Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Xiaomi Corp (小米) said it would cooperate with a police investigation into a fatal crash involving one of its cars, which had been in autonomous mode just before the accident.
Three college students died on Saturday night after their Xiaomi SU7 hit a concrete barrier on a section of the Dezhou-Shangrao Expressway in China’s Anhui Province.
Before the crash, the vehicle was in Xiaomi’s Navigate On Autopilot assisted driving mode, traveling at 116kph, a company statement posted online showed.
Photo: Reuters
While travelling on a highway section with roadworks, the vehicle detected an obstacle ahead, issued a warning and handed control to the driver, Xiaomi said.
However, seconds later, the vehicle hit a barrier at about 97kph.
Footage posted online showed a car in flames on the highway and later the burned-out wreckage.
Xiaomi founder Lei Jun (雷軍) said in a social media post late on Tuesday that he was “heavy-hearted” and that his company would “continue to cooperate with the police investigation.”
Since the crash, many have questioned Xiaomi’s assisted driving functions, why the car caught fire and whether the doors could be opened in an emergency.
On Sina Weibo, an account identified by the platform and local media as the driver’s mother accused Xiaomi of failing to contact her and “not taking the lives of three kids seriously.”
“As family members, we have many questions. Why did the vehicle catch fire after hitting the barrier?... We just want an explanation,” the woman wrote.
Xiaomi, a consumer electronics giant selling goods from smartphones to vacuum cleaners, launched the SU7 in March last year as it entered the auto sector.
It sold more than 200,000 units in its first year, with the standard model priced at about 210,000 yuan (US$28,935).
The company’s share price yesterday dropped 3 percent in Hong Kong, extending Tuesday’s fall of more than 5 percent.
Xiaomi last month raised this year’s delivery target for EVs to 350,000 units after posting its fastest revenue growth since 2021.
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