BYD Takes Unlimited Liability for God Eye System
SkimNews Take
BYD's liability guarantee for its autonomous driving system, while unprecedented, implicitly acknowledges the current imperfection of self-driving technology and strategically shifts the financial risk from early adopters to the manufacturer.
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- BYD announced May 28 at its vehicle intelligence strategy event that it will cover all direct economic losses — repairs, third-party property damage, and personal injury — for at-fault crashes while its God Eye urban driving system is active, with no payout cap, no separate insurance product, and no premium penalty for owners.
- Wang Chuanfu, BYD chairman and president, framed the move as taking on Level 3 and Level 4 liability during the Level 2 stage, calling it proof of 'absolute confidence' in the technology and a 'double guarantee' after a similar July 2025 L4 parking pledge pushed that feature's usage from 21% to 93%.
- Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised) places 100% of liability on the driver per its own owner's manual, and a Miami federal jury hit the company with a $243 million judgment over a fatal Autopilot crash — liability Tesla fought in court rather than absorbed voluntarily.
- God Eye B costs 12,000 yuan (~$1,770) as a one-time option available across BYD's entire lineup, versus Tesla's equivalent 'Tesla Assisted Driving' at 64,000 yuan (~$9,400) in China — giving BYD roughly a five-fold price advantage alongside its liability commitment.
- BYD disclosed 3.15 million vehicles with assisted driving on the road, generating up to 200 million kilometers of driving data per day — fleet scale that approaches what was once Tesla's signature autonomy advantage.
- The God Eye guarantee applies only in China, runs for one year from delivery, requires 'compliant' use of the urban function, and is extended to existing owners once they update to God Eye 5.0 over the air; at the same May 28 event BYD also unveiled China's first in-house 4nm smart driving chip.
Why it matters: BYD just put real money behind the strongest credibility claim in the ADAS market — 'we'll pay if we're wrong' — at roughly one-fifth Tesla's China price, backed by 3.15 million vehicles of data. Tesla now faces a direct competitive challenge on both cost and legal accountability for its Level 2 system.
