Xiaomi Responds to Incident of Car Reportedly Driving Off on Its Own
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In Weihai, Shandong, a Xiaomi car suddenly drove off on its own, alarming its owner and sparking questions about safety. Xiaomi later stated that vehicle data matched phone operation logs, ruling out quality issues, and apologized for a customer service error that caused a misunderstanding.
October 3 – IT Home (via Langchao News) – On September 30, a Xiaomi car owner in Weihai, Shandong, shared a video describing an unusual incident and called on the company to provide an explanation.
Surveillance footage released by the owner shows the car parked outside the house while he and a woman were inside. Suddenly, the vehicle started moving on its own, prompting the woman to scream as the man rushed outside in pursuit. The owner later told reporters that Xiaomi customer service suggested he might have accidentally triggered the vehicle through his phone. He rejected this explanation, saying he had not used his phone at the time, and posted the full surveillance recording to support his claim.
This evening, Xiaomi issued an official statement in response to the circulating video. The company’s full statement reads as follows:
Regarding the recent online video showing a Xiaomi car ‘suddenly driving off on its own,’ we take this matter very seriously. A special task force was immediately formed to investigate and verify the situation together with the user. After reviewing the user-authorized phone app operation logs, vehicle data, and related records, both parties confirmed a unified conclusion: ‘The vehicle’s backend data matched with the iPhone 15 Pro Max operation logs, response times, and parking-assist commands. This rules out any vehicle quality issue.’
With the user’s consent, we obtained authorization to access backend vehicle data as well as operation logs from two smartphones that had car-control permissions (an iPhone 16 Pro belonging to the female owner, and an iPhone 15 Pro Max belonging to the male owner, device identifiers iPhone 17,1 and iPhone 16,2 respectively). Backend data confirmed that, within the timeframe described by the user, the vehicle received a parking-assist command from the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which triggered the parking-assist function. Activation requires close-range Bluetooth connection, and the vehicle then initiated the maneuver to exit its parking spot.
The confusion arose during initial customer service communication, where the online support agent mistakenly mixed up the device identifier (iPhone 16,2) with the corresponding model name (iPhone 15 Pro Max). This led to the user believing the command came from an iPhone 16, which in turn caused misunderstanding and inaccurate information being passed along. We apologize for this error and will continue to improve our service process going forward.
At Xiaomi Auto, user safety and experience remain our top priority. We thank everyone for their attention and support.
