We have rarely seen a debut as successful as Xiaomi has had in the electric cars sector; In just one year, the company has become one of the market references, thanks to Xiaomi Su7 and its different versions, such as the new Xiaomi Su7 Ultra. A success that has allowed him to expand his ambitions, with a second model that will be launched this year. In perspective, everything was too nice.
It was inevitable that at some point Xiaomi was going to stumble in his commitment to cars; The perfect company does not exist, after all. Now, it seems to have come for the truth for Xiaomi, in which the company will have to react appropriately to Your first crisis; And for the moment, the first decision affects the Xiaomi Yu7, whose launch has been delayed to a date to be determined.
The decision comes in the middle of the first controversy starring the Xiaomi Su7, a fatal accident in which driving aid systems could have had a role. On March 29, three women died after the Su7 in which they were traveling, crashed into a concrete barrier in the median of a highway; As a result of the impact, there was a spectacular fire.
As soon as the accident became public, Xiaomi announced its collaboration with the authorities, and publicly confirmed that, in the moments before the mortal clash, The “Autopilot” function was activatedbut that was automatically deactivated after a failure in detecting a bridge; However, the driver was not able to resume control before the crash. The investigation of the accident is still open and definitive conclusions have not been drawn; But the consequences are already being noticed, both for Xiaomi and for the entire automobile sector in China.
The “Autopilot” function of the Xiaomi Su7 is similar to that of Tesla’s Autopilot, in the sense that it is not really able to drive the car alone and without human intervention; in other words, It does not make Su7 an autonomous car. The driver must continue to maintain attention to the road and to the actions of the vehicle, keeping his hands on the steering wheel and feet on the pedals. However, in practice many people leave their lives in the hands of this function, as many Tesla drivers have demonstrated.
This accident has led the Chinese government to prohibit the use of terms related to autonomous driving in car advertising with highway -like functions; Specifically, words such as “autonomous” or “intelligent driving” cannot be used, and they will have to make it clear that the highway is a driving aid function. In the same way, the Chinese government has decided to abandon its permissive policy, and from now on, manufacturers will have to receive Express approval of the authorities to offer driving assistants in their cars.
The free android
For Xiaomi, this controversy will directly affect the new model of the company, the Yu7. According to sources of BloombergXiaomi’s original plan was to start the sales of YU7 next June, or July at the latest; However, these plans would have changed and Now the YU7 would not have a concrete release datebeing delayed indefinitely.
Therefore, it is likely that the YU7 will disappear from the spotlights, at least until the finished police investigation and Xiaomi can publicly present its reaction and the changes that it will make in its systems, if necessary. This way, Tesla has just received the best possible newssince Xiaomi had become one of his unexpected rivals, with the Xiaomi Su7 coming to advance to Tesla Model 3 in sales last December. The Xiaomi Yu7 could have removed sales to Tesla Model and, by offering greater autonomy at a lower price in a relatively familiar format.
