Reuters: Xiaomi says is cooperating with police after fatal EV accident, shares fall

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mgobla@reddit

Normal door handles need to become mandatory. Door handles that make it difficult to open the car from the outside after an accident are insane.

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IngsocInnerParty@reddit

Why can’t anyone just make a normal car with an electric drivetrain? Why are they obsessed with filling them with the dumbest tech?

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HeyyyyListennnnnn@reddit

Because EV media is still dominated by Tesla fans asking for Tesla-style stupidity.

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FuzzelFox@reddit

I felt this way for the longest time with hybrids. They don't need to be anti-car, they can just BE a normal car with a different drivetrain.

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hi_im_bored13@reddit

They did, it’s call the i4/i5/i7, or the g580

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Horrid packaging because the i4/i5/i7 are just their respective ICE variants with taller subframes and longer springs to fit batteries underneath and fatter bumpers to hide them. You can literally see the subframes poking out underneath the prototype i4's since those still had the regular 3 series bumpers on them.

It's actually hilarious how BMW went from making the lightest, most advanced EV design with the most interior space for it's tiny size with the i3 to the automotive equivalent of throwing a bigger battery at a cordless drill and selling it as a different product.

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JordanRulz@reddit

any car that has the weight of both ICE and EV drivetrain mounting hardpoints is dead on arrival compared to a purpose built EV

any car that has a front bumper tall enough to accomodate an ICE motor and radiator is dead on arrival (especially with EU ped safety regulations effectively mandating a ridiculously tall hood for ICE)

any car where the frame would be sufficiently rigid without the battery installed is dead on arrival

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J0kutyypp1@reddit

All european Stellantis EVs are very normal cars as well and you get those for reasonable price.

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turb0_encapsulator@reddit

the Polestar 2 is a pretty normal sports sedan that just happens to be electric, and has regular door handles.

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1AMA-CAT-AMA@reddit

My chevy bolt is a pretty normal car. Normal door handles, buttons for days. There are still normal cars out there.

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Lugnuts088@reddit

Yep, Chevy Bolt is the answer (I own one too).

Yeah the Bolt isn't made anymore, doesn't have the most range, charges "slow". But if you can live with those things it is the perfect Car that just so happens to be electric.

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PFCYoungMan@reddit

i was looking it up earlier, and apparently the bold is due for a new generation in the 26 model year. something about using GM's newer battery tech.

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1AMA-CAT-AMA@reddit

Other than the miserably slow at fast charging. Almost perfect city car.

Second to maybe only the Nissan leaf for worst EV you can road trip in

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1AMA-CAT-AMA@reddit

Of all the tech that’s in cars the self driving stuff is the most optional one. The car allows you to drive manually with as little car assistance as possible. All the self driving stuff is purely optional to actually use.

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heel-and-toe@reddit

Because it is cheaper.

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bwoah_gimmethedrink@reddit

Here in Europe we have a bunch of dumb regulations instead. Like the system to warn when driving over the speed limit, BUT in almost any car it just fails to read the signs correctly and doesn't rely on navigation to check if it's the correct value.

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mgobla@reddit

Also everyone turns it off anyways.

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Stunt_Vist@reddit

Why wouldn't you? It fucking sucks. The most annoying part of the regs is post 2017 all of that stuff is forced to be on by default every time you turn the ignition on. LDW is another thing that's just useless in 99% of cars because it's too sensitive so it goes off all the time when even your mirrors are still between the lines. The worst part is some cars bury the option to turn it off in some random infotainment menu and you have to go through that whole song and dance every time you turn the car on.

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Propagandist_Supreme@reddit

I also don't understand the reason for why the normal doorhandles aren't mechanic but electric. . . the car has mechanical backup doorhandles in the doors storage pockets, literally 20 cm away from the normal ones. . .

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yecema3009@reddit

The very same Xiaomi that has temu Brembos with tiny pads, which were confirmed to work poorly? Can't be true. https://www.carscoops.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Screenshot-2024-11-14-135752.png

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Recoil42@reddit

temu Brembos

The supplier is literally Brembo.

