Man mistakenly flagged for driving while fatigued due to small eyes
A man in Zhejiang, China, recently encountered repeated in-car voice alerts while driving a Xiaomi vehicle.
The alerts were reportedly triggered by a misidentification from the car’s AI fatigue detection system, due to the driver’s small eyes.
In a video shared by Mr Li (name transliterated from Chinese), the Xiaomi car continuously issued voice alerts saying “Please focus on driving” during his journey, accompanied by an on-screen message: “Please focus on driving, drive safely.”
In a bid to stop the alarm, Mr Li repeatedly tried widening his eyes.
Man claims alerts went off over 20 times while driving due to small eyes
Mr Li was driving his sister’s Xiaomi SU7 Max on Wednesday (18 June) when the alerts began ringing.
Despite changing his posture multiple times, the alert reportedly persisted.
Source: Sohu
After a while, Mr Li suspected that the problem stemmed from the system failing to recognise his eyes as being open under the sunlight, reports Chinese news outlet Sohu.
“When I forced my eyes wide open, the alarm stopped. But when I let my eyes return to their normal state, it started again.”
Source: Moretify
Mr Li said the situation was both ridiculous and frustrating. “Because my eyes are small, it thinks I’m falling asleep.”
He added that his sister doesn’t encounter this problem when driving the same car, but whenever he drives, the alerts go off — sometimes more than 20 times during a single trip. The constant alerts have also affected his ability to drive normally.
Company claims system can be disabled
When contacted, Xiaomi Auto’s customer service explained that the monitoring feature is installed in each of its vehicles.
A camera located on the steering wheel tracks the driver’s condition. If the system detects that the driver has closed their eyes, turned their head, yawned, or is distracted by using a phone, it flags a possible fatigue or inattention state.
Therefore, Mr Li’s situation was described as a very normal response from the system.
Source: Moretify
As for addressing such ‘false positive’ alerts, the representative said drivers can disable the fatigue alert feature in the settings. However, it is not recommended to do this as the feature is designed to enhance the driver’s safety.
Also read: Self-driving car rear-ends another car after salesperson tells customer not to hit the brakes
Self-driving car rear-ends another car after salesperson tells customer not to hit the brakes
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Featured image adapted from Sohu and Moretify.
