AEB, stealth handlebar on the cusp
Author/ IT Times reporter Mao Yu
Editor/ Sun Yan
On April 26, a tragedy occurred in the Shanxi Yuncheng section of the Houping Expressway. An M7 sedan rear-ended a maintenance vehicle that was carrying out a mobile watering operation while driving, and then the vehicle caught fire, killing three people in the car, and the incident quickly became the focus of public attention.
In addition to grief, the victim's family members continuously questioned the safety performance of the 2024 Wenjie M7 Plus rear-wheel drive version of the 5-seater car on social platforms, including whether AEB emergency braking and GAEB special-shaped obstacle automatic emergency braking and other functions respond, whether the airbag played a role, why the hidden door handle did not pop out, etc. According to family members, the airbag failed to deploy properly at the time of the accident, and the concealed door handle did not pop out as expected, which may have delayed the precious rescue time, resulting in the death of three people.
The reporter of "IT Times" contacted the official customer service of Wenjie for the first time on the issues of "whether AEB operated at the time of the incident", "whether the door handle of the vehicle will automatically pop open in an emergency", "whether the accident will notify the background of Wenjie at the first time", and the customer service only replied: "After the airbag of the M7 model is inflated, the vehicle will take the action of unlocking the door handle at the same time. Turn on the warning lights and other safety measures, if the vehicle has an abnormal situation, it will give feedback to the official background of Wenjie, and the background will receive a notification and record, and the specific feedback time can refer to the details of the user manual. As for the details of the accident, the customer service said that they could pay attention to the follow-up police report.
The Yuncheng Expressway Management Company responded on April 28 that the maintenance vehicle was equipped with necessary warning equipment at the time of the incident, and the driver of the maintenance vehicle got out of the car as soon as possible to try to rescue. The Shanxi Provincial Department of Transportation expressed deep concern over the incident and confirmed that the traffic police department has fully launched an investigation into the cause of the accident.
Can AEB be started at 115km/h highway?
At noon on the 28th, AITO Automobile's official response: "According to the national platform data access management regulations, it was learned that the speed of the vehicle was 115km/h when the accident occurred, the airbag was opened normally, and the characteristics of the power battery pack were normal. ”
The focus of the accident is the question of who is the AEB supplier of the M7 Plus and can the AEB be activated at 115km/h speed?
AEB (Automatic Emergency Braking Function) refers to the safety problems caused by collisions caused by the fact that a moving vehicle recognizes the danger of a collision and takes over the emergency braking of the vehicle when certain conditions are met.
According to Bosch's explanation of the traffic accident in Yuncheng, Shanxi, the vehicle involved was not equipped with the Bosch Intelligent Driving System (including AEB). Earlier in the media, it was reported that the AEB braking system supplier of the M7 Plus may be FreeTech. The IT Times reporter called the official of Foretek about this matter, but the call was not connected.
"The number of kilometers below which the AEB can be started depends on the specific model and manufacturer of the vehicle. Ordinary systems may be designed to work best at low speeds, such as 30-80 km/h, while higher-end systems may still provide protection at higher speeds. For specific models, please consult their owner's manuals for accurate information. An industry insider engaged in intelligent driving told the "IT Times" reporter. According to the previous public data from the media, the user manual of the M7 Plus vehicle clearly states that the effective range of AEB is 4~85km/h, and the Max version is 4~130km/h (including LAEB). At the time of the launch of the new M7, it was officially announced that the AEB's top braking speed had been increased to 90km/h.
"115km/h is clearly not within the speed range of the PLUS version owner's manual. Theoretically, it is also normal for the AEB to not start. But in reality, it is true that there are very few vehicles that can achieve automatic braking at such high speeds. The above-mentioned industry insiders said, "AEB only controls the brakes, and if the owner does not manually steer the wheel, it is unlikely to cause overturning." ”
However, another senior observer in the automotive field revealed to the "IT Times" reporter that he had called the official customer service of the car to ask about the vehicle's AEB, and the customer service said that even if the AEB speed limit is exceeded, there will be a certain automatic braking effect, but the braking cannot be guaranteed.
The reporter consulted relevant information and found that Bosch, Continental and other internationally renowned suppliers currently limit AEB to 60km/h to brake or slow down the collision, and the emergency braking distance of the vehicle is also short, about 15 meters.
