ecosystem 2025 (the White Paper), which systematically maps autonomous driving’s application value across parking, charging, aftermarket services and insurance, and offers a comprehensive outlook on how the technology will reshape future mobility and service ecosystems.

The White Paper highlights that China stands at a critical juncture shifting from L2 assisted driving toward L3 conditional autonomy, with highway L3 expected to reach mass commercialization in 2026—an inflection point that signals the formal arrival of the autonomous driving era. Li Wenguang, President of the Intelligent Driving Product Line at Yinwang, noted that global commercialization is accelerating and that after highway L3 in 2026, urban L4 commercialization is likely in 2027, followed by unmanned trunk logistics in 2028. He emphasized that autonomous driving’s deployment will reshape mobility ecosystems and unlock new industrial opportunities.

Reflecting this trend, Yinwang has launched the “Qiankun” intelligent driving open platform, offering standardized modules for charging, parking, car washing and insurance to empower ecosystem partners to jointly create user value. The platform is intended to drive cross‑industry integration and support a comprehensive autonomous driving service ecosystem.

Parking, as the initial touchpoint for autonomous journeys, is undergoing significant transformation. Sun Longxi, President of Ketuo Co., observed that parking facilities—characterized by enclosed spaces, clear rules and mature technical and market readiness—constitute ideal scenarios for early autonomous driving deployment. He proposed redesigning parking operations from the vehicle’s perspective, introducing functional zones such as drop‑off and waiting areas to enable one‑tap valet and seamless separation of people and vehicles. Parking systems will evolve to serve vehicles directly, enabling automatic payment, intelligent dispatch and city‑scale resource sharing. Ketuo’s network of more than 4,000 managed parking sites can boost space utilization by over 30% and enable urban scheduling that, for example, allows hospital vehicles to be automatically parked in nearby residential vacancies. Sun stressed that as autonomous driving rapidly iterates, parking capacity and user experience will both improve markedly.

Upgrading the charging ecosystem is equally important. The White Paper states that autonomous vehicles will shift charging from a passive to an active process by autonomously routing to available chargers for seamless “no‑touch” charging, which both enhances user experience and, via intelligent scheduling, smooths grid load and improves operator returns. Li Hongqing, CEO of Wanbang Digital Energy, emphasized that charging must transition from manual operation to full automation to sustain continuous autonomous vehicle operations. Ideal autonomous charging requires coordinated vehicle‑pile‑grid‑cloud integration to support automatic parking, identity recognition, port activation, automatic gun insertion, charging, contactless settlement and automated departure. Wanbang advocates a smooth upgrade path for existing infrastructure to avoid duplication, focusing on two technological routes: underbody charging suitable for household and public high‑power scenarios that uses positioning for efficient conductive charging to save space, and side robotic‑arm charging compatible with current interfaces that completes docking in about 40 seconds to greatly improve throughput. The solution has been adapted to over 60 vehicle models and implemented at locations such as BMW brand charging stations in Beijing, advancing the shift from “plug‑and‑charge” to “park‑and‑charge.”

Autonomous driving is also reshaping the automotive aftermarket. The White Paper notes that vehicles will autonomously schedule off‑peak visits to service outlets for washing and maintenance, freeing owners from time‑consuming upkeep while shifting service models from reactive repair to proactive warning and personalized management. Hu Xiaodong, Co‑founder of Tuhu Car Service, highlighted significant time costs in current services: a car wash typically consumes 50–70 minutes, with more than 60% spent on travel and waiting. Tuhu, in collaboration with Huawei, is piloting a “seamless car care” model in which a user places an order via app and the vehicle autonomously travels to a Tuhu location, completes service and returns without owner involvement—a key step in the evolution from standardized digital services to intelligent service delivery.

As vehicles evolve into intelligent terminals, supporting ecosystems are likewise transforming. Insurance is being restructured around lifecycle data generated by autonomous systems, shifting risk assessment from driver behavior to algorithm reliability and spawning new insurance products tailored to L3 and L4 autonomy. Ni Hong, Deputy General Manager of Personal Non‑Auto Insurance at PICC, said insurers are moving from pure risk bearing to innovation enabling. Ni expects autonomous driving to reshape mobility by broadening liability from drivers to manufacturers and suppliers, reducing traffic accidents by an estimated 94%, shortening commute times by 15%–30%, improving energy efficiency by 18%–25% with notable emissions reductions, and catalyzing new industries such as autonomous algorithm development and automated charging services. PICC has introduced specialized assisted‑driving insurance covering five scenarios, including valet parking and substitute mobility services. Looking forward, Ni anticipates three insurance evolutions: liability allocated across “driver + automaker + supplier”; coverage expanding from operational to systemic risks; and pricing moving from historical datasets to dynamic, real‑time driving and system‑performance data.

To address the residual “last‑meter” issue of unplugging after automated charging, Du Shangbiao, Vice President of FlashEx, presented a human‑assisted service model that leverages a 3 million‑rider courier network to provide one‑to‑one urgent delivery, achieving an average one‑minute response and ten‑minute on‑site service to solve the final link in a fully automated charging chain.

The White Paper concludes that autonomous driving represents a profound ecological revolution. Vehicles will evolve into integrated “intelligent mobile spaces” that aggregate energy, information, commerce and services. With continued technological breakthroughs and deeper ecosystem collaboration, a safer, more efficient and more convenient era of smart mobility is accelerating into being.