Man In China Was Stuck Inside His Car, As It Shut Down For An OTA Update Causing Traffic Jam

Have you ever been stuck, not being able to use your smartphone while it updates over-the-air (OTA)? Thank your lucky stars that it was only your phone and not your car, as was the case with this unfortunate man in China who got stuck in the middle of a traffic jam in Beijing just because of an update.

For those unaware, over-the-air-software updates are now being employed by the auto makers as well, for upgrading a vehicle¡¯s tech without the need of going to a dealership. Agreed, it is a great technological advancement in the vehicles segment, but only as long as the users know how to go about it.

Representative Image (Reuters)

Also read: This Electric Dune Buggy Concept By Volkswagen Looks Straight Out Of A Hot Wheels Game!

As per South China Morning Post, a man driving a Nio ES8 electric SUV was unaware of this and had to face some serious consequences. The man triggered an update for the car while in the middle of a traffic jam in Beijing. At the time, the driver was testing the car along with a Nio representative.

The update resulted in the vehicle being completely in-operational, with the man and the company representative ending up stuck in the traffic jam for more than an hour. The Nio rep later posted on Weibo that they were visited by multiple groups of police officers, yet they could not even roll down the windows of the car.

Nio ES8 Electric SUV

Also read: In Mumbai, You Can Uber A Speedboat On The Sea For Rs 5,700 And Beat Rush Hour Traffic

A Bloomberg report later mentioned that Nio apologised for the incident, while blaming the driver for it. It said that it would review the software to prevent any such mishaps in the future, but that the driver was at fault for activating the upgrade at the time. The company claimed that clear instructions are given to the drivers before an OTA upgrade begins, for triggering it only when the car is parked safely at a spot.

Such incidents highlight the discrepancies, not in the technological evolution in vehicles, but the adoption of it by the humans. Similar incidents have been recorded with other new-age vehicle technologies. (Semi) Autonomous driving, for instance, has been observed to lead many drivers dozing off while on the go, which is strictly advised against under any circumstances.