A really interesting post in the light of the “EV’s make me travel sick” discussion.
I personally do not like one pedal driving finding it actually counterintuitive after an initial excitement the first time I used it. I simply hate having to always be pressing the accelerator to make the car move.
I use Mercedes d auto (and always with the limiter on or on motorways the cruise control) which is a blend and allows coasting so in fact it feels just like driving a fast responsive ICE…be interesting to see what others think

 

Starting in 2027, China’s updated national standards for electric vehicle brake systems will require that cars cannot come to a complete stop using only one-pedal drive as the factory default.

Hopefully it'll be a simple matter of change it once and forget about this idiotic "safety" requirement.

My guess is to avoid something like this:

Tesla Model Y crash investigation in China revealed accelerator was pressed 100%, brakes not applied

Also Autopilot wasn't involved

carnewschina.com

 

If nothing else, just showing you (us) that humans are becoming more dependant on technology than on using their own brain. In 100 years from now, independent thinking will be banned 😂
Fora Frank will take over here and we will be made redundant....However, I will be deed (as they say in Scotland) so I couldn't care less 😂😂😂

 

We’ve been dependent on technology for just about the entire time humans have existed. From stone axes, arrows, fire, clothing - we couldn’t have conquered the entire world without it. Sure, in the last three hundred years or so it’s been accelerating faster and faster, but it’s a difference of degree, not kind. We don’t all need to know everything - if there ever was a time when a single person could know everything, it was a long time ago. The Industrial Revolution changed things, leading to a massive reduction in farm workers, allowing more and more people to specialise in jobs that didn’t exist before. Perhaps it’ll be like Wall-e… but I’m still hoping for Star Trek.

 

I had 1 pedal driving as an option in a LEAF and hated it.
I do keep my e-niro on max regen in town traffic, so can slow down mostly by lifting the accelerator, but I'm quite happy to use the brake pedal when the car needs to stop.

As for that video of a Tesla being driven by a lunatic in China, I don't see what that's got to do with OPD at all.

 

I used e-pedal on the LEAF all the time and got to love it (once you could judge how fast to release the pedal). It made city traffic a breeze, including Yorkshire hills. Never used it on the motorway, of course.

Now I really miss it but I'm getting used to normal regen driving again, with level 3 permanently set on the Soul. It's not quite the same though, and moving that right foot is such an effort

 

Surely this is an Automatic transmission problem not an EV one.

It won't be helped by full one-pedal driving or, indeed, variable regeneration with paddles. Because their perceived advantage "you never have to touch the brakes" means that the muscle memory of using the brake pedal in an emergency is lost.

I do use exclusively the not-quite-one pedal driving on my ID3. So stopping completely requires use of the brake pedal.

 

Surely this is an Automatic transmission problem not an EV one.

It won't be helped by full one-pedal driving or, indeed, variable regeneration with paddles. Because their perceived advantage "you never have to touch the brakes" means that the muscle memory of using the brake pedal in an emergency is lost.

I do use exclusively the not-quite-one pedal driving on my ID3. So stopping completely requires use of the brake pedal.

With all due respect full on OPD is far more harsh than standard auto transmission effect. Most modern auto transmissions will give quite limited braking effect.

OPD is actually quite harsh and I have always personally felt it is an increased risk of sudden unintended acceleration.

 

As it happens, I don't use OPD anyway because I need to flex my right foot often due to ankle pain building up if kept in one place too long. In OPD, that of course causes the car to slow down rapidly, which isn't welcome right then. Far too harsh if the pedal is dropped completely, and I do need to do that to shake my foot about a bit from time to time. I use regen auto in level 3 in my Ioniq 5, which still slows the car, but in auto it also takes note of the traffic situation, and with no cars or traffic lights around, it slows quite gently for the few seconds I take to waggle my foot and get it back on duty.

 

It's a very lazy way to drive.

Obviously has its proponents, and possibly has a place (at times), but in my opinion should not be the default and should be able to be completely disabled. Then again I'm slightly more traditional in my views of driving (and riding) and human involvement.

Porsche absolutely loathe OPD and are on record for opposing it on their cars.

What is actually far more difficult (to get right) is really good regenerative and friction brake blending on EVs - blending that retains traditional braking feel. Also fallacy (compete bollocks) that lots of regen somehow makes a car more efficient.