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yecema3009@reddit

yeah, a huge caliper with tiny pads and thin rotors underneath. designed to look cool rather than work in a 2 ton EV.

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ycnz@reddit

I was under the impression that brake sizing and design is counter-intuitive for EVs, given the reliance on Regen etc..

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chandy_dandy@reddit

The larger the power of an EV the more G's it can decelerate with with regen with usually the bottleneck being the charging rates of the batteries.

Supercapacitors are used in racing for regen because of this issue, but with sufficient supercapacitors you arguably don't even need mechanical brakes for anything other than a backup system

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Recoil42@reddit

They're Brembos. Brembo makes them. They're not knock-offs.

As for whether they're appropriate for the vehicle, I couldn't tell you. The brakes very clearly were not an issue in this event, however, as there's already confirmation the car had its ADAS engaged right before the the crash happened, and the crash itself was at a very high rate of speed.

This car is the price of a well-equipped Camry; it's incredible value for \~$40k. I think a bunch of Americans are on their tippy-toes looking for something to be smug about, and it's telling that "the brakes are undersized for hard track use" is seemingly all they've been able to land on.

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Richard_Lionheart69@reddit

Im bummed that brembo actually makes a temu version of itself for Chinese cars

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June1994@reddit

Temu Brembos? Sounds like youre mad at Bremboss… who do you think supplies these?

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JustThall@reddit

I’m now actually mad at Brembos for making fake BBK looking regular brake set

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MaybeNext-Monday@reddit

I can’t believe the Brake pad Caliper 3-Piston sport Brake For car EV brake for Boys and girls did them dirty.

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KeyboardGunner@reddit

Paywall, mirror: https://archive.ph/zEYED

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DepthHour1669@reddit

Xiaomi did not disclose the number of casualties but said initial information showed the car was in the Navigate on Autopilot intelligent-assisted driving mode before the accident and was moving at 116 kph (72 mph).
A driver inside the car took over and tried to slow it down but then collided with a cement pole at a speed of 97 kph, Xiaomi said.
In a rundown of the data submitted to local police posted on a Weibo account of the company, Xiaomi said NOA issued a risk warning of obstacles ahead and its subsequent immediate takeover only happened seconds before the collision.
Local media reported that the car caught fire after the collision. Xiaomi did not mention the fire in the statement.

So, the self driving disengaged, driver started braking. Then crashed into a cement pole at 60mph. Then the car caught on fire.

It's very unclear if the people died immediately in the accident or due to the fire.

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nahhhFishco@reddit

The self drive didn’t disengage itself. It happened when the driver pressed the brake. I think…

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Euler007@reddit

Pretty dangerous road if you can go 100 kph and drive into a cement pole.

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FuzzelFox@reddit

I am honestly so curious as to where this happened because I can't imagine a scenario where the car was going interstate speeds and managed to hit a cement pole.

I mean sure, there's a lot of places where someone could possibly do this, but if the car was cruising at 72mph then it clearly was or at least thought it was on a road with a speed limit around that number so... wtf.

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Euler007@reddit

Me neither. I went on a street view to look like at a nearby highway. To hit a column, you would have to hit the guardrail head on at the start, take out 30 post and then hit the column (a steel column for a sign). The urban highways around me you would just hit concrete on the side and keep sliding, never head on. To do that, you would need go around on the grass at high speed and go at an angle to miss the barrels of sands.

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PFCYoungMan@reddit

it says assissted driving instead of self driving. is that what xiaomi calls their self driving? to me it kind of sounds like there driver assists on, but the driver still had some manual control over throttle and brakes, etc etc.

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Euler007@reddit

Sounds like lane keeping, don't know much about that car.

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Richard_Lionheart69@reddit

Trust your life to an area that is notorious for cutting corners

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StraY_WolF@reddit

So... Tesla?

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Richard_Lionheart69@reddit

Did Tesla create baby formula that gave babies kidney stones?

