It’s the main question hovering over the use of ADAS technology and automated driving: if the systems fail and cause an accident, who’s paying the bill? Most disclaimers say that the use must be supervised and that the driver is always responsible. Not BYD. Still, there remain some ‘buts’.
At its Intelligence Strategy Launch Event in Shenzhen last week, Chinese car maker BYD announced full damage cover of accidents that occur while its God’s Eye urban Navigate-on-Autopilot (NOA) is active. After Audi and Mercedes claimed full responsibility for their Level 3 automated systems, this is the first Chinese automaker to offer this kind of guarantee, albeit for intelligent parking and urban assisted driving.
“Absolute confidence”
If a legally liable accident occurs while the urban NOA function is active and used in compliance with applicable regulations, BYD covers all resulting economic losses. Vehicle repairs, third-party property damage, and personal injury costs. Everything, without a payout ceiling. No separate driving insurance is required.
The guarantee applies to God’s Eye systems (as from version A) and is not restricted to the first registered owner. Existing owners who update to God’s Eye 5.0 over the air are included automatically.
BYD chairman and president Wang Chuanfu framed it as a statement of confidence, not charity: “Taking on Level 3 and Level 4 liability early during the Level 2 stage demonstrates the company’s absolute confidence in its own technology.”
China-only
Some caveats are worth keeping in mind. The coverage runs for one year and is China-only. It covers “compliant” use of the urban NOA function, so the definition of compliant will matter if claims ever arise. The operations field is limited too. Automated driving manoeuvres at highway speeds are not included. Nonetheless, this is an important step.
Given the price of God’s Eye, which only costs around 1,500 euros compared to 9,000 euros for Tesla’s FSD for example, BYD offers a compensation where some more expensive systems don’t. Clearly, the carmaker is trying to find new arguments to win over Chinese customers, asides low budget. Accountability seems one of them.
And it works. Last year, the company launched a similar guarantee for its intelligent parking function. Subsequently, usage of the smart parking feature jumped from 21% to 93%, according to BYD’s own data. Obviously, drivers are more willing to rely on systems when the manufacturer commits to the consequences.
BYD needs to rejuvenate its domestic sales. The brand is leading the charts with a 21% share, but registrations faced an eight-month consecutive sales decline. Last May the fall was stabilised.
Not just top-spec
The liability announcement came with the unveiling of the XUANJI A3, China’s first self-developed 4nm automotive-grade driving chip. It natively supports Level 3 and Level 4 autonomous driving, delivers more than 2,100 TOPS of compute, and is already in mass production.
At the same event, BYD confirmed that God’s Eye B with lidar is now available as an option across its full model lineup, not just top-spec vehicles.
