The Internet of Things is supposed to be transformative, changing the way we go about our daily live, laugh, love. In some ways, it has, but “smart” devices have also made us inattentive and lazy. Case in point: A driverless vehicle fails to auto park and, instead, drives into traffic.
In a recent social media post, security footage shows the driver of an SUV exiting his vehicle and leaving it in the parking lot to self-park. What happens next is embarrassing (for the SUV) and near disaster (for the driver). The sequence takes place in China, and the SUV is an L9, a three-row, six-passenger premium ride produced by Li Auto. Only available in the Chinese market, the EV automaker considers the L9 its flagship vehicle and dubs it a “smart” SUV.
In the 90-second clip, we see the driver, let’s presume owner, hold onto the door handle for an extended period, probably to set up a command. Then he just walks away into a building while looking down at his phone. But before he even enters the building’s door, the Li Auto L9 is already beginning its parking maneuvers. And spends the next 45 seconds slowing inching forward and backward, but is never positioned to properly reverse into the slot.
At the 0:55 mark, after a slight pause, the EV SUV does the most human thing possible. It gives up and drives away. Perhaps to find another parking spot elsewhere or to simply leave the area and take its failures with it.
Unlike a human, though, the SUV doesn’t just peel out of the parking lot. Instead, it leaves slowly, like a new driver who just graduated from a paper permit to a hard card. And kudos to the L9 ADAS features for avoiding a collision with a Kei truck! About five seconds later, the owner reappears, phone in hand again, to sequester his vehicle.
But the L9 is now blocking the roadway, facing the wrong direction. The street isn’t particularly busy but is well-traveled with scooters, mini trucks, passenger cars, and construction vehicles. While backing up (why?), the SUV nearly hits a red hatchback.
At this point, it’s a little chaotic with everyone who can avoid the errant SUV doing so. Scooters are now on the sidewalk and cars are driving into the opposing traffic’s lane. One can assume the L9 owner has deactivated the Auto Park feature, but even as he stands there, waiting to get around the hatchback, the L9 is still self-driving.
Eventually, the world (and SUV) stopped long enough for the owner to hop back in. The end.
Or is it? In a fraction of the time of this video, the owner could have parked the vehicle himself. To be fair, the parking area didn’t have a line of vehicle slots like you see in a standard American strip mall. Here, the parking lot was less of a lot and more like a long, wide driveway with random white boxes painted on. There is only one video angle, so the non-painted surfaces could be a garage entrance or a large pedestrian walkway. Either way, the smart SUV was left dumbfounded. Thankfully, no collisions occurred, and no injuries were sustained. It’s likely passing commuters didn’t even realize the Li L9 was empty.
Some smart tech is helpful and work as intended, like my dad’s newly installed pacemaker. The device instantly syncs with its monitor so docs receive data in real-time, sparing my dad from monthly hospital visits. Yay, and get well soon, you hybrid human! Other advanced connected tech, especially the ones that replace people-performed tasks, have shown they are not ready for showtime. They could be, but maybe not during my lifetime. And we can consider ourselves lucky if all the smart fails were as innocuous as this aborted Auto Park scene.