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someonesaveus@reddit

What does this have to do with the question?

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Richard_Lionheart69@reddit

Corporate culture out of China is infamous for cost cutting, safety of its customers isn’t a factor. How is that not relevant?

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south-of-the-river@reddit

60mph into cement is a considerable accident, and would be almost immediately fatal to the forward passengers in most cars

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Navaros313@reddit

UpVotes go here folks!

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Same_Disaster117@reddit

Meanwhile Tesla's catch fire all the time yet Tesla stocks don't instantly plummet. A billionaire literally drowned in one because they couldn't break the damn windows!

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Simon676@reddit

Drowning in a car because you can't break the windows applies to almost every car ever made that isn't a convertible. That's literally what you have glass breakers for.

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Incontinento@reddit

Gargle, gargle, gargle.

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Simon676@reddit

Lol I'm the first to call Musk a fascist but that doesn't mean I won't disagree with things that aren't true.

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Same_Disaster117@reddit

We aren't talking about someone trying to break it with one those seat belt cutter tools. We're talking about multiple firefighters being unable to break the windows! If professionals aren't able to break the damn windows that sounds like a major safety hazard.

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Simon676@reddit

I don't understand how that would even be possible? Could you provide a link to this?

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Ftpini@reddit

Gas cars are still over 40 times more likely to to catch on fire than an EV. It’s still terrible when it happens, but it’s just not that common relative to most cars.

Gas cars do not however typically drive themselves into cement poles. So investors are not taking the news well.

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Sweet-Gushin-Gilfs@reddit

So much for the “bring Chinese cars over” crowd. Nice knowing ya, Xiaomi. If your cars are anything like your phones, keep em.

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Disciplined_20-04-15@reddit

I’d love to see the list of accounts & IPs that downvoted you so much in 2 hours 😂

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Richard_Lionheart69@reddit

This sub has been turfed, the mods had a sticky up for weeks last year about it

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cookingboy@reddit

The incident marks the first major accident involving the SU7 sedan, which Xiaomi launched in March last year and since December has outsold Tesla's Model 3 on a monthly basis.

So it’s the first major accident of a car that sold 100k+ units over a year. I guess time to write off the entire Chinese auto industry. Sensationalism much?

Or maybe you can recommend a country that builds cars that never have major accidents?

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1AMA-CAT-AMA@reddit

American cars have never ever killed anyone ever.

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Stunt_Vist@reddit

I always thought the Pinto was the reason Ford was the first corporation in the US to be charged with homicide, but I guess I was wrong all this time and they really did just shoot a guy in the back of his head or something.

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FuzzelFox@reddit

I'll never get over the fact that long after all of the shit with the Pinto happened a man tried to make a flying car with one. He basically bolted wings to it and a propeller and sure enough it flew!

The man ended up dying in an accident though when the tail end of the "plane" struck the ground and erupted into a fireball on the tarmac.

Maybe a car known for exploding when rear-ended wasn't the best idea...

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Stunt_Vist@reddit

The Pinto wasn't even that bad all things considered. The fuel system design it used, the one that was deemed faulty, was pretty much standard across most cars in the US market at that time. The only thing that was different with the Pinto was it's general lack of support and crash structure in the rear (around 10 inches if memory serves). The thing that really made it bad was that Ford knew this was an issue, but more importantly knew it could be fixed at just 11 dollars per car and decided not to because their legal team determined payouts for those affected would be cheaper than fixing the affected vehicles. Truly a peak Ford moment. Saving every cent off a car even if it makes the car infinitely worse, no different to how they operate today.

Really never understood why they didn't just import Cortinas or Escorts or order a new set of tooling for a slightly modified Cortina/Escort in the US and not have to deal with all the issues engineering an entirely new car and platform comes with, especially given the Pinto's design and engineering turnaround was the fastest of any car sold on the US market at the time by a significant margin (because Iacocca wanted it out the door ridiculously fast). Plus it probably would've been cheaper, not to mention a better car even if you ignore the Pinto's buttstuff issue.

