Nowadays, intelligent driving functions have almost become a “standard feature” for many new energy vehicles. However, in reality, many car manufacturers play “word games” when promoting their products, deliberately blurring the boundaries between “assisted driving” and “autonomous driving”, misleading consumers into thinking they can drive with their hands off the wheel. But this is not the case. Besides “arbitrarily designing marketing slogans”, some car manufacturers have also modified vehicle performance parameters through OTA (Over-The-Air) updates without authorization, causing damage to the rights and interests of car owners.
To address various chaos in the industry, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have recently jointly released the “Notice on Strengthening the Supervision and Management of Product Recall, Production Consistency and Standardizing Publicity of Intelligent Connected New Energy Vehicles (Draft for Comment)”, which covers four major aspects including vehicle recall, production consistency, commercial publicity and incident accident reporting. The aim is to build a bottom line of product safety through full-chain supervision and guide the healthy development of the industry.
It is worth noting that compared with previous policies, the new regulations have a more severe tone, with the word “shall not” appearing six times – including “shall not push software versions that have not been fully tested and verified to users” and “shall not hide defects through OTA, that is, remote online upgrades”, etc.
Furthermore, the new regulations also clearly stipulate that enterprises must not imply to consumers in the combination of driving assistance systems, function naming, and marketing promotion that they can be regarded as autonomous driving systems, in order to prevent drivers from abusing them. So apart from these, what other specific measures does the new regulation have in terms of ensuring user safety?
Huang Jinjing, director of the Traffic Management Regulations Research Department of the Road Traffic Safety Research Center of the Ministry of Public Security: The so-called autonomous driving vehicles currently available on the market are actually assisted driving vehicles. In terms of legal definition, assisted driving does not relieve the driver of their obligations. The driver must abide by all the laws and regulations that ordinary drivers need to follow. Therefore, even if you have activated the so-called intelligent driving function while driving, you still need to keep both hands on the steering wheel, keep your eyes on the road conditions, and be ready to take over the vehicle at any time.
In response to the current chaos in the industry regarding the promotion of functions, the draft for comments clearly stipulates that when enterprises provide consumers with information about the driving automation level, system capabilities, and system boundaries of intelligent connected new energy vehicles, they must be true and comprehensive. They are not allowed to make false or exaggerated claims about the system capabilities or engage in misleading promotions to ensure that consumers correctly understand and drive intelligent connected new energy vehicles. In the naming and marketing promotion of combined driving assistance systems or functions, enterprises must not imply to consumers that they can be regarded as autonomous driving systems or possess functions that they do not actually have, to prevent drivers from abusing them.
Experts say that this is drawing a red line for false promotion, which can better ensure the safety of passengers, and prompt enterprises to abandon marketing gimmicks and focus on technological research and development and product optimization.
OTA, or Over-the-Air update, has always been a matter of widespread concern among consumers. Previously, some car manufacturers have unilaterally modified vehicle performance parameters such as battery range and power output through OTA updates, or pushed untested software versions without informing users, causing damage to user rights and interests. In addition, some car manufacturers have used OTA updates to cover up hardware or software defects in vehicles, conceal vehicle safety hazards, and avoid traditional recall procedures.
In this regard, the draft for comments states that OTA upgrade activities cannot be carried out without filing, and software versions that have not been fully tested and verified cannot be pushed to users. OTA cannot be used to conceal defects. It is necessary to ensure that the intelligent connected new energy vehicle products equipped with combined driving assistance systems produced by enterprises are consistent with the approved products, and enterprises should bear the responsibility for product safety. For enterprises that frequently carry out OTA upgrade activities, the State Administration for Market Regulation will conduct key spot checks and special verifications.
Xiong Lu, the dean of the School of Automotive Studies at Tongji University: After cars achieve autonomous driving, there may be multiple functional issues or certain product functions set by enterprises in the early stage may have defects. Instead of delving into the root causes of these defects and reporting them, enterprises may cover up the problems through OTA. Moreover, in the current market environment, as enterprises continuously carry out OTA upgrades, the new added functions may also have defects. Once defects occur, enterprises may cover up the defects of the previous upgrade through subsequent OTA upgrades. The purpose of this new regulation is to standardize the OTA behavior of enterprises, precisely to prevent disorderly competition among enterprises. This regulation targeting OTA behavior will help reduce and even prevent such disorderly OTA upgrade behaviors by enterprises.
It is understood that the public can provide feedback through official channels before September 15. Experts say that after the final policy is implemented, it is expected to establish clearer development rules for the intelligent connected new energy vehicle industry and achieve a balance between “technological progress” and “safety and controllability”.
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