It's your car, but not entirely. What are the methods used by manufacturers to remotely lock it? This article will help you avoid pitfalls

The car you buy is not your car, or in other words, you are not in full control of the car. This did not exist in the era of gasoline cars, but it is true in the era of electric cars. Generation But have you ever experienced something that is often mentioned?

Recently, an Ideal car owner said that his account was locked by the community administrator because he followed more than a dozen people, which made it impossible to log in to the account. If you can't log in, you can't drive. It's like you are playing a game well, and the GM (game administrator) suddenly says you are cheating, and then your account is offline.

If you don't want to play the game, then don't play it. But if you want to drive a car that you spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on, you still have to depend on the manufacturer. What's going on?

The Ideal incident was quickly clarified. The reason was that the car owner's family used the family account of the account to log in to the Ideal APP community and followed multiple unfamiliar accounts, triggering the clause that "accounts other than the car owner's account that follow more than 10 people in a short period of time will be identified as risky accounts", so it was locked.

From this point of view, Ideal’s “fault” is not that serious. It is just a system bug. It is not intended to lock the car, nor is it targeted at a specific type of user. Ideal should be able to fix this type of problem soon.

However, this is always a question of "you can't drive your own car at will". No matter how the manufacturer explains, the absurd feeling of the users is so strong that it can directly burn through the CPU - the manufacturer has the ability to remotely lock the account, that is, the ability to interfere with the owner's car usage rights. It's like buying a lock, but the neighbor Wang also has a key that can be opened at any time.

Is this a lock issue? This is an asset ownership issue!

After entering the era of intelligence, similar problems have occurred many times.

During the 315 event this year, Chery Automobile had a remote car locking incident. A Tiggo owner said that his car had a problem and needed to defend his rights, but when he was about to attend a "problem car show" held locally, Chery suddenly remotely locked the car system, making the car unable to start.

Regarding this matter, Chery Automobile's official response at the time was: According to the requirements of relevant national laws and regulations, automobile manufacturers did not develop a remote car locking function, and the matter was never followed up.

Earlier, GAC Aion also had similar problems. In December 2022, a GAC ​​Aion AION S owner broke the news that he was locked out of the vehicle because he did not replace the battery in time as required by Aion. The manufacturer and the user have different opinions on this matter, but one thing is certain, that is, the manufacturer does have the ability to interfere with the user's use of the vehicle in some way.

There is an invisible administrator living in our car, with a pair of invisible hands that can hold our steering wheel. Who is this ghost? This is what users care about most.

Also in 2022, Xiaopeng Motors also had a similar problem. In August of that year, after a car owner bought a used Xiaopeng P7, he suddenly found that the Xiaopeng Motors manufacturer had locked his car through remote control over the Internet and could not drive it normally.

This incident involves a common question, that is, who owns the mortgaged vehicle. The owner of this Xiaopeng P7 bought a second-hand car, and the original owner had defaulted on the loan, so Xiaopeng manufacturer locked it.

This incident with Xiaopeng once again proves that manufacturers have the ability to remotely lock vehicles.

The same situation happened to NIO recently. The problem also occurred in the second-hand car transaction link, and it was also because of problems with the loan of the first car owner that caused its second-hand car to be locked by the manufacturer.

In addition, Geely Auto has also had more serious incidents. In November 2023, some Geely Maple Leaf new energy car owners in Shanxi found that the cars they bought could not be charged. Later, it was discovered that the manufacturer had remotely locked the car charging port in order to allow users to choose battery replacement services.

Different from the previous incidents, this time Geely Maple Leaf New Energy really actively locks the car, allowing users to choose between battery swapping and charging, and is more inclined to let users choose the battery swapping mode.

The battery swap model is more likely to cause such disputes, because the battery swap model and battery leasing model itself involve the ownership of vehicle parts. In this regard, NIO can be said to be a typical example. If the previous owner purchased the car using the battery leasing model, and the next owner did not renew the lease in time, then the NIO manufacturer would remotely lock the car, which has happened many times.

From these cases, we can conclude that mainstream manufacturers have the ability to remotely lock vehicles. In fact, not only the automotive industry, but also any industry involving leasing and mortgage loans will encounter similar problems. For example, if the loan for large construction machinery is not repaid, it will not work.

Although our manufacturers have proactively claimed that they do not know how to lock the car and have no ability to lock the car, the facts are ironclad and irrefutable. At present, there are no specific regulations to follow for the behavior of locking the car. As a user, especially friends who buy second-hand cars, it is extremely necessary to do a good job of vehicle inspection and transfer, so as to avoid unnecessary trouble for your travel.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.