Car Safety · Full chronicle and history

On the evening of November 6, Jiemian News reported that the Maextro V800 had announced a recall plan on October 13 due to brake pedal bracket issues, involving 3,217 vehicles. Subsequently, the report was taken down. Many media outlets questioned whether Maextro had spread rumors, and netizens are demanding the investigation results regarding the brake issues.

In October 2026, a 2024 video by Dongchedi analyzing the Wenjie M7 accident in Yuncheng, Shanxi, was dug up by netizens. The host had pointed out at the time that the fuel tank was positioned far forward and could be crushed and catch fire after sliding under and colliding with a truck, sparking heated discussion among netizens.

Before Lei Jun publicly emphasized vehicle safety, a large number of Xiaomi car owners reported suspected faults in the vehicles' intelligent brake boosters, with problems such as brake pedals that could not be pressed down.

On October 22, outside the Tesla store in Licheng, Putian, Fujian, a domestically produced new energy vehicle suddenly caught fire while charging and ignited surrounding vehicles.

On October 21, Lei Jun, founder, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Group, said at the 2026 World Intelligent Connected Vehicles Conference that without safety, all intelligence, performance, design and innovation lose their meaning; multiple media outlets including Chang'an Jie Zhishi and The Beijing News republished his press release.

On October 20, at a press conference of the State Council Information Office, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said that some automakers follow the trend in launching new products and that testing and validation are insufficient, and that it will prevent unreasonable innovative designs and vehicle products that have not undergone sufficient research, development, testing and validation from entering the market.

On the evening of October 17, an Aito M9 lost control at an intersection in Shenmu, Yulin, Shaanxi, crashed into a traffic light pole and caught fire; the driver failed to escape.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Cyberspace Administration of China and the State Administration for Market Regulation announced on the evening of October 15 that they had set up a joint investigation team to investigate automobile quality.

According to a report by Sound of Hope, on October 15, 2026, a netizen posted a video showing a Xiaomi car losing control while driving, crashing through three or four roadside trees one after another, with the scene being quite gruesome. The specific cause of the accident and any casualties remain to be further verified.

Dongchedi released a video pointing out that in the intensified brake pedal test of the Stelato V800, only 2 of the 14 samples were loaded to 3000 newtons, and the permanent deformation was not disclosed; bench tests cannot explain the breakage of the pedal bracket during emergency braking of the actual vehicle, and verification combining original data and whole-vehicle testing is needed.

On October 13, netizens found that the China Automotive Technology and Research Center, which issued the inspection report for the brake pedal of the Huawei Stelato V800, was also the organization that carried out the earlier controversial Li Auto i8 test in which it "sent a Chenglong truck flying," for which the organization had publicly apologized.

The People's Daily app published an article on October 11 about the fracture of the brake pedal bracket in the Maextro vehicle, pointing out that a car's brake pedal should never break while driving.

On October 11, Malaysia's Road Transport Department suspended approvals and new vehicle registrations for this model and will audit vehicle production, assembly, and rear axle suppliers. In 2024, 600 units of this vehicle were recalled over rear axle problems.

On the evening of October 11, Chery said the local welding strength of the rear axle trailing arms in that batch may be insufficient, with a risk of weld seam tearing, and has launched a recall of 8,878 OMODA 5 units in Malaysia, while also checking vehicles of the same batch in China and related markets.

On October 10, four departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released a draft for public comment, proposing to ban cars from being equipped with fully flush door handles, prohibiting the use of zero-gravity seats, rotating seats, or seats folded flat into a bed while driving, and requiring models already announced to submit supplementary verification materials before July 1, 2027; those with safety hazards past the deadline must halt production and issue recalls, while new models must undergo environmental adaptability verification of no less than 1 year and reliability verification of no less than 30,000 kilometers. The document is still under public comment.

During emergency braking tests, the brake pedal of Huawei's Stelato V800, priced at over one million yuan, snapped multiple times in a row, drawing widespread attention online and raising questions about product quality.

On October 9, Xinhua News Agency deleted the response statement from Stelato regarding the brake fracture incident that it had previously reposted, and related topics in Weibo's top 50 trending searches were also entirely cleared.

Dongchedi released a video testing three new Zunjie V800 vehicles developed through Huawei-JAC cooperation; after repeated hard braking the brake pedal bracket snapped, and the video was subsequently taken down.

On October 9, an uploader on Bilibili posted a lyric-adapted work titled “Breakpoint,” satirizing the breakage of the brake pedal bracket on the Huawei Stelato during a Dongchedi test. Netizens, imitating Yu Chengdong’s tone, quipped “the best lyric adaptation under 10 million.”

On October 6, in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, the rear axle along with both rear wheels detached entirely from the body of a 2023 Chery OMODA 5 while driving; fortunately, no one was injured.

When Dongchedi conducted braking distance tests on the Stelato V800, a collaboration between Huawei and JAC Motors, the brake pedal brackets of all three vehicles tested in succession broke, drawing widespread public attention and causing JAC Motors' stock price to hit the limit down.

A 2023 OMODA 5 suffered a severe accident while driving in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, when the rear axle trailing arm suddenly tore apart and the rear axle, together with both rear wheels, detached from the body.

An Aito owner said that while driving with smart driving on the Gansu-Shaanxi Expressway in heavy rain, the wipers suddenly stopped working and the washer fluid spray failed; the system demanded manual takeover. After turning on the hazard lights, pulling over, and forcing a power-off restart, it returned to normal.

An AITO owner posted fault records, saying the vehicle's air conditioning compressor had been replaced multiple times, and that after-sales service only provided some of the fault records, refusing to print earlier ones.

BYD announced the recall of more than 180,000 related vehicles because fiber blocks on the brake pedals of some cars may crack and come loose, causing the brake lights to stay on.

Master Kong reported instant noodle business revenue of over 13.7 billion yuan, up 2% year on year; Uni-President reported food business revenue of over 5.6 billion yuan, up 4.7% year on year.

On July 15, 2026, an AITO owner posted a video revealing that when the vehicle was in danger, pressing the SOS button failed to connect to the backend emergency call, and the in-car screen displayed a notice that the account was in arrears and calls could not be made, questioning whether the vehicle has serious safety hazards.

An AITO M9 caught fire rapidly after striking a traffic pole in Shenmu, Yulin, Shaanxi, and the driver in the car died at the scene.

AITO User Service issued a notice stating that the vehicle speed at the time of the incident was 139.1 kilometers per hour, that the vehicle was in manual driving mode, and that it characterized the battery explosion and fire as false information.

On August 1, a truck blogger posted a video questioning whether Li Auto's promotional video was faked, saying a truck's frame can bear over a hundred tons of cargo, and that a family sedan ramming a big truck is a huge joke, warning consumers not to be misled.

An Aito M9 caught fire after a collision in Yuncheng, killing three people. The vehicle involved was not recalled, and related reports were taken down.