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preludehaver@reddit

China bad

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ycnz@reddit

Xiaomi really aren't who people are talking about as serious Chinese manufacturers.

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kimi_rules@reddit

Dude, Xiaomi phones are really good, what's wrong with them that you assumes it's awful as their cars?

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cryptobruih@reddit

Xiaomi phones are good indeed. But the car is not well built. I would buy a xiaomi phone but definitely not buying the car.

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Sweet-Gushin-Gilfs@reddit

Nah. I remember Xiaomi phones very well. Absolutely abhorrent software support, weird bugs, spy worries, etc.

Seems like that followed them into cars. I really don’t trust Chinese cars to be safe tbh. I’d rather we in North America continue to do the smart thing and block them. There are plenty of other, better EVs out there

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cookingboy@reddit

smart thing and block them

Man Americans really don’t know they are the ones living in the Bad Place lol. What’s your experience with Chinese EVs?

Guess what, if they get sold here they’d be crash tested by NHTSA and IIHS anyway, just like how they are tested by EuroCAP in Europe.

As someone who is forced to buy a more expensive, less capable and less safe German EV (all BYD EVs sold in Europe received higher crash test ratings than my BMW i4 from EuroCAP), I wish we have better choices here.

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Sweet-Gushin-Gilfs@reddit

I’m not American. Nice try

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FordsFavouriteTowel@reddit

Literally all of those points could be applied to Tesla right now. Should the US boot them out?

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FSCK_Fascists@reddit

Its pretty amusing to see the right wingers who have been programmed to hate EV for decades suddenly struggle to embrace their new President Musk and his EV company.

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noxx1234567@reddit

Xiaomi hyperOS software is unoptimised garbage , they have one of the worst android OS out there. Their only saving grace is they can be unlocked and loaded with a different OS

Car is actually decent from what I saw but it's a high hp monster that makes way too much power for its brakes

There should be an additional licence to drive these monsters on roads

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RagingAlkohoolik@reddit

Xiaomi most things are pretty good, ive got a few home automation things from them and it all works quite well together
Also have a xiaomi escooter for 3 or 4 years now and its still going strong

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Vonauda@reddit

I'd rather have the option to at least buy some of these Chinese cars than be forced to buy poor quality GM, Ford, Stellantis, or Teslas.

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Same_Disaster117@reddit

Do you know how many people have died in Tesla fires? Or that one billionaire lady that drowned because they couldn't break the damn windows.

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south-of-the-river@reddit

Sounds exactly like the exact incidents that Teslas are notorious for - self driving failing at speed. But I’m sure a racially motivated tirade about a product you’ve never been near is cool too.

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Sweet-Gushin-Gilfs@reddit

Where did I defend Tesla for beta testing on public roads? Didn’t even mention them. Nice straw man.

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south-of-the-river@reddit

it’s called a comparison, a very standard conversational approach to a topic.
Teslas are the benchmark for self driving cars and thus are a reasonable comparison.
You are the one talking about beta testing, no one else is.
The only “straw man” argument in this conversation is yours.

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nevergonnastawp@reddit

Boring headline. Wake me up if one of these companies one day was just like "we are NOT cooperating with the police"

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matthieuC@reddit

Tesla might just do it

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south-of-the-river@reddit

No they just delete the entire department handling the investigation

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1AMA-CAT-AMA@reddit

Headline: Xiaomi says fuck the police. The car crashes will continue until the police backs off!

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V8-Turbo-Hybrid@reddit

Yes, every automakers do cooperate police and no matter where. However, cooperating with Chinese organization is a sensitive subject.

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Recoil42@reddit

However, cooperating with Chinese organization is a sensitive subject.

Translation: Reddit gets worked up into a frenzy every time China is mentioned due to a predominantly American user base exposed to decades of red scare conditioning.

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ConstantLimerence@reddit

You're intellectually below average and you should remove your dangling participle aggressively for the betterment of mankind.

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deleted_by_reddit@reddit

[removed]

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