What changed in the Taiwan driving exams in 2026?

2026 has been the busiest year this licence has had in a decade, and the changes landed in four separate months. If you are working from a guide written before this year, from a video, or from a friend who passed in 2024, some of what you know is about an exam that no longer exists.

Here is every change, what it costs you if you get it wrong, and the date each one took effect.

The car circuit test, from 31 March 2026

This is the one nobody outside Taiwan has written about, and it is the one that fails people.

The scoring sheet the examiner holds was amended. 小型車駕駛人場考評分基準及成績紀錄表 now has a new item 3, 行人穿越道線, the pedestrian crossing, and everything after it moved down a number. The new item has three rows, and each of them is minus 32.

1. 「不減速慢行或不暫停讓行人優先穿越」, not slowing down and stopping to let the pedestrian cross first.
2. 「停車時前懸超越停止線」, stopping with the front overhang of the car past the stop line. Note that it is the overhang, not the front wheel, so a nose that creeps past the line counts even though the wheels have not.
3. 「起駛前未轉頭察看照後鏡、檢查視野死角並注意有無車輛行人」, pulling away again without turning your head to check the mirror and the blind spot.

The arithmetic has not changed and it is what makes this serious. The circuit is 100 points with 70 to pass, so 100 − 32 = 68. One of those three is already a fail.

The exam date is what decides which sheet you sit under. The official notice is explicit, tests on 31 March 2026 or later use the new sheet, tests on 30 March or earlier used the old one.

The blind spot, on the same date

The same amendment added the words 檢查視野死角, check the blind spot, to every head-check row on the circuit sheet. Before moving off (item 1), at the railway crossing, before pulling away at the new crossing, and before every turn and lane change on the circuit road. The old wording asked only that you look at the mirror and turn your head; it now names the blind spot itself.

In practice examiners want to see the head move. A glance at the mirror with your eyes is not it. Each of those rows is minus 32.

Two more bits of wording moved with it, and they are worth knowing because they tighten what is being asked. 「未禮讓」 (not giving way) became 「不暫停讓」 (not stopping to give way), which means slowing politely is not enough any more, and 「前輪超越停止線」 (front wheel past the line) became 「前懸」 (front overhang).

The road test sheet was not amended. 小型車駕駛人道路駕駛考驗評分標準及成績紀錄表 is still the older version, without 視野死角 in its head-check row. The two halves of the car licence are separate exams, each out of 100 with 70 to pass, and only the circuit one changed.

Large vehicles got their own new row on the same date, 「未依規定執行指差確認動作」, the Japanese-style point-and-call, also minus 32. It does not apply to an ordinary car licence.

The car written exam, from 30 June 2026

The car paper caught up with the scooter’s. True or false questions are gone. The exam is now 50 multiple-choice questions, 2 points each, 30 minutes, and 85 to pass, which is the format 監理服務網’s own practice simulator states.

The official bank behind it was republished as 新版汽車筆試題庫, 1,090 multiple-choice questions across the three 架構, plus a separate file of 10 hazard-perception video questions (汽車危險感知影片選擇題, clips numbered 202601 to 202610). Government news reporting puts about 5 of those video questions in each exam, roughly a tenth of the paper. That figure comes from official news coverage rather than from a regulation, so treat the exact count as approximate while treating their existence as certain.

What this means in practice is that a car candidate now has to watch and think, not just memorise. The clips are free to download from the Highway Bureau’s own bank page.

The scooter written exam, from 30 January 2026

The same change, five months earlier. True or false questions are gone from the scooter paper too, and it is 50 multiple-choice questions, 2 points each, 85 to pass.

Press reporting at the time said the number of hazard and scenario questions rose from 10 to 15 per exam, which would take them from a fifth of the paper to nearly a third. The official notice that carried the detail has since been taken down, so that particular number is press-only. The direction is not in doubt, the hazard half of this exam got bigger.

This is also why the English-language guides are now actively wrong about the scooter test. Anything describing 15 multiple-choice plus 12 true/false plus picture and sign sections is describing the pre-2026 paper.

The scooter riding test did not change

Worth stating plainly, because people assume it did. The scoring sheet is still 普通重型及輕型機車駕駛人路考評分基準與成績紀錄表 in its 2024 version, ten items, 100 points, 70 to pass. Nothing was added in 2026.

What did change is money. On top of the NT$1,300 subsidy for taking a scooter course, which runs until 15 December 2026, the Highway Bureau now pays NT$2,500 towards a school’s pre-test road training and NT$1,200 towards post-test safe-riding training. Both are voluntary. A road test for scooters has been announced as a future plan and a regional pilot has been floated for 2027, but nothing of the sort applies to a rider taking the test today.

Booking, for both licences

Two changes here, and the first one can cost you a month.

Booking now closes at 24:00 three days before the test, not two. The official page says 「考照日前3日24時截止」. If your test is on a Friday, registration shut on Tuesday night.

Booking is online only. 「考照一律採網路預約，不受理現場報名」. Some stations still release unclaimed places to people who turn up, but that is a local courtesy, not a rule you can plan around. New places go up every morning at 08:00, which is the moment to look if the day you want is full.

The penalty for missing a test you did not cancel also changed shape. It is now 15 days without booking rights for the first time, 30 for the second, 60 for the third, counted from the exam day you missed.

One more, from 30 June 2026

If your licence was revoked and your bans add up to three years or more, you must now finish a driving school course before you may sit the test again. This is the last paragraph of article 60 of the Road Traffic Safety Rules, and it is the reason headlines this summer read 「重考需上駕訓班」.

It applies to re-sitting after a revocation and to nothing else. A first-time candidate still needs no driving school at all, for either licence, which is a separate answer.

The short version

Change	Date	Who it hits
Pedestrian crossing added to the circuit test, three rows at −32	31 Mar 2026	Car
檢查視野死角 added to every head check on the circuit sheet	31 Mar 2026	Car
Written exam becomes 50 multiple-choice, about 5 hazard videos	30 Jun 2026	Car
Written exam becomes 50 multiple-choice, more hazard questions	30 Jan 2026	Scooter
Booking closes 3 days before, online only, places at 08:00	2026	Both
Driving school required to re-sit after a 3-year ban	30 Jun 2026	Both
Riding test scoring sheet	unchanged	Scooter

The question bank in our app is the current official one, and the mock exam uses the format in force now, 50 questions with 85 to pass.