Who should pay for the limitation of vehicle functions due to the implementation of regulations?

With the rapid development ofintelligent networkedvehicles, more and more intelligent functions are on the vehicle, and even the remote intelligent control functions that were unimaginable in the past have come into reality.However, when many car owners have not yet enjoyed the convenience brought by these intelligent functions, some functions have been quietly closed by car companies.The reason is related to the relevant policies and regulations of the country. It may be helpless for car companies to do so, but the car owners lose the functions of the vehicles they have paid for, and who should pay for the loss of profits?

Vehicle highlights, limited functions, car companies trapped in a vortex of trust

According to the latest report of IDC, consumers in the automotive market have greatly improved their awareness of intelligent connectivity compared with previous years, and regard the assembly of hardware and software related to the intelligent connectivity of vehicles as an important manifestation of the sense of vehicle technology.In order to meet the current car buying needs of consumers, car companies often use smart and high-tech configurations to attract the attention of potential car buyers, especially some new models that focus on intelligence, and these features are used as core selling points for publicity.The transaction that was originally yours and I wished to have a dramatic scene recently.Just imagine, if you increase your car purchase budget in order to experience some intelligent functions, but after the vehicle arrives, these bright functions are turned off and cannot be used, how would you feel?

This happened to Mr. Bai from Hunan.According to Mr. Bai's feedback to the car quality network, when he purchased a certain brand model, he valued several intelligent functions promoted by the company as a selling point when purchasing the car, but the car was used for less than three months. A single notice turns these features off permanently.In this regard, Mr. Bo is very angry, and believes that the car companies have reduced distribution, which has seriously violated the legitimate rights and interests of car owners. These illegal functions should be rectified and re-launched, and certain compensation should be given.

As far as this type of complaint case is concerned, the practice of the car company seems to be understandable on the surface, and it is completely implemented in accordance with the relevant national laws and regulations.It is understood that the relevant national regulations mentioned by car companies refer to the "Several Regulations on Automobile Data Security Management (Trial Implementation)" (hereinafter referred to as the Data Security Regulations), which are jointly formulated by the State Internet Information Office, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Transportation. Jointly issued by the Ministry of Transport and officially implemented on October 1, 2021.According to Article 8 of the Data Security Regulations, “In cases where it is impossible to obtain personal consent from individuals to collect and provide personal information outside the vehicle due to the need to ensure driving safety, anonymization processing shall be performed, including the deletion of images containing identifiable natural persons. , or perform local contouring processing on the face information in the picture, etc.” In simple terms, it is the outside picture or video data obtained through the on-board equipment. If it needs to be sent outside the car, the content must be decoded. Sensitive processing, no real pictures of characters can appear, otherwise it will not be allowed to use.After the implementation of data security regulations, the directly affected functions mainly include panoramic automatic parking, remote photography and remote monitoring.

In fact, there are many car owners who have the same experience as Mr. Bai, and they all feel angry after receiving the notice from the car company, which leads to concentrated complaints.According to the data of the car quality network, in just one week after the car company issued the notice, nearly 100 related complaints were received. Some car owners expressed strong dissatisfaction with the practice of the car company, which in turn had a certain negative effect on the brand trust of the company. influences.As of press time, the car companies involved have not given a reasonable solution to this.

Who should pay for it under the influence of policies and regulations?

As far as the incident itself is concerned, the implementation of data security regulations has played an effective role in protecting personal information security, and has also formed corresponding supervision on the production and manufacturing of automobile companies; and it is reasonable for automobile companies to comply with regulations, but consumers. It is an indisputable fact that the interests are damaged.On the surface, this is an endless loop with no solution, but is it really so?

In this regard, lawyer Jiang Suhua of Beijing Yingke Law Firm believes that from a legal point of view, how to define responsibility must be judged from the time point when the regulations are officially implemented on October 1, 2021.If the company involved sells vehicles before this time point, it is reasonable to rectify the relevant functions in accordance with the requirements of the regulations after the official implementation of the regulations, which is legally a force majeure factor, but the company directly "one size fits all" to close the relevant functions. The approach is still debatable.On the contrary, if a car company sells products after the regulations are implemented, it is an illegal operation in itself, and then the vehicle functions are turned off due to the regulations, and the car owner has the right to be held accountable.However, lawyer Jiang Suhua also said that there is no problem in this analysis from the legal level, but there are still many uncertain factors in the actual operation.

From this point of view, in the face of force majeure factors such as the implementation of laws and regulations, car companies do have unspeakable secrets. One side is market sales and the other side is policies and regulations, so the decision to make the "reduction" function is really helpless.However, in terms of the above-mentioned centralized complaint incidents, there are undoubtedly certain problems in the research and judgment of the policies and regulations of the car companies involved.So, in the face of similar events, who should pay for it?Li Xi, executive vice president of the car quality network, believes that if a similar situation occurs, if the company does sell vehicles before the implementation of the policy, on the one hand, I hope the car owners can fully understand it, and on the other hand, I hope that the company can introduce remedial measures in time to make up for it. While the rights and interests of car owners are lost, the pressure of negative public opinion will be reduced; however, if the company still sells vehicles in its own way regardless of the policies and regulations, thus causing damage to the interests of the car owners, it is reasonable to give the car owners some compensation.

The key to avoiding concentrated complaints from car owners

In fact, it is not the first time that car companies have closed or rectified vehicle functions due to policy and regulatory factors.With the implementation of data security regulations on October 1 last year, some car companies shut down some functions of vehicles involving violations in the first half of the year, but these companies have significantly better attitudes and solutions in the face of such problems. There is wisdom, rather than a simple and rude "one size fits all", so it does not bring too much negative impact to the brand.For example, some companies clearly inform car owners that they are only temporarily closing the functions that involve violations, and after optimizing and rectifying these functions, they will be resumed when they meet the regulatory requirements; There is no impact on the normal use of the main functions.

It is not difficult to find that in the face of some situations that may cause car owners to complain, the attitude and methods of solving problems are particularly important. Only by putting yourself in the car owner’s shoes and actively helping car owners to solve the problems they will face can they gain the understanding and understanding of car owners. Trust to minimize the negative impact of the business.

Summary: With the rapid development of intelligent networked vehicles, relevant national policies and regulations are also advancing with the times, escorting the healthy development of intelligent networked vehicles.In the future, limited vehicle functions may occur from time to time due to the influence of policies and regulations. How to achieve a balance between policies and regulations, corporate interests and consumer rights is worth pondering for every car company.