Lin Wenqin, the 31-year-old founder of Chinese restaurant brand Meiyihao, died in a traffic accident while driving an Nio ES8. His company's obituary says the vehicle was on NOP (Navigation On Pilot), putting the self-driving feature into the spotlight.
Chinese media has been covering the story intensively, with the official securities media Securities Times publishing an article on Monday calling on car companies to invest less in forward-looking technology outlooks and more in safety.
Here are the main points of the article:
On August 12, a well-known entrepreneur died in a traffic accident while driving an Nio ES8, and on July 30, the owner of an Nio EC6 was killed when it was severely damaged and spontaneously combusted after hitting a stone pier in Pudong New Area, Shanghai.
These two accidents have brought the safety of smart electric vehicles back into the focus of society. How to guarantee the safety of battery and automatic driving of intelligent electric vehicles?
In fact, the rapid development of smart electric vehicles has brought huge challenges and tests to industry regulators and transportation departments.
When new energy vehicle enterprises actively expand their production capacity, improve vehicle range, and develop high-grade autonomous driving, it is worth considering how the regulator should keep pace with the development of technology and manage moderately.
Some industry insiders believe that the electrification and intelligence of cars is the general trend. The industry has accumulated less in the early stage, and it is normal to have problems at present. We should be tolerant of new things.
Some industry insiders believe that intelligent electric cars involve human life safety, and it is necessary to be strict or even harsh to them.
Recently, the regulation around smart electric vehicles is being gradually strengthened in China, with several regulations focusing on the safety of smart electric vehicles, including data, network, OTA, and autonomous driving.
However, it is still the vehicle companies that decide the development and production of vehicles, and the manufacturer of the vehicle directly determines the quality of the product and the safety of the product.
From this point of view, ensuring the safety of the product is not only the mainline of R&D and production of car enterprises but also the bottom line.
Currently, the development of the new energy vehicle industry is in full swing, each car company is accelerating the focus on advanced technology to seize the strategic high ground. But while running fast, car companies must pay attention to whether the foundation under their feet is solid.
Car companies may wish to have a less advanced technology outlook, more safety investment. After all, vehicles serve people, science, and technology to serve humanity is the essence of the mission of technology development.
For new energy vehicle enterprises, improve the safety of the vehicle, seizing the high ground of technology, and access to substantial revenue is not an "impossible triangle".
On the contrary, if new energy vehicle enterprises focus more energy on personal safety, their development will be more solid. Sometimes, walking solidly does not mean falling behind.
For consumers, neither should they shy away from smart electric cars, nor should they completely relax their cautious attitude towards the new technology.
The development of smart electric cars requires more tolerance and acceptance, as well as strict regulation, supervision, and guidance.
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