 

I never use e-pedal in the Leaf, except to demo to friends how rubbish it is. No one likes it.
Maybe I'm becoming a rare type of "correct" driver, but I make full use of the "overrun" as we used to call it, and give my right foot a rest. Can't do that with e-pedal, it's very tiring to keep your right foot tensioned all the time.
For the same reason I make good use of the handbrake (or EPB now) in stationary queues, again to give my right foot a rest (and to switch off the brake lights).
Hence my dislike of the new cars with no parking brake (like the Omoda E5).

 

For me e-pedal works like a dream. Around me we have more traffic lights than make sense, so I use it most of the time around our "wonderful" city with its muddled road layout. It is also used as an electronic hand brake rather than the foot operated one. On good A roads, windy back roads and motoways, I can still drive safely and happily without it.

 

Totally agree. I have a Jaguar I-Pace and it works beautifully. Makes driving so much easier especially when you have mastered it. For my car it's either on or off. I turn it off occasionally just to give the brakes some use, keeping them in good condition. I'm all for anything that makes driving easier and regenetative braking is definitely one of those.

 

The thing with OPD is that optimisation plays a big part. Nissan (Leaf 1)/Renault (Megane)/Hyundai (Kona) seems to be quite basic, direct mapping of the pedal position. Tesla/Volvo (EX40) seems to be smarter, the quicker release of pedal gives faster braking. Smoother pedal release gives light braking. Not all OPD are created equal.

I personally much prefer OPD to without. I ALWAYS drive with maximum regen setting and MUCH prefer getting the car to make the final stop rather than moving my feet for sake of a pointless input.

HOWEVER, I do use the brake pedal at least once daily when situations allow so that (hopefully) it doesn't rust.


I see the reason behind this type of "safety requirement". Muscle memory fades when not frequently used. In an emergency, without that muscle memory, the driver then cannot slow down quick enough. This requirement makes logical sense, just hope it is implemented as a profile default that can be changed and saved, isn't like speed warning or some car's lane keep that defaults to on on each drive.

 

I just read the article, and it doesn't say they are banning it, but are banning the setting being the default when you start the car.

 

Read again. The ban is to stop it from being the default when starting a car. But more importantly, to also ban OPD from enabling it to bring the car to a full halt. That second point is important, as otherwise people could still select OPD before moving off and then not use any brake action using the pedal. That second point is what this is really about. They want people to retain muscle memory by having to brake sometimes, such as when coming to a final halt.

 

Most EVs require the brake pedal to be pressed to put into drive in the first place so you have muscle memory right there... I don't think any have one pedal with no foot on the brake to start the car. Unless China has that kind of idiocy as default?

 

That is entirely separate from actually stopping the car. This is about retaining muscle memory for the physical act of stopping.

Your assertion is similar to claiming giving the gear stick a wobble to make sure it’s in neutral before starting the car, is “training” people how to use manual gears.

This change in law is studies showed a significant number of people using OPD got so used to “stop = lift off right pedal” instead of “stop = press on left pedal”, that they were losing their brake pedal muscle memory. They were noting a delay in a significant number of emergency brake situations where OPD was being used. Basically regen is not remotely enough braking power to perform an emergency stop and in many instances there was a delay before the brain reprogrammed itself in realtime.

 

Incidentally, this is old news and was first reported a few months back. I wanted to read the actual test/report to determine how they came to their conclusion. Edit: here is an abstract.

Results showed: 1) The regenerative braking system did not affect driver perception and reaction of the lead vehicle braking event and drivers extended throttle release to avoid rapid speed drops when the lead vehicle braked slowly; 2) the one-pedal mode exhibited a longer throttle to brake transition time and increased uncertainty in timing of brake pedal application; 3) the one-pedal mode was safer than the two-pedal mode in low urgency situations but became unsafe in high urgency or uncertain situations due to delayed braking.

Here is the full link

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4945897

So it was arguably found that it was more the delay in the driver making the critical decision that “Regen isn’t cutting it here” in an emergency situation and applying the actual physical brakes, rather than a failure to use the correct “brake” pedal.

Also I note a complete lack of any of the people against this to think beyond their own personal interests. It’s all well and good saying “my muscle memory knows where my brake pedal is”. But that ignores that as EVs become far more mainstream a lot of new drivers will purely drive EVs in OPD mode and will rarely if ever learn that muscle memory.

