The CEO of electric-vehicle maker Li Auto Inc. has mentioned the business ought to restrict utilizing the phrases autonomous and self driving, contemplating no vehicle as we speak is actually able to that and its widespread utilization is changing into deceptive for shoppers.

Li Xiang’s feedback, on his WeChat account Monday, come days after a deadly accident involving an electrical automotive from rival Nio Inc. The 31-year-old driver of that automobile had Nio’s navigation-on-pilot perform activated and was killed when his automotive rear-ended one other on a freeway.

That and comparable accidents in China have raised client issues over the security of electrical automobiles, which are likely to have extra superior driving know-how and clever options than conventional automobiles. Some folks say the way in which the automobiles are being marketed, together with describing driver-assistance capabilities as autonomous driving, is doubtlessly harmful.

“The phrases ‘autonomous’ and ‘help’ are conflicting one another in describing one single standing,” Li mentioned. Drivers are nonetheless finally accountable for their very own security even when utilizing assisted-driving capabilities, he mentioned.

It’s a problem that’s sparked debate exterior of China as properly. Earlier this yr, the U.S. Nationwide Transportation Security Board discovered that the Autopilot perform couldn’t have been in operation on a Tesla Inc. Mannequin S that crashed in Texas, killing the 2 occupants.

On Monday, the U.S. Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration opened a proper investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot system after nearly a dozen collisions at crash scenes involving first-responder automobiles.

Superior driver-assistance techniques assist drivers park, keep of their lane or keep away from objects utilizing cameras, radar and different digital sensors, however a completely autonomous automotive that may drive in every single place, below all situations is a good distance off.

Even California-based Waymo, the enterprise that was previously Google’s autonomous automotive mission, now not makes use of the time period self-driving to depict its applied sciences.

The Nio accident is below investigation and the corporate is “actively partnering with related departments and submitting supplies,” in line with a press release Monday.

Li additionally urged media and business our bodies to undertake unified Chinese language nomenclature for assisted and autonomous driving applied sciences to exchange the Degree 2 to five scale that’s usually used to replicate to what diploma a machine takes over.
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This may make issues extra “easy and clear,” Li mentioned. “The hyperbole in advertising and marketing needs to be prevented.”