File this one under “concerningly believable.” A driver in China behind the wheel of a Lynk & Co Z20 attempted to turn off the interior reading lights in their electric crossover using a voice command. When they did, the car turned off the headlights instead—a problem, because this all went down at night, on a highway. The car crashed into a barrier off the right side of the road soon after, prompting the automaker to quickly push out an over-the-air update to ensure this never happens again.
Oftentimes in cases like these, we hear reports of incidents, but proof of what actually happened, as well as automaker acknowledgement, can be rare. In this case, we have both: A post on the Chinese social networking site Weibo shows the crash itself from a dashcam, while another post by Mu Jun, a Lynk & Co sales executive, confirms the incident and makes it clear that following an update that’s just gone live, the car’s headlights can now only be switched off manually. The condition of the vehicle’s occupants after the crash is unclear, though they appear to be talking normally in the immediate aftermath.
This news has prompted owners of other EVs, including those made by Lynk & Co parent company Zeekr, to investigate whether their vehicles are sensitive to such commands, according to CnEVPost. They’ve found that while specific commands to deactivate headlights are blocked by and large, ambiguous ones referring to any or all lights can break through on some models. Considering how many automakers today rely upon AI to handle semantics and speech, it’s a worrying albeit inevitable phenomenon.
This is exactly why vehicles tend to have safeguards around what you can mess with using voice alone. Infotainment’s fair game, but anything critical to the safe operation of the vehicle should be siloed. That’s especially crucial when AI is involved, as it has the ability to interpret commands in unexpected ways.
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