Author | Wang Xiaojuan

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

Once hailed by Xiaomi founder Lei Jun as a “ceiling-level” Xiaomi automatic parking car, it also “hit a wall.”

Recently, several owners of the Xiaomi SU7 standard edition said that from noon on November 14 to the early morning of November 15, their vehicles were scratched and collided during the parking process due to a failure in the automatic parking function. In severe cases, the rear bumper of the vehicle also hit and fell off.

Wall Street News learned that at present, more than 70 car owners have registered an accident. Almost all of the causes of the accident were during automatic parking. The system did not recognize the pillar/wall, and eventually crashed into it.

Xiaomi's handling of the accident was also quite timely. Xiaomi customer service said that the main cause of the accident was a system bug, and they are willing to bear the full maintenance costs. 1,500 Xiaomi credits (worth 150 yuan) will be provided every day during the maintenance period as a travel allowance during the maintenance period.

There are also car owners who are not satisfied with Xiaomi's treatment plan, believing that the accident had an impact on the car's value preservation rate, and hope to pay higher compensation. People close to Xiaomi said that each car is in a different condition, and the specific compensation will be determined according to the actual situation, which will solve users' problems.

It is worth mentioning that after the accident occurred, Xiaomi Auto also stated in response to questions from netizens on November 18 that Xiaomi Smart Parking can still be used normally without an internet connection. All Xiaomi models are equipped with valet parking assistance functions based on the end-to-end model, which can achieve underground garage cruising of up to 23 km/h. It accurately detects driveways and obstacles in the parking lot, and enables obstacles to bypass and even reverse.

Intensive accidents caused Xiaomi's “ceiling-level valet parking” to raise questions from many car owners. It also poured cold water on Lei Jun, who boasted that Xiaomi would enter the first smart driving camp by the end of this year.

Currently, the proportion of smart driving ability in consumers' car purchase decisions continues to increase. Over the past two years, car companies have also competed for smart driving ability. Among them, autonomous parking is an important function that highlights intelligent driving capabilities, and it is the focus of car companies every time they release new cars. Even in the small enclosed space of the press conference stage, the car can drive on its own and park at the designated location.

A person from the Smart Driving Company said that although the core of competition in the current market is urban NOA and end-to-end, in reality, users use the most frequently and experience the most intuitive functions in the parking scene. In terms of grasping accuracy, parking is more difficult than driving because it requires close recognition and quick response.

Prior to Xiaomi, car brands such as Avita and Zhiji also had accidents involving automatic parking. These car companies also use smart driving as their main selling point.

However, whether it is the current automatic parking failure in Xiaomi, an accident after consumers hit the road using the smart driving function of another brand model, or even life safety issues, it all indicates that car companies do not give enough safety warnings when promoting smart driving functions.

According to current regulations, so-called smart driving that consumers can use on the road is still only L2 level assisted driving. In the event of an accident, the driver is still responsible. Like Xiaomi this time, not many car companies are willing to take the initiative to take responsibility and admit that it is a problem with their own smart driving system.

While smart driving technology is currently running wild and continues to make it easier for people to travel, safety has always been a topic of continuous discussion. For newcomers to the car industry, like Xiaomi, who have transitioned from 3C digital, users often have more trust in the software capabilities they have accumulated over the past ten years or so.

This incident told Xiaomi Auto and the industry that the rules of the automotive industry still put safety first. Xiaomi cars and the industry need to further realize that the impact of system bugs in cars and mobile phones is not on the same scale at all.

Currently, the smart driving industry is in full swing, and Xiaomi's smart driving is also advancing end-to-end.

On November 15, Lei Jun first demonstrated the Xiaomi SU7's “parking space to parking space” smart driving capability during a live broadcast. The release of this feature represents yet another major advance for Xiaomi cars in the field of intelligent driving, especially in the application of end-to-end technology. Xiaomi will begin targeted testing on November 16, and plans to launch the Pioneer version at the end of December.

At the same time, Lei Jun also revealed during the live broadcast that Xiaomi's investment in intelligent driving technology research and development has reached 5.5 billion yuan in the past three years. Xiaomi's big model of smart driving technology has learned 3 million video clips, and this figure will reach 10 million by the end of the year.

The huge investment is the exploration of more functions and more powerful capabilities, and it should also guarantee safety.

This failure not only made Xiaomi cars rethink the smart era, the boundaries of technological safety, but also sounded a wake-up call for the industry. In the automotive industry, safety will always be the most important boundary.