At the end of last year, there was a heated discussion about AEB in the automobile circle, and the bigwigs in the car circle responded to the braking speed of their own models, most of which were 60~80km/h. In addition, according to an AEB night test video of Chedi at that time, it can be seen that at that time, many popular models of brands, including Wenjie, failed to pass the test of the maximum speed of 80km/h, and some brands only passed the test of 30km/h.
Did the hidden doorknob pop open?
From the video of the accident scene posted on the Internet, it can be seen that three rescuers smashed the rear seat window with fire extinguishers and other items when the vehicle was on fire. "If the back door doorknob is popping open, wouldn't all three of them see it? Many netizens questioned under the accident video.
In response to the doubts, the customer service failed to give the reporter a detailed investigation explanation of the accident. However, the customer service said that if the vehicle is locked and the door is unlocked twice from the inside, it is recommended to use the emergency escape channel (that is, the trunk escape function) equipped with all M7 models to escape, "Put down the back of the seat, remove the small square-like safety cover plate of the back door trim panel, and pull the wire inside to open this escape channel." ”
"I guess it's probably a child lock because there are children in the back row. If the driver in the front seat is unconscious at the moment, it is not realistic to rely on human unlocking. According to the above-mentioned observer, judging from the instruction page of the user manual of the M7 Plus version, the unlock button setting of the child lock mode is not conspicuous, and it is not easy for rescuers to find even if they are standing outside the car window. "Not to mention the state of emergency at that time, it should be difficult to associate with the child lock mode. But at the moment the accident report has not been released, everything is just speculation. ”
According to the provisions of GB 11551-2014 Occupant Protection in a Frontal Collision of Automobiles, the vehicle cannot be locked in the event of a collision, and if it is a vehicle with an automatic lock function, the vehicle is required to be automatically unlocked during the collision process, that is, the door of the vehicle cannot be locked after a frontal collision accident.
The airbag page of the previous version of the M7 Plus user manual also states that in the event of a collision, in addition to the airbag will be inflated, the vehicle will also have the following safety measures, including "door unlocking, door handle popping out", "emergency call", "extended range fuel cut-off", "hazard warning light on", "high voltage disabled", etc.
At present, from the video, it is not possible to see the two obvious vehicle self-rescue behaviors of "the handle outside the door pops up" and "the hazard warning light is turned on". In the new version of the user manual, the above safety measures have been deleted.
The reporter logged on to the official website of M7 and did not find any explanations related to the above-mentioned security measures.
Suspicion is a matter of age.
Q: Suspected of exaggerating propaganda?
In addition to the details of the accident that have made questions continue, the "exaggerated publicity" has also pushed Huawei, Cialis and other companies behind the M7 to the forefront. On the official website of the M7, the words "high-end intelligent driving that can be opened nationwide" and "HUAWEI ADS 2.0 high-end intelligent driving system" in the introduction text are very significant, but if you look closely, you can find that there is a line of gray small words in the lower right corner of the promotional map: "Only supported by the intelligent driving version".
But it is difficult for non-professional consumers to notice this line of small print, and such propaganda methods are indeed easy to mislead consumers. The above-mentioned industry insiders believe that this is also one of the reasons why Huawei, as the vehicle designer, has been condemned by public opinion after the accident.
The new M7 also mentioned in the promotion of its active and passive dual insurance, the passive safety setting is the whole car is equipped with 8 airbags as standard, and the active safety includes an omnidirectional anti-collision system and a lidar fusion perception system to achieve ultra-accurate identification and prevent accidents.
After the accident, the official customer service of the question world did not know enough about its own products, and often answered the questions that were not asked, which was also condemned by some netizens. "When the official customer service replied to me about the AEB braking speed range of the M7, the range given was 4~130Km/h regardless of the model, which was obviously inconsistent with the Plus version of the user manual. If it is an ordinary consumer who is not a professional, it will be confused by this information. The above-mentioned observer mentioned that in addition, the update of the new version of the M7 user manual did not indicate the date of modification, but judging from the upload time, it was before the accident, and there should be no possibility of modifying the user manual overnight.
On the evening of the 28th, a reporter from "IT Times" called the staff of Cialis, and the other party responded to the accident: "Everything is based on our official Weibo release. ”
Typesetting / Ji Jiaying
Photo/ Wenjie Weibo
Source/"IT Times" official account vittimes
E N D
Please add a "star" so you don't miss us