Active safety system mistakes billboard for reality... and this is the result

Advanced driver assistance systems are becoming more prevalent in new cars, and while they’ve been found to reduce the risk of a crash, flaws with the technology can sometimes cause incidents.

This was the case for the owner of a Li L9 SUV in China, who was driving down a freeway when the vehicle’s LiDAR system detected two vans stopped on the road ahead.

But there was one problem: the vans weren’t real – they were photos on a billboard above the road.

Footage uploaded to X (formerly known as Twitter) shows the SUV’s autonomous emergency braking system was deployed, resulting in the L9 coming to a stop under a bridge.

Its owner claims this led to it subsequently being hit from behind by another car that couldn’t slow down in time to avoid the SUV.

Though no injuries were reported as a result of the incident, Chinese publication Pandaily reports the SUV’s owner is demanding 20,000 yuan ($4135) as compensation for the damage sustained in the crash.

A spokesperson for the brand told Pandaily that the safety system was at fault for the crash, having “mistakenly identified an advertisement image as a real vehicle,” and that it will roll out software updates to prevent it from happening again.

Despite concerns about whether autonomous emergency braking is a help or hindrance to drivers, a US 2022 study conducted on behalf of the Partnership for Analytics Research in Traffic Safety (PARTS) found the risk of a crash and injury is greatly reduced in vehicles equipped with such systems.

Vehicles are 49 per cent more likely to avoid a crash if they’re equipped with forward collision warning and autonomous emergency braking, with the likelihood of injury also reduced by 53 per cent.