XPeng responds to car accident in Hunan involving automatic driving functions

An owner of an XPeng car in China’s Hunan Province claimed that after activating the automatic driving functions on a national road for more than 10 kilometers, the car collided with another vehicle which had rolled over and was stationary on the roadwithout triggering any alarm or response from the XPeng vehicle. The driver allegedly applied the emergency brakes, but the car did not respond. In addition, the driver’s recorder provided by the owner indicated that the vehicle had accelerated just before the accident.

Regarding the incident, XPeng replied that this was due to the driver not observing the environment in front of the vehicle and not taking control in time.

XPeng released an open letter, saying the company attaches great importance to the accident, in which the driver collided with the crashed vehicle while using the adaptive cruise control (ACC) and cruise control functions. lane centering (LCC).

After investigation, it was determined that on March 13, the aforementioned car owner was driving an XPeng P7 and collided with an overturned vehicle parked horizontally on the freeway, although no one was injured in the crash. After the accident, through background collision monitoring, the car company’s service personnel contacted the customer to inquire about the situation and provide assistance.

XPeng initially judged that the car owner failed to observe the environment in front of the vehicle and take control of the vehicle in time when using the ACC+LCC function. After investigation and judgment of the local traffic police department, this conclusion is also in line with the above situation.

SEE ALSO: The XPeng G9 SUV will be unveiled in June

After the accident, XPeng provided the driver with a courtesy car free of charge. He also said he would actively communicate with the owner on follow-up maintenance issues to help fix his car as soon as possible.

In fact, this is not the first time that XPeng has been implicated in the hidden dangers of its driver assistance system. In 2021, an owner of an XPeng Motors vehicle reported that his P7 model had a rear-end collision with a truck when the guided navigation system (NGP) was activated. The passengers in the car were not in danger, but the driver was diagnosed with a concussion after being sent to hospital.