BYD's God's Eye AI Driver-Assist System Causes Dangerous Malfunctions in China
BYD's God's Eye advanced driver-assistance system is reportedly causing dangerous malfunctions in over 2.5 million Chinese vehicles, with owners reporting sudden unintended acceleration, steering glitches, and navigation failures that create collision hazards. The incidents expose risks of deploying advanced driver-assist technology across an entire vehicle lineup before software development is complete.
What happened
BYD's God's Eye driver-assistance system, launched in 2025 as standard equipment across its vehicle lineup from budget hatchbacks to luxury models, has generated widespread complaints from users in China reporting critical safety malfunctions.
A Yangwang U8 SUV owner reported the vehicle suddenly accelerated to 93 kilometres per hour on a 60 kph road and veered onto a roadside median during a clear afternoon drive. On another occasion, the SUV performed what he described as a 'ghost' steering manoeuvre, nearly colliding with oncoming traffic.
Complaints on Chinese social media platforms including Xiaohongshu describe navigation failures, steering glitches, and delayed features. The system has been installed across more than 2.5 million vehicles in China.
Reported impact
Owners report recurring malfunctions including unintended acceleration, uncontrolled steering inputs, and navigation signal loss that create immediate collision hazards.
The widespread deployment of the technology across BYD's entire lineup has exposed the safety issues at scale, affecting multiple vehicle platforms with varying hardware configurations including both lidar and camera-based systems.
Index analysis
Analysts identified that BYD deployed the advanced driver-assistance system across nearly its entire range before the software was fully developed, in contrast to competitors like Tesla, Ford, and GM which typically offer such systems as optional features on select models.
The integration challenges were compounded by BYD's decision to use non-uniform hardware packages, with some models receiving lidar while others use camera-based systems, making it harder to track and resolve issues across the fleet.
Governance controls
BYD has been in dialogue with at least one owner for over a year seeking resolution for recurring malfunctions, but no official recall or system suspension has been announced.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.