 

Incidentally, this is old news and was first reported a few months back. I wanted to read the actual test/report to determine how they came to their conclusion. I couldn’t find it.

Also I note a complete lack of any of the people against this to think beyond their own personal interests. It’s all well and good saying “my muscle memory knows where my brake pedal is”. But that ignores that as EVs become far more mainstream a lot of new drivers will purely drive EVs in OPD mode and will rarely if ever learn that muscle memory.

One-pedal or two-pedal: Does the regenerative braking system improve driving safety? - PubMed

Electric vehicles equipped with regenerative braking systems provide drivers a new driving mode, the one-pedal mode, which enables drivers to accelerate and decelerate with the throttle alone. However, there is a lack of systematic research on driving behavior in one-pedal mode, and whether it...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

New National Compulsory Standard GB 21670–2025: Technical Requirements for Passenger Car Brake Systems

On May 30, 2025, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology finalized the development of the mandatory national standard GB 21670–2025 – “Technical Requirements and Test Methods for Passenger Car Braking Systems.” The standard was approved and issued by the State Administration for...

www.bestao-consulting.com

GB 21670-2025 English Version, GB 21670-2025 Technical requirements and testing methods for passenger car braking systems (English Version) - Code of China

GB 21670-2025 English Version - GB 21670-2025 Technical requirements and testing methods for passenger car braking systems (English Version): GB 21670-2025, GB/T 21670-2025, GBT 21670-2025, GB21670-2025, GB 21670, GB21670, GB/T21670-2025, GB/T 21670, GB/T21670, GBT21670-2025, GBT 21670, GBT21670

www.codeofchina.com

It makes perfect sense to minimise its use because humans programme in 'muscle memory' and then do things really badly in an emergency.

For example, I advise 'occasional motorcyclists' to never use the rear brake. This isn't because it doesn't help, but because in an emergency if they are used to using the rear brake then they will 'do that more', lock the wheel and crash. If you watch motorcycle crash videos, about 95% of them are caused by misuse of the rear brake where there is no other vehicle involved.

'Muscle memory' is very powerful in an accident and will overwhelm the sense to press on the brake. If the learned instinct is to pull away from the pedals to slow the car down, what a regular person will do is 'pull away even more' to slow down quicker, and that isn't going to help. In simple terms, to press the brake pedal will then involve a piece of conscious mental processing to over-come the muscle-memory.

This is much the same reason I have concerns on 'driver assist' functions; all they do is create an additional burden for the driver to consciously over-come if they decide it is doing the wrong thing. Sure, it makes regular driving 'easier' explicitly because the driver does not have to pay as much attention (and less fatigue on a long trip, so long as there are no emergencies), but it all turns to shit the moment there is an emergency to deal with and the brain has to kick in.

If you are wondering if 'muscle memory' is a real thing, it is actually programmed into the spinal column. You can spread your usual scorn and derision if you like, but non-conscious (non-processed) muscle control can be 'learned' by the grey matter in the spinal column. It's why people (e.g. gymnasts) can learn skills that require dexterity at a speed in excess of a nerve impulse from the brain to the foot, and gymnasts can be slightly taller than 'theoretical maximum', because a lot of those skills are trained into the grey matter of the spinal column as 'the first response'. The brain has to then deduce what the body has just done and then decide if it has done it correctly. Trying to do that in a back-flip on a balance beam (for example) would be impossible if it were not for such neurological programming closer down to the feet and the signal does not have to go so far. Look it up if you think any of that is an exaggeration.

 

Maybe I'm becoming a rare type of "correct" driver

How is it "correct" driving.

Correct driving is driving as required by the law.

Correct driving isnt OPD vs no OPD.

They think that drivers never using the brake pedal will eventually cause issues in an emergency, as their foot is not used to that movement, and that will delay such emergency braking.

We've had this topic covered before about how allegedly OPD is unsafe as in a simulated environment apparently some people didnt brake and crashed as they relied solely on the accelerator release to emergency brake.

I dont buy that at all.

Even with OPD I still use the brake pretty regularly, simply because of the idiots on the road or I misjudge in certain circumstances when to lift off and need to apply a bit to slow down quicker.

Maybe they're just bad drivers and its not OPD thats the cause.

