Text | Wang Jingyi, Zhao Cheng Editing | Shi Zhiliang
NIOThe crash of the car test vehicle has caused widespread concern.
On the evening of June 23, Weilai issued a statement saying that at around 17:20 on June 22, a Weilai test vehicle fell from the third floor of the Shanghai Innovation Port parking building, killing two digital cockpit testers, one of whom was killed. It is a colleague of the company and another employee of a partner. According to the analysis of the on-site situation, it can be initially confirmed that this is an accident (not caused by vehicle reasons).
There are no official findings yet. Caijing Auto has learned from many sources that it does not rule out the possibility that the test driver is in the wrong gear and accidentally stepped on the accelerator in the reverse gear state.
A person close to the accident investigation told Caijing Automobile that the incident site was a three-dimensional parking lot for testing vehicles, and the walls were relatively thin. It came out upside down.”
The pictures and videos of the scene show that the top of the car hit the ground when it fell, the vehicle was completely overturned, broken glass and cement fragments were scattered on the ground, and the body was also obviously deformed, and there was no fire at the accident scene. A number of staff at the scene moved the vehicle, and firefighters rescued the trapped people in the vehicle. Compared to the front of the car, the damage to the rear of the car is more serious. If the front of the car hits the wall first, the front bumper, hood, and windshield will not be so complete.
▲WeiboUser “Eye of the Night”
The Paper quoted relevant departments to report that at about 17:22 on June 22, on the 3rd floor of Building 8, Shanghai Automotive Innovation Port, Lane 56, Antuo Road, Anting Town, a Weilai test car fell from a height, causing Du Mou Two test drivers and Zhang Moumou were injured. After 120 arrived, they were sent to Anting Oriental Hepatobiliary Hospital for treatment. Among them, Du died due to ineffective rescue, and Zhang was declared dead in the early morning of the 23rd after the hospital’s operation was ineffective.
Zhu Xichan, a professor at Tongji University’s School of Automobile and Director of the Automobile Safety Technology Research Institute, told Caijing Automobile that the possible reason for the incident was that the test driver hung the reverse gear and stepped on the accelerator pedal by mistake. “It is not uncommon to step on the wrong pedal in the parking lot. It is not uncommon for the car to be scratched due to accidental stepping on the parking lot, but this time it was mainly because it happened in a strange place, and it rushed out from the third floor of the three-dimensional parking garage, so don’t over-interpret it.”
A senior car test engineer also told Caijing Auto that the testing industry has certain risks, “When I was doing the test in the first year, I also accidentally switched to reverse gear and went down with one foot of the accelerator, but fortunately I stepped on the brake and reacted immediately. . The tests in the parking lot are generally low-speed tests, which are boring most of the time, and people are easily fatigued. Every industry has certain risks, which is a normal phenomenon, but it is not known to the public.”
The accident car is a spy-loaded car, which refers to a vehicle that is covered with camouflage patterns for road testing when the new car has not been released to the market. Weilai’s statement also stated that there were two digital cockpit testers in the car, and unfortunately died.
New energy car companies represented by NIO emphasize their own level of intelligence. Why did intelligence fail to stop this tragedy? Zhu Xichan believes that although many vehicles have been equipped with AEB (Autonomous Emergency Braking, which refers to the activation of active braking in an emergency when the distance between the vehicle and the obstacle is too small), one is that there is no AEB when reversing, and the other is to prevent accidental braking. Does not respond to walls.
“Car companies are basically afraid to issue emergency braking wire-based commands to static objects. Not only walls, but the current AEB is basically difficult to respond correctly to all static targets. Because AEB mainly looks at millimeter-wave radar, millimeter-wave radar The dynamic target has Doppler effect and will not be misidentified, but it is difficult to distinguish the static target from the manhole cover on the road, the steel plate on the ground, and the bridge pier on the roadside. Let’s see the recognition situation of the lidar in the future.” Zhu Xi produced express.
Although lidar is expected to solve the problem of perception of static objects, and NIO’s cars are also equipped with a lidar, Zhu Xichan pointed out that there is still no good way to avoid this accident. He believes that the field of view of the lidar of mass-produced cars is not 360 degrees, and it can only detect the front picture, which is difficult to play when reversing; secondly, the purpose of lidar is not detection, but can only be positioned with the map.
Compared with the appearance of the accident car, Caijing Automobile found that the model is closer to the large and medium-sized sedan ET7 of Weilai. At present, Weilai has two sedans, ET7 and ET5. The fog light area of ET5 is designed with air guide grooves, while ET7 has been sealed here. Therefore, the fog light area of ET5 is obviously longer than that of ET7. ET7 is closer. However, NIO has not released specific model information.
The ET7 is priced at 458,000-536,000 yuan and is positioned as a high-end vehicle. Delivery will begin at the end of March 2022, and more than 2,500 vehicles have been delivered so far.
Caijing Automobile recently tested the ET7 model and found that the overall design of the car is simple, the electronic gear lever is obviously different from the common fuel vehicle gear lever, the volume is very small, the whole is embedded in the shift panel, and there is a slightly raised silver lever , shift back into reverse gear and forward into forward gear. Unlike the upwardly bulging pillar-shaped gear levers common in fuel vehicles, car owners need to get used to it for a while when they just start driving.
▲ Image source:car home
The simple shifting method of ET7 is basically the same as that of NIO’s previous models. Some analysts pointed out that whether it is a traditional car company or a new force, the current general design ideas for new energy vehicles are developing towards simplicity.
The Shanghai Innovation Port, where the accident is located, is where NIO’s international business headquarters and NIO’s global mass-production vehicle R&D center are located. According to Weilai’s official website, it is mainly responsible for vehicle research and development, manufacturing operations, marketing and service functions.
The exact cause of the tragedy has yet to be released by the police.
