BYD takes responsibility for accidents during autopilot
Who is responsible when a semi-autonomous car gets into an accident? This is a complex question, but usually, liability falls on the driver and their insurance company. BYD has decided to change this practice by offering full coverage of damages for its Urban Navigate on Autopilot (Urban NOA) feature.
This complements the previous coverage for intelligent parking. The company claims to be the “first automaker in the world to offer such dual coverage for its advanced driver assistance systems.”
Coverage terms: only one year and only in China
However, there is an important caveat: “the one-year warranty for full damage coverage applies to new customers and existing owners who upgrade the system to God’s Eye 5.0 on the Chinese market.” One year of coverage is not much, but according to the policy, “if a legally liable accident occurs while using the Urban NOA feature in compliance with the rules, BYD will directly cover all related economic losses.”
BYD explains that it can afford such a step because it has a fleet of over 3.15 million intelligent vehicles on the roads, which cover more than 124 million miles (200 million km) daily. This gives the company a huge volume of real-world data for “algorithmic learning and improvement.”
New technologies: Xuanji A3 chip and satellite architecture
In addition to the coverage guarantee announcement, BYD reported that its God’s Eye system is transitioning to an “industry-first satellite sensing architecture.” It also receives an “updated physical large AI model and a self-evolving data flywheel built on massive real-world scenarios.”
Furthermore, BYD introduced China’s first 4nm automotive chip for control systems. Known as the Xuanji A3, it supports L3 and L4 levels of autonomous driving, and a three-chip configuration can provide over 2100 TOPS of computing power. The chip is already in production and promises 20% lower power consumption compared to similar products.
Other innovations: LiDAR and DiLink AI
Summing up the results of the Intelligence Strategy Launch event, BYD confirmed that its entire model lineup can now be equipped with the God’s Eye LiDAR system. The automaker also introduced the DiLink AI Intelligent Cockpit, which is positioned as a “hyper-realistic digital assistant” that “offers proactive task execution and deep reasoning capabilities.”
This move by BYD is a bold experiment in a market where trust in autonomous technologies remains a key challenge. By offering financial coverage, the company not only takes on part of the risk but also collects invaluable data to improve its systems. However, the limitation of one year and only for the Chinese market suggests that this is still a test model. If it proves successful, other automakers may be forced to follow this example to remain competitive in the race for fully autonomous driving. The introduction of its own Xuanji A3 chip also demonstrates BYD’s desire to control key components, reducing dependence on external suppliers and potentially lowering costs in the future.