On the evening of October 3, in response to the viral video circulating online titled “Xiaomi Car Suddenly Drives Away on Its Own,” a spokesperson from Xiaomi responded. The spokesperson stated that the company attaches great importance to the incident and immediately established a special task force to investigate and work with the user to verify the details. Through the user’s authorized mobile app operation logs, vehicle data, and other information, they reached a unified conclusion: “The vehicle’s backend data, iPhone 15 Pro Max operation logs, response time, and parking exit command all match, excluding vehicle quality issues.”
The incident occurred on September 30, when a Xiaomi car owner in Weihai, Shandong, posted a video stating that their vehicle, which was parked in front of their house, suddenly started and drove away on its own. The video soon became a hot topic on Weibo, generating 95.68 million views and 38,000 discussions.
The video circulating online shows the vehicle parked in front of a store, with the owner and a woman inside. Suddenly, the vehicle starts and drives away. Upon noticing this, the woman inside screams, and the owner immediately runs outside to chase the car. After the incident, the car owner contacted Xiaomi’s customer service, who suggested that the vehicle might have been activated by mistakenly touching the phone, causing it to start. However, the owner did not accept this explanation, stating that the full scene surveillance video showed no phone operation when the car started.
In the official response, the Xiaomi spokesperson stated that after obtaining the user’s consent, the vehicle’s backend data and the operation logs from two smartphones with vehicle control permissions (the female owner’s iPhone 16 Pro and the male owner’s iPhone 15 Pro Max, with device identifiers iPhone 17,1 and iPhone 16,2, respectively) were reviewed. The vehicle’s backend data showed that during the described time window, the vehicle received a parking assist command from the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which activated the parking assist function (requiring the vehicle to be within close Bluetooth range of the phone) and caused the vehicle to exit the parking space. Regarding the user’s feedback during the communication with online customer service, which suggested the command came from an iPhone 16, the spokesperson clarified that the customer service mistakenly confused the device model identifiers (iPhone 16,2 with iPhone 15 Pro Max), leading to the user misunderstanding and receiving inaccurate information, which caused a series of misunderstandings. Xiaomi apologized for this and promised to improve customer service in the future.
In response to Xiaomi’s statement, the car owner commented in the discussion section: “The above information is accurate. The Xiaomi car team has verified the data with me in person, and I appreciate their professionalism and service. Please don’t spread rumors. Thank you, everyone.”
The vehicle involved in the incident is Xiaomi’s first car model—the Xiaomi SU7, which was launched in March 2024, with a price range of 215,900 to 299,900 yuan.
Retail data shows that by the end of August this year, the cumulative sales of the Xiaomi SU7 reached 199,950 units, making it the highest-selling mid-to-large-sized car of the year. Given the SU7’s successful market debut and performance, it demonstrates significant consumer recognition of the model.
