Financial Services Association, May 6 (Reporter Tang Zhixiao) After a lapse of one week, AITO published “Instructions on Technical Issues Related to Questioning the New M7 Plus in Traffic Accidents on the Houping Expressway Section in Shanxi Province” on its official WeChat account.

The instructions indicate that the new M7 Plus is equipped with an L2 level driver assistance system (not the Huawei ADS 2.0 intelligent driving system), and the automatic emergency braking (AEB) working range is 4 to 85 km/h.

The accident vehicle had a speed of 115 km/h at the time of collision, exceeding the working range of automatic emergency braking (AEB). The braking system of the accident vehicle was normal before the collision occurred. According to back-office data analysis, there were 2 braking movements within 5 minutes before the accident occurred, and the vehicles were all able to decelerate normally.

AITO Auto's official WeChat also responded to three questions, saying that the cause of the vehicle fire was not caused by a power battery pack, and that the airbags could be opened normally.

In response to questions about not being able to open the car door, the interviewer said that the new M7 Plus has an automatic collision unlocking function and is equipped with a mechanical handle inside the car door, but after the collision occurred, the signal was cut off and unable to automatically pop out. Rescuers could only break the window and pull the handle inside the mechanical car door to open the door to carry out the rescue.

On the same day, Cyrus Auto's Ministry of Justice also posted an article on its official Weibo stating that it had received many reports from the public, that some people had posted false information on social media platforms, and that evidence preservation and notarization had been carried out as soon as possible in order to report the case to the public security authorities.

The Celis Auto Legal Department also stated that the cause of this traffic accident and determination of responsibility should be based on the traffic police department's authoritative investigation findings. For illegal and criminal acts suspected of fabricating and spreading hypocritical facts and deliberately discrediting the company's commercial reputation, Cyrus will take all legal measures to investigate its legal liability in accordance with the law in order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Cyrus cars and users.

Q&A Officials Respond to Four Major Questions

After a lapse of one week, the official AITO Auto Company gave a technical explanation on the official Weibo account, which mainly answered the four major questions and showed two diagrams of the accident.

Question 1: Why did the automatic emergency braking (AEB) function fail to avoid collisions?

The braking system of the accident vehicle was normal before the collision occurred. According to back-office data analysis, there were 2 braking movements within 5 minutes before the accident occurred, and the vehicles were all able to decelerate normally.

The new M7 Plus is equipped with an L2 level driver assistance system (not the Huawei ADS 2.0 intelligent driving system), and its automatic emergency braking (AEB) working range is 4 to 85 km/h. The accident vehicle had a speed of 115 km/h at the time of collision, exceeding the working range of automatic emergency braking (AEB).

Question 2: What caused the vehicle fire? Did the battery ignite spontaneously?

When the accident vehicle collided with the front road maintenance vehicle at a high speed of 115km/h, the rigid beam-shaped structure at the rear of the vehicle in front instantly and seriously invaded the front cabin and passenger compartment on the upper left side of the accident vehicle, causing serious damage to the front cabin and passenger compartment. The wiring was instantly cut off. The front cabin was ignited by hot components or short circuit sparks. The front cabin caught fire first on the left side of the front cabin, and the fire spread to the entire vehicle. The power battery pack did not spontaneously ignite.

Question 3: Does the airbag open normally?

According to backstage data analysis, the main driver seat had a seat belt lock signal before the collision, the passenger seat and the 3 rear seats had no seat belt lock signals, and the airbag condition monitoring was normal. In the event of a collision, the vehicle's airbag opens normally.

Question 4: Can the car door be opened after a collision occurs?

The new M7 Plus has an automatic collision unlock function and is equipped with a mechanical door handle. In the event of a special emergency, you can unlock and open the door by pulling the mechanical door handle.

When the accident vehicle had a 115km/h high-speed rear-end collision with the front road maintenance vehicle, the solid beam-shaped structure at the rear of the vehicle in front instantly and seriously invaded the upper left front cabin and passenger cabin. As a result, the power lines and signal lines in the front cabin and passenger cabin were instantaneously cut off. The doorknob controller was unable to receive an ejection signal, and rescuers broke the window and pulled the handle inside the mechanical car door to open the door to carry out the rescue.

The car door unlocks the mystery

From a regulatory perspective, at the end of January 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology publicly solicited comments on four mandatory national standards, including the “Passenger Vehicle Rear Collision Safety Requirements”. It was mentioned that during a collision, the car door should not be opened, but it should be unlocked. At the same time, the car door for each row of seats must ensure that one of them can be opened.

This means that if people outside the vehicle can open the car door in time for rescue, further damage caused by the accident can be reduced.

An industry insider told the Financial Federation reporter that the function of automatically unlocking car doors after a collision existed more than ten years ago. Now most famous brands have this function. It is not exclusive to high-end cars, and even cars under 100,000 yuan can be equipped with it. “Most car companies only have logical differences. For example, some are based on collision speed, gear position, car body rotation, or the premise that airbags pop up.”

A CIFA reporter discovered that the function of automatically unlocking the car door after collision was introduced in the owner's manual of the old Quanjie M7, but this explanation was not found in the manual for the Xinjie M7 series.

