Introduction: Slow down and wait for the soul.
On August 12th, 2021, at 2:00 p.m., Lin Wenqin, the founder of Mei Yi Hao Brand Management Company, died in a car accident on the Shenhai Expressway Hanjiang section while driving a NIO car with automatic driving function (NOP Navigation Pilot mode). He was only 31 years old. On the evening of August 14th, “Mei Yi Hao” published an obituary on their public account.
Subsequently, “NIO car” and “automatic driving” pushed NIO to the forefront. According to reports, when Lin Wenqin used the NIO automatic driving function and drove to the Hanjiang section of the road, the vehicle failed to identify the construction vehicle in front of it, and did not automatically brake, which led to the tragedy. However, this statement is currently controversial.
At the scene of the accident, the vehicle was severely damaged and deformed, suspected to be caused by a high-speed impact. In Lin Wenqin’s most recent driving distance, the total time of using the NOP automatic driving function was 48 minutes, and the assistant driving mileage was 68 kilometers, with a time of 44 minutes. Throughout the journey, there was only one emergency acceleration and no emergency deceleration occurred.
On August 12th, NIO operated the vehicle without the knowledge of the police and the family members of the deceased. The relevant engineers were summoned by the police. Given the severity and illegality of this behavior, the news was widely spread.
However, NIO claimed that “the person was a technical staff member who went to power off the vehicle.” On the afternoon of August 13th, NIO sent an engineer to extract data from the driving recorder. After several hours of remote cooperation, only ten records from around January of this year were retrieved.
“NIO staff responded that it is not ruled out that the owner actively turned off the driving recorder.” Did the driver voluntarily brake while driving the vehicle? Did NIO’s NOP function intervene to brake?
Lin Wenqin’s friend said that NIO has not yet provided the relevant information of the vehicle to the family members and the police. The Lin family requested that NIO officially provide the data of the vehicle on August 16th, but NIO stated that the cloud data may not be available on Monday.
Autonomous Driving or Assisted Driving? Excessive Marketing is the Original Sin
After the accident, NIO cooperated with the traffic police investigation. NIO staff said, “Currently, autonomous driving is not allowed in China. The NOP Navigation Pilot mode is not autonomous driving, but an assisted driving mode of NIO cars. Specific information will be released later.”# Markdown Text in English
As early as 2019, “letting the vehicle ‘autonomously drive’ on the highway and eat in the driver’s seat.” NIO Vice President Shen Fei promoted “autonomous driving” in this way. Some people questioned that when NIO was promoting it, they said that their technology was autonomous driving, but after something went wrong, they said that it was assisted driving.
“There is no doubt that there is excessive marketing of autonomous driving technology by businesses, and there are also misunderstandings by consumers in the actual use process.” At the level of actual promotion, most car companies attempt to confuse concepts. NIO and XPeng use “NOP” and “NGP” to confuse the concepts of assisted driving and autonomous driving. So far, autonomous driving technology has not yet fully matured.
Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center of North China Industrial University, pointed out that autonomous driving assistance is still unsafe and the technology is still immature. Many car companies use exaggerated methods to promote it, misleading a group of consumers and reducing car owners’ risk awareness.
Although when learning to drive, people were explicitly told not to take their hands off the steering wheel. With the emergence of autonomous driving, many consumers rely on it excessively. Companies have a responsibility to tell consumers that autonomous driving has not yet completely replaced manual driving, and the driver must be ready to take control of the vehicle at any time.
“At present, more and more intelligent cars regard autonomous driving technology as one of the important selling points, but they have ignored the warnings and training for consumers,” said Cui Dongshu, Secretary-General of the National Passenger Vehicle Market Information Joint Conference.
Zhang Jianyong, head of the NIO unmanned driving system engineering department, proposed: NOP cannot be equated with autonomous driving. Like the pilot, NOP is still an assisted driving function, and it may exit when it cannot meet working conditions. When using it, the driver needs to pay attention to traffic conditions and road environments at all times.
Many intelligent cars only put risk warnings in the owner’s manual, but many car owners have not read it carefully. In terms of car owner education, XPeng Motors has done a good job. When users use NGP (automatic navigation driving assistance system), they will be asked to watch tutorials.
Reasonable Attitude
At present, autonomous driving technology has not yet fully matured, and car owners need to drive cautiously. Car companies are constantly improving their products. With double efforts from car companies and drivers, the risk of autonomous driving can be reduced.
On August 12, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the “Opinions on Strengthening the Management of Intelligent Connected Vehicle Production Enterprises and Products Admission,” which put forward requirements for both car companies and drivers.Director Yan Bing of Beijing Yuntong Law Firm said that a tolerant attitude should be taken towards new technologies such as autonomous driving, after all, this is the direction of the development of automotive technology. However, a conservative and cautious attitude should still be maintained in practical use. After all, this technology is related to our own safety and that of other traffic participants. Even if the probability of an accident is only one in ten thousand, we cannot afford it once it is triggered.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.