You can learn to ride a bike, have years of never riding one and still get back on one and ride it.

 

You can learn to ride a bike, have years of never riding one and still get back on one and ride it.

These days, it's the 'getting on' bit that's harder. You can't step through an old, tall, Dawes gentleman's conveyance.

 

You don’t need to “buy it”, the studies found it to be the case. You are using your own experience and projecting that as applicable to everyone. That’s why studies exist for such conclusions and not personal anecdotes.

 

The study, not studies didnt articulate the background of the individuals e.g. were they experienced with driving EVs.

If the person is totally new to EVs and you say "you can brake with one pedal" then that may be misunderstood as full braking, it wasn't fully documented the controls around it all.

Also there are studies which say climate change isn't as bad as we think, do we just accept those then?

 

Not sure what you don't understand about their proposal.


This isn't a ban on OPD at all. Just a ban on it being a default setting at each new startup. And to disable the full OPD, which at present can bring a car to a full halt without using the brakes.

They hope that preventing a driver from being able to add it to a startup profile setting, and by deleting the full OPD of bringing the car to a halt, will mean that all drivers will retain their muscle memory over the necessary foot movement from the go pedal to the stop pedal.

The confusion is the term one-pedal-driving. My guess is the regulation was translated and ICE car journo don't understand the difference.

What you consider "full OPD" is what I consider OPD. That is being banned/deleted in China.
What you and articles refer as OPD, where the final halt/stop action is done by pressing a second pedal, is not one-pedal-driving. That's just high regen setting.

Also I note a complete lack of any of the people against this to think beyond their own personal interests. It’s all well and good saying “my muscle memory knows where my brake pedal is”. But that ignores that as EVs become far more mainstream a lot of new drivers will purely drive EVs in OPD mode and will rarely if ever learn that muscle memory.

Well put. I think having low regen and no OPD (this means the vehicle require a second pedal to come to a stop) as default makes sense. This is the setting I would choose for anyone new to EV and it makes sense for people to learn driving with this. Instinctively moving foot to brake pedal must not be forgotten.

When I was starting to learn driving many years ago, my Dad got me to practice moving from Go pedal to Stop pedal in a stationary car every day before going on the road.


But I'm dead against removal of ability to choose full OPD as a profile option. It's a matter of choice, doesn't affect people who don't like OPD. Hopefully well tuned full OPD remain a choice in many cars over here.

 

But I'm dead against removal of ability to choose full OPD as a profile option. It's a matter of choice, doesn't affect people who don't like OPD. Hopefully well tuned full OPD remain a choice in many cars over here.

Erm if it has been shown to be dangerous in some circumstances then yes indeed I want it banned those circumstances might put me and my loved ones at risk of injury or death, other peoples selfish beliefs they and only they should make the decision about such things is unacceptable as they do not live in a bubble only populated but them.

 

One-pedal drivers are making a choice about whether the situation they are seeing start to occur needs more regen or moving their foot across. Everyone else has already moved their foot across and is ready to put their foot down. So I'd be willing to buy there being some safety issue, even if it is small.

Where it really matters is anyway stop-start traffic where I find adaptive cruise far more relaxing. Surely everyone is just going across to that?

 

Mmmm. Sort of a good point. Having said that, you could easily argue that adaptive cruise was potenrially more hazardous than OPD.

 

China doing things like this is an indication that they are flexing their muscles. As I said upthread, using one pedal driving needs to be implemented as a personal choice, and I have no difficulty turning it on and off to suit the driving I choose to do. Don't treat us like babies.

 

My feelings about OPD are summed up in the quote from Jurassic Park:
"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."

OPD solves a problem that nobody had in the first place. Some motoring journalists rave about it, but it's a very recent innovation in the history of motoring, and as this chat reveals, not everyone likes it.

I agree that when you see a car accelerating out of control in those "World's craziest car crashes" videos, it's often because the driver has their foot hard on the accelerator when they are trying to push the brake. That's something that modern cars could prevent with a bit of clever software, especially in reverse.

 

Some people have mentioned the alternative of adaptive cruise as an option. I think that it is most useful, or was really designed for, fast open multi lane roads. And it is excellent in those situations as long as you are being observant and not becoming trapped behind slower vehicles in the inside lane.

