► What’s happening in China?
► Why turquoise is the new colour of driverless cars
► And how its happened

Spend any time on the hectic streets of Beijing or Shanghai and you’ll soon notice something different about some of the cars: their lights feature a bright teal or turquoise colour. Found in all corners of the car as well as on the door mirrors, it often takes the place of amber in indicators. It’s the colour of the future.

For the last couple of years, car manufacturers in China have been incorporating the colour to signal the presence and use of autonomous technology – and years before it was also suggested by Mercedes, too. However, China’s sheer heft in the car market may well have now tipped the scales over to turquoise once and for all. The aqua, blue/green colour you see in these pictures is set to become the global signifier of autonomous technology.

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It has two functions: first it lets other road users know when a car is in autonomous mode. Whether this will prompt them to make allowances and give the self-driving car some extra space, or instead take advantage of its programmed-in accident-avoidance by cutting in front, remains to be seen. But either way, it does at least provide a level of awareness.

The second effect is marketing: by displaying the new colour on their cars, manufacturers are showing they’re at the forefront of autonomous technology. What’s more, these lights show the public who can afford a car with autonomous functionality; it’s something of a ‘flex’, in other words.

‘Now, if you go to the roads in China, you see a lot of blue lights,’ Leapmotor founder and CEO Zhu Jiangming told a press conference at the Beijing Auto Show. ‘And when you see the blue lights on, that means that the ADAS [advanced driver-assistance system] is on.
‘Thirty per cent of Chinese customers are using ADAS for daily commuting and driving. In the future, I believe that you will see blue lights on with all the cars on the road.’

It’s permitted in China and parts of the US, but it’ll soon be compulsory in China; others are likely to follow. In China it will be written into law along with several changes in rules around Level 2 and above ADAS systems, Level 2 being partial automatic control of steering and speed.

The lights illuminate when autonomous driving functions are in use and turn off automatically when they’re disengaged. It was initially fitted to cars with Level 3 (potentially complete automation of driving, but the driver must be ready to take back control) and Level 4 (the driver is now essentially a passenger) capability, but can now be found on some cars with Level 2 tech.

Li Auto design director Ben Baum told us. ‘We just wanted to show that our car was able to do it. It’s just a statement to say, “These cars are driving autonomously.”’

For Li Auto, they actually started off as a workaround. Baum wanted a full-width light on the front of the Li Auto L9, but couldn’t find a neat way to stretch it to the edges. ‘I wanted to have this halo lamp in the front as wide as possible, but we couldn’t extend it into the corners.

‘We said “Okay, let’s make the autonomous driving light there. These orange indicator lights can change into blue, and then you have still the feeling that the light is full width.”‘

And is there any science behind the choice of shade? No. ‘When a designer tries to make something feel futuristic, it always takes this kind of blue,’ Baum said. ‘We were drawing it, and thought “Oh, this looks actually really cool.”’