SHENZHEN-BASED electric car and battery maker BYD announced it has achieved and will soon deploy to all God’s Eye-equipped models Society of Automobile Engineers (SAE) Level 4 autonomous parking capabilities, wherein drivers can completely disengage with the task under specific conditions. The automaker also announced on Sina Weibo that it will take full responsibility for any losses or damage incurred by vehicles as a result of the autonomous parking feature. Chinese users experiencing collisions while using God’s Eye smart parking will not need to file insurance claims. Instead, BYD’s after-sales service will handle incidents directly, preventing insurance premium increases. The automaker attributes its confidence to owning China’s largest smart driving vehicle cloud database, the world’s largest smart driving R&D team, and over 1 million vehicles equipped with God’s Eye systems on roads. BYD also recently announced plans for its largest-scale over-the-air update, which beyond parking also covers other aspects of assisted driving and safety. The SAE Level 4 designation means that the automaker, not the driver, bears liability for accidents under defined conditions. Xpeng previously offered similar coverage but requires users to purchase a paid service costing 239 yuan (US$33). China’s automakers and legislature have been vying to validate assisted driving systems’ safety, educate drivers on their capabilities, and ensure transparency after reports of high-profile accidents surfaced involving the technology. In June, new regulations were drafted detailing standards that specify technical requirements for combined driver assistance systems, including motion control capabilities, driver status monitoring, driver intervention and functional safety. Back in April, a law was passed reining in how automakers advertise their driver-assist products, forcing Tesla to abandon its “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) branding in favor of the more anodyne “Intelligent Assisted Driving.” (SD-Agencies) | 