The industry insider said that from the manufacturer's point of view, it is not difficult to recognize collision signals. The triggering of the airbag requires the relevant control system to be able to recognize the collision signal through the sensor, so once the collision signal is recognized, the relevant information only needs to be transmitted to the door lock, and the locked state of the car door can be released as soon as possible. Nowadays, many electric cars choose hidden door handles for better shape and wind resistance. This in turn makes the demand for automatic door unlocking even greater.

The person mentioned above believes that if the airbag can be ejected, then the vehicle should be able to automatically unlock, because they all send signals synchronously through the airbag controller, and they send signals hundreds of uninterrupted times at the millisecond level before the battery is invaded.

The above sources further added that if the vehicle cannot be unlocked, there are only two reasons. Either it was not calibrated during development, or the collision intrusion damaged the communication wiring, causing the signal to be interrupted. This is due to unreasonable vehicle body wiring and insufficient safety redundancy. It is a development design issue.

Recently, a reporter from the Financial Services Association visited several car stores and found that the shape and position of the hidden doorknobs of the major brands are not the same, and there is no uniform regulation. The first problem many consumers need to face in store experiential ways is how to open car doors.

A consumer who bought a model with a hidden door handle complained to the Financial Federation reporter: “Hidden doorknobs are hot in summer because they are closely integrated with the car body. It freezes in winter and requires a hot shower to open easily. Traditional doorknobs, on the other hand, have a large stress surface and open as soon as they freeze.”

AEB high-speed scenarios have limited effect

In addition to the hidden doorknob, another major point of contention in this accident was the AEB system of the accident car.

According to a recording of an interview with the family of the wrecked vehicle posted on social media, the wrecked vehicle questioned the M7 for only 3 months. The landing price was around 250,000 yuan. When buying a car, it was advertised that AEB automatic emergency braking and GAEB automatic emergency braking for obstacles of the opposite sex were advertised.

According to data, AEB (Automatic Emergency Braking System) is an active safety technology for automobiles. It uses radar to measure the distance to the vehicle or obstacle in front, and uses a data analysis module to compare the measured distance with the alarm distance and safety distance, and alert when it is less than the alarm distance.

When it is less than a safe distance, the AEB system starts even when the driver doesn't have time to step on the brake pedal, so that the car automatically brakes, reduces the probability of collision with the vehicle or pedestrian in front, and avoids accidents.

Currently, automobile manufacturers and solution suppliers generally use the upper limit of braking speed to measure the advantages and disadvantages of AEB technology. Yu Chengdong previously stated that “the AEB capability of the Huawei ADS2.0 system has been further improved, and the forward braking speed has been increased from 60 km/h to 90 km/h.”

A CIFA reporter visited a Huawei direct-run store in Shenzhen. The store sales told the reporter, “Huawei developed its own driver-assist function, but it used the Bosch AEB solution. The M7 Plus rear drive version doesn't have lidar, only millimeter-wave radar. Basically, all vehicle braking systems use Bosch solutions.”

The seller then added that the AEB automatic emergency braking system of the M7 Plus will only be involved above 4 km/h. Of course, if the speed is too fast, such as over 100km/h, it won't work very well. AEB's triggering and deceleration intervention times have nothing to do with whether the vehicle has lidar. Even the smart driving version of the model cannot completely avoid being rear-ended at super high speed (100km/h); at most, it only deflects the front of the car, reducing the damage caused by the accident. ”

A Financial Services Agency reporter inquired about the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's automobile product information search system and learned that the specific model of the wrecked vehicle's M7 Plus rear-drive version was SKE6500SSHEVA4S. In the technical parameters of the automobile product, the controller model for the ABS system was ESP9, and the manufacturer was Bosch Automotive Products (Suzhou) Co., Ltd.

Earlier, according to media reports, the questioner replied that the model in question was an entry-level non-smart driving version, not equipped with Huawei's advanced intelligent driving assistance system, but a Bosch solution.

However, Bosch issued a public statement saying that after investigation, the vehicles involved were not equipped with Bosch smart driving systems (including AEB). According to reports, as one of the world's largest auto parts suppliers, Bosch's products cover various aspects such as braking systems, steering systems, and suspension systems.

According to other sources, the complete ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) solution on the vehicle involved in the accident did not come from Bosch, but from Freitech. Both companies are equipped with the M7 Plus and are AB suppliers. However, as of press release, Foritec has not officially responded to an interview with the Financial Services Association reporter.

According to information disclosed on Fretech's official WeChat account, it has more than 40 partner car brands and more than 100 cooperative projects, including more than 50 models from brands such as Hongqi, Geely, Changan, Wenjie, Nana, and Dongfeng Nissan.

After the accident, the staff of Yuncheng Expressway Management Co., Ltd. claimed that the maintenance truck was carrying out mobile watering work at the time of the incident, that the truck was equipped with a warning device during operation, and that the maintenance truck driver got out of the car to participate in the rescue after the incident. The Shanxi Provincial Department of Transportation responded that it is paying close attention to this matter.

The traffic police are currently investigating the specific cause of the accident.