For many of us, automotive tech advancements have been a mixed bag. For every highly practical and helpful feature – like smart cruise control or GPS navigation – you have another that’s maybe not as useful or difficult to operate. Haptic controls, I’m looking in your direction.
There’s another category, however, and that’s the type of features that could be downright dangerous when used incorrectly, a scenario that raises the question about whether they should exist in the first place.
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For an example, we take you to China – the electric car capital of the world – where a Xiaomi brand vehicle went viral recently for appearing to drive off on its own while its befuddled owner chases it.
The owner, identified as Li Xiaoshuang, parked his SU7 outside of a store, and what happened next was captured on a surveillance camera: while Li and another person conducted some business in the store, the blue vehicle began to drive away. Aware within moments, Li rushed outside to chase down the vehicle, which was reportedly stopped before any damage was done to people or surroundings.
The carmaker was contacted after the strange incident took place and it offered up a simple explanation based on its data: a command to self-park was issued by an iPhone later confirmed to be the owner’s.
And while Xiaomi shifted the blame from possible software bugs or hacks – and the owner acknowledged the device identified was, in fact, his – the scenario raises some bigger questions: is there a missing step here if a so-called “valid” command can be issued from a device completely by accident?
Theories suggest the feature was “unintentionally activated through the iPhone app or its voice assistant.”
Perhaps here we have a smart feature that could stand to be smarter.
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