Lin Wenqin, 31, the founder of Chinese restaurant brand Meiyihao, died in a traffic accident while driving an Nio ES8, the brand said in an obituary posted on its WeChat account Saturday.
The accident occurred at 2 p.m. on August 12, 2021, when the ES8 had the autopilot function NOP (Navigation On Pilot) turned on, the obituary said.
Lin was the founder of several companies and owned several restaurant chains with more than 500 franchises in China, the obituary said.
The obituary provided no further information about the crash.
The Securities Times quoted a response from Nio's brand department that NOP is not autopilot and that information will be released when the findings are available.
(Photo of the accident circulating in Chinese social networks.)
The ES8 is Nio's first production vehicle and is currently its highest-priced model with a price tag of RMB 468,000 (72,300) - 624,000. Users can reduce the price by at least RMB 70,000 if they choose the BaaS battery leasing program.
NOP is one of the features of Nio's autonomous driving system Nio Pilot which offers two options of RMB 15,000 and RMB 39,000.
Equipped with Mobileye EyeQ4 autonomous driving chip, Nio Pilot supports over 20 assisted driving functions and supports remote vehicle software upgrade (FOTA), according to the EV maker.
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