Assisted driving feature is one of the main selling points of new energy vehicles, but even leading manufacturers like Tesla and Chinese premium electric car maker Nio (NYSE: NIO) can't fully guarantee that this feature is completely safe and reliable, and drivers still have to be ready to take over the vehicle at any time, or they could be in danger.
According to Chinese media reports, an Nio ES8 owner recently said he was involved in an accident while driving his Nio ES8 vehicle on the highway with the auto-assist driving feature on during the National Day holiday early this month.
He said that the vehicle was traveling at about 100 km/h, but the vehicle's steering wheel suddenly turned left and crashed into the highway divider.
Following the accident, the airbag burst and the vehicle sustained severe damage, but fortunately there were no injuries.
From the photos he released of the accident scene, the impact was massive and the left wheel was completely knocked off. The vehicle suffered varying degrees of damage to the left front fender, front bumper, headlights, and the body of the left door.
What is difficult for the owner to understand is why this accident suddenly occurred when the vehicle had the automatic driver assistance feature on.
Because of the serious damage to the vehicle, the owner said the cost for repairing the vehicle was nearly RMB 200,000.
The owner also warned Nio owners in his WeChat friend circle to use the assisted driving feature with caution.
The Nio ES8 is the company's first model and is available in three range options of 415 km, 485 km and 580 km.
Its drive modes are all four-wheel drive with a total power of 400 kW. The vehicle's subsidized price range is between RMB 450,000 and RMB 593,500.
Earlier this month, news of a collision between a Li ONE, the only model by Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI), with driving assist on and a truck has sparked concern in China.
Chinese media quoted the surviving owner as saying that he was driving his Li ONE on a highway at around 10:00 p.m. on September 22 when it was involved in a serious rear-end collision with a truck that had suddenly merged onto the highway.
His Li ONE collided with the truck's cabin, completely fracturing the vehicle's A-pillar and none of the car's airbags ejected, resulting in a broken nose and serious facial injuries to the co-passenger. The rear passenger also suffered a mild concussion.
The Nio accident came just as the company was pushing it's Navigate on Pilot (NOP) feature to users.
From October 10, Nio started pushing Nio OS 2.7.0 update to ES6, ES8, and EC6 vehicles with current version 2.6.0 and above via FOTA.
The update brings the much-anticipated NOP which automatically guides the car following the navigation route on ring roads and highways.
This is the first commercial application of a high-definition map in China on the ADAS functionality of mass-produced vehicles, which further enhances Nio Pilot's capability.