But I have also found it to be really useful in very heavily congested traffic too. If its set at 30mph even though traffic is only moving stop-start, it will start and stop to match the car in front with no driver input. Really relaxing in otherwise stressful situations. Key, is that it works like OPD but without the driver working any pedals at all. I use it a lot in such situations.

 

Some people have mentioned the alternative of adaptive cruise as an option. I think that it is most useful, or was really designed for, fast open multi lane roads. And it is excellent in those situations as long as you are being observant and not becoming trapped behind slower vehicles in the inside lane.

But I have also found it to be really useful in very heavily congested traffic too. If its set at 30mph even though traffic is only moving stop-start, it will start and stop to match the car in front with no driver input. Really relaxing in otherwise stressful situations. Key, is that it works like OPD but without the driver working any pedals at all. I use it a lot in such situations.

That's also me. And it's actual OPD as you only need to use the break pedal.

I've always put my foot above the break pedal when I didn't need to accelerate so I could improve my reaction time in case of something unexpected. I think it helped a few times. Now, with ACC, I can keep my foot there. The car will follow the speed of the car in front, leaving a reasonable safety distance (most of the time the car behind me is much closer to me than ACC will accept to be from the car in front). I don't have to watch my speed as ACC will only go to the speed specified. If something like a traffic light says I should not follow the car in front, I just have to break to disengage ACC and use the break to stop where I should.

It also lets my coast when I can plan a stop some distance ahead, which is more energy efficient than regen. My car seems good enough to engage regen really fast when I press the break pedal, so it's not really like one would have done 30 years ago switching into neutral to coast. And talking about regen, the ACC will do that when needed to maintain the speed when going downhill.

I guess the drawback might be the reaction speed if you need to accelerate fast to avoid something, but if my experience matches most common occurrences, it's orders of magnitude less likely than having to react very fast in a situation when you need to break.

 

We get that. But regard it as debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Semantics for the sake of it. We both know what is meant. And if removing the last 5mph makes it TPD then crack on with your campaign to get them to change its name. But most people think that it's coming to the point where " methinks he doth protest too much" is relevant.

This isn't a pointless debate. It's to pin down what is being banned what isn't.

You were saying:

The aim is to prevent a system from being used to bring a car to a halt by its own action, and that final stopping must be by the brake pedal to keep muscle memory for safety reasons.

Which is different to:

This isn't a ban on OPD at all.

It is a ban on OPD.

 

This isn't a pointless debate. It's to pin down what is being banned what isn't. It is a ban on OPD.

No it's not. Its an adjustment to OPD to enable 99.99% of its use during a drive as OPD to continue as usual, but to disengage OPD for the final 2 metres to the stop. It's only you who now wants to say that means it's not OPD. That, my friend, is pedantry taken to the extreme.

 

If, through the analysis of various driving and safety scenarios, it has been determined that full-stop OPD increases risks for drivers, passengers, and/or other road users, then it is only right that the relevant bodies take that information into account and update their policies or governing laws. It is about managing risks appropriately.

Whatever the term used for OPD vs whatever, the point here is that a change is being proposed that will reduce risks and improve road safety. Semantics aside, and whether you personally are an advocate for OPD or use it, are largely irrelevant. Laws are being proposed in one country to meet their risk profile. Whether that extends to other parts of the world is yet to be seen, but if the underlying analysis and rationale are sound and don't contradict local laws, it is likely this sort of thing would be a global change over time.

Personally, I find the technology in cars too much already. We've somewhat lost the plot and seem to be creating solutions for problems that didn't really exist, or for the convenience factor alone.
In some distant future where personal transport is fully autonomous, it's fine to have all this stuff as it will be needed. But we're a long way from that if we're honest.

I believe that a driver of a vehicle needs to know how to use it safely without the use of any of that technology; otherwise, they shouldn't be driving.

 

I always wondered why the Koreans refused to implement persistent OPD. I think it is clear now.

 

My understanding is that OPD was mainly a tesla invention, as their brake pedal only operated the friction brakes. And other.manufacturers said.me too despite other brake pedals being mainly regen.

The problem with muscle memory is that in an emergency it is to stamp on the brakes. Unless you have only ever driven OPD then this risk exists.

Same as the new auto gearbox driver who thinks they are pressing the brake, also made worse be experts advising left football, right foot throttle.