On the afternoon of April 28, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, arrived in Beijing. Ren Hongbin, president of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, met with Musk, and according to a report by Huanqiu.com, a person familiar with the matter said that Musk's trip is seeking to meet with Chinese officials in Beijing to discuss the launch of fully self-driving (FSD) software in China and seek approval from China.
(Source: Data map)
On April 26, before Musk's departure, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA, hereinafter referred to as the U.S. Highway Safety Administration) announced that it had launched a new investigation into whether Tesla's previous functional upgrade recall of its vehicle's Autopilot system met safety standards.
Previously, Tesla announced in December 2023 that it would implement the largest recall in its history, involving 2.03 million U.S. vehicles, almost all Tesla vehicles on U.S. roads, with the aim of better ensuring that drivers are focused when using its advanced driver assistance systems.
Why were 2.03 million vehicles recalled? Why were they suddenly officially announced by the United States for investigation before coming to China?
What is the reason for this investigation?
The investigation focused on whether Tesla's announcement in December that it recalled more than 2 million vehicles and installed new Autopilot safety measures "sufficient to address the safety threats posed by its self-driving features," covering Model Y, X, S, 3 and Cybertruck vehicles equipped with Autopilot manufactured in the U.S. from 2012 to 2024.
The core is to evaluate whether Tesla's over-the-air (OTA) update for more than 2 million vehicles in December last year has effectively improved safety. The update is to address a pre-existing security vulnerability.
(Source: Xinhua News Agency)
According to an investigative report released by NHTSA, nearly 1,000 traffic accidents have been linked to Tesla's Autopilot system in the past few years, and more than 20 of them have resulted in fatalities.
The report notes that the majority of accidents are caused by inattentive drivers, who may mistakenly believe that the company's driver assistance systems can be used as a full-fledged autonomous driving solution.
Tesla's Autopilot feature is not a fully self-driving system. It is defined as a Level 2 autonomous driving system that simultaneously assists with operations such as steering, braking, acceleration, lane centering, and adaptive cruise control. However, it still requires the driver to keep their eyes on the road and keep their hands on the steering wheel.
NHTSA found that compared to other self-driving systems, Tesla's Autopilot is easier for drivers to lower their vigilance and reduce their willingness to manually control the vehicle. As a result, NHTSA's new survey will focus on the OTA updates pushed by Tesla in December last year. The update is designed to improve driver attention when using Autopilot and Autosteer by adding warnings and reminders. However, NHTSA noted that there were still some new crashes after the software update because certain corrective actions were optional and could be turned off by the car owner themselves.
Tesla previously said in a statement that "some of the remedies require both the active participation of the car owner and the easy cancellation of the car owner". This indicates that Tesla will not mandate all owners to make the necessary software updates and cannot guarantee that all recalled vehicles will be fixed.
According to the latest news announcement of Tesla car recall, from January 31, 2024 to July 31, 2024, Tesla will recall 7,629 vehicles again, due to software problems in some vehicles, which may cause the rear camera integrated circuit communication to be unstable, which may cause the reversing image to be unable to be displayed. When reversing, it may affect the driver's rear vision, increase the risk of collision, and pose a safety hazard.
Before Musk left for China, the U.S. Highway Safety Administration suddenly announced an investigation into Tesla, I don't know if it was an unintentional coincidence or intentional. However, Musk's personal praise for China's new energy vehicle supply chain is inconsistent with the direction of the U.S. government's Western decoupling and containment of China's new energy vehicle supply chain.
And it is said that Musk's behavior was officially approved by China Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, and the U.S. Highway Safety Administration announced an investigation at this time.
The M7 car also had an accident, how to ensure the safety of new energy vehicles
Recently, the competition of new energy vehicles has ushered in a climax again, and the industry involution has become more and more serious. In the past, consumers paid more attention to issues such as performance and battery life when buying cars, but in the minds of new energy vehicle consumers, safety has become a greater consideration.
(Source: Xinhua News Agency)
On April 26, a Wenjie M7 vehicle crashed into a high-speed sprinkler truck, and after the rear-end collision, the front of the Wenjie M7 caught fire, and then the vehicle was enveloped in flames, resulting in the unfortunate death of three people in the car.
The incident once again raised questions about the safety of new energy vehicles, including discussions on emergency braking systems, battery flame retardant materials, and thermal runaway protection technology. During this year's Spring Festival, when it was difficult to find a ticket for new energy vehicles to cross the Qiongzhou Strait, the safety of new energy vehicles was raised.
Recently, many new energy vehicle owners have reported that in the case of a general decline in the cost of buying a car, the premium of new energy vehicle car insurance has risen instead of falling, and even encountered refusal of insurance when renewing, and the premium of a Xiaomi SU7 is even close to more than 500,000 oil cars.
A number of insurance companies said that the rapid iteration of new energy vehicle technology makes it difficult for insurance companies to obtain accurate risk assessment information in a timely manner, and they have to adopt a high-price strategy in order to cope with the potential risk of underwriting losses. At the same time, the special maintenance process of new energy vehicles and the relatively imperfect supply chain of spare parts increase the difficulty and cost of maintenance, which is also one of the reasons why some insurance companies refuse to insure.
Deloitte China pointed out in the aforementioned report that the continuous "innovation" of new energy vehicles (NEVs) has brought about changes in risk, making it difficult for property and casualty insurers to estimate the risk cost in a timely and accurate manner, and the serious lack of data of insurance companies in NEV insurance are the pain points and challenges faced by NEV insurance operations.
New energy vehicles are the main direction of the transformation and upgrading of the global automotive industry. In recent years, in line with the trend of transformation of the automobile industry, Continental has coordinated the promotion of technological innovation, promotion and application and infrastructure construction, and achieved positive results in promoting the development of the new energy vehicle industry. The development of China's new energy vehicles has benefited not only from global cooperation in technological innovation, but also from the international coordination of the industrial chain and supply chain.
At present, China's new energy vehicle regional industrial chain and supply chain system has formed an industrial ecology driven by vehicle enterprises, supporting advanced intelligent network industry chains, and efficient industrial policies. However, how to strengthen supply chain management and improve quality is still an important task.