BYD app breakdown leaves drivers out in the cold

As technology heats up, it may also leave you out in the cold.

Several BYD owners complained on Chinese social media that they had to stand in the cold wind for about half an hour on Thursday morning as they couldn't open the door of their cars using the company's app.

According to posts on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of X, many owners of BYD's Dynasty and Ocean models experienced a sudden app service breakdown, causing severe inconvenience during rush hour. The problems included failure in remote unlocking, voice activation, and Internet connection.

As it's so convenient to use the app, many drivers no longer carry their physical keys with them.

"It was so embarrassing since I usually do not carry the mechanical key with me, I had to wait till the app turned normal," wrote one owner on Weibo.

Some said they had to walk to the office and some turned to taxis to avoid being late.

A BYD customer service representative said there had been a breakdown in service but it had been quickly sorted. It was blamed on a temporary glitch in the cloud service system, according to news portal ThePaper.cn.

Some car owners speculated that the app failure may have been caused by its server upgrade. However, BYD has not responded to this yet.

BYD is a major player in the new-energy vehicle industry, with annual sales of over 4.27 million units last year, a 41.26 percent rise year on year. Among them, about 407,700 were sold overseas, a 71 percent increase from the year before.

BYD released the "BYD Auto" app on April 2, 2021, an integrated and upgraded version of the BYD Cloud Service app, which added remote car control, car service, and other functions compared to the original.

This app supports a vehicle authorization function. With mobile phone numbers authorized by car owners, they can use the vehicles directly by logging into the BYD Auto app, according to official information.