Chinese new energy vehicle (electric car) brand Lynk&Co’s Z20 model was recently reported to have crashed due to a malfunction in the voice control system during high-speed night driving. The voice command “turn off reading light” was mistakenly interpreted as turning off all lights, causing the vehicle to instantly lose visibility and collide with the guardrail.
One Lynk&Co car owner posted a video on social media on February 25, stating that after instructing the voice assistant to “turn off all reading lights,” the system incorrectly turned off the headlights. Despite repeated urgent calls to the system, it failed to respond, leading to the vehicle crashing into the barrier.
Internet users pointed out that the involved model, while in drive mode D, allowed voice command to turn off all lights, indicating a significant design flaw in the car’s system. Comments such as “The reason I dare not buy domestic cars is that they treat us like guinea pigs,” and “Chinese lives are not valued, they’re being used as guinea pigs,” reflected the concerns raised by the incident.
This accident has raised concerns among car owners of various brands under Geely Group. On social media, owners of Geely’s Jihoo and Galaxy brands have begun testing whether their vehicles have the same flaw.
A video shared by a netizen showed that the same model of the vehicle involved in the incident could indeed be voice-commanded to turn off headlights while driving, highlighting a dangerous bug that is both primitive and unsafe. In comparison, Tesla can only be voice-commanded to turn off headlights when parked, not while driving.
According to a report by Chinese media outlet “Observer Net,” a Jihoo car owner stated that even in driving mode, issuing the command to “turn off all lights” to the car’s system would result in the headlights being turned off. However, a Galaxy car owner found that the same command did not work to turn off the headlights.
In response to the incident of the Lynk&Co Z20 vehicle mistakenly turning off headlights due to voice control while driving, Lynk&Co’s Vice President Mu Jun issued a public apology on February 26 (Thursday) and stated that the optimization has been completed. An OTA cloud update permanently disables the voice-controlled headlight function while driving, making manual operation the only option.
As of now, Geely Group and Jihoo have not issued any comments on the matter.
Lynk&Co was founded in 2016 by Geely Group and Volvo Cars, with its headquarters in Hangzhou, China. Registered as Lynk&Co Automotive Technology Co., Ltd. (a Chinese enterprise), its main production bases are in China (such as the Ningbo Yuyao Factory), with the primary sales market also in China. Initially, Volvo held a minority stake in Lynk&Co as a Sino-foreign joint venture, but the controlling interest has always been in the hands of Geely in China.
By the end of 2024 into early 2025, Volvo completely exited, with Geely’s high-end new energy brand Jihoo holding 51% of Lynk&Co’s shares. Currently, Lynk&Co is managed by Jihoo Technology Group but remains an upscale brand within the Geely system in China.