Xiaomi SU7 Max electric vehicle has gone viral across Chinese social media. Mr. Li, a man from Zhejiang province, said that the car’s AI fatigue detection system kept warning him to “focus on driving” more than 20 times during a short trip. The reason? The system mistakenly flagged his naturally small eyes as signs that he was falling asleep at the wheel.
Mr. Li was driving his sister’s brand-new Xiaomi SU7 Max when the repeated alerts began. Even though he was fully awake and watching the road, the car kept giving both voice and on-screen warnings like “Please focus on driving” and “Drive safely.” The car’s system had mistaken his normal eye shape for a sign of drowsiness or sleep.
“When I forced my eyes wide open, the alarm stopped,” Mr. Li said. “But when I let my eyes return to their normal state, it started again. My eyes are so small that the car thinks I am about to fall asleep.”
Mr. Li posted a video of the experience, which quickly went viral. In the video, viewers can hear his sister laughing from the passenger seat as he tries to keep his eyes wide open while driving. She later confirmed that she had never faced such an issue while driving the same car, even though it was her vehicle.
The fatigue monitoring system in the Xiaomi SU7 is designed to keep drivers safe by checking for signs of sleep or distraction. It uses a camera mounted on the steering wheel to track eye movements, head position, and facial expressions.
The system looks for signs that the driver is tired. These signs include closed eyes, frequent yawning, or head-turning. If it sees any of these signs, it sends out audio alerts. It also displays messages on the screen. If the driver ignores the warnings, the car can even slow down and stop automatically.
After the video went viral, Xiaomi confirmed that the company installed this feature in all SU7 Max cars. A spokesperson for the company said the system helps prevent accidents and is part of their goal to improve safety using artificial intelligence. However, they also admitted that the system might be too sensitive for some users.
Xiaomi’s customer service told local media that the feature can be turned off manually through the car’s settings. However the company does not recommend disabling it, as it could reduce overall safety during long or late-night drives.
Many social media users in China supported Mr. Li and shared their own stories. Some drivers said they faced similar issues with other Chinese-made electric vehicles, such as Lynk & Co and Deepal. A few other Xiaomi SU7 users said they had also complained to the company about false fatigue alerts caused by eye shape.
Some users raised concerns about whether Xiaomi had tested the system properly with a wide variety of faces and eye types. Others asked why the system doesn’t use additional data, like steering behavior or head movements, to make better decisions. The discussion has opened a wider debate in China about fairness and bias in artificial intelligence systems.
