Brian Morrison was heading home after a tiring day at work. That Sunday night he got into his new MG ZS EV, a popular Chinese electronic SUV. But soon he began to notice that something was wrong with the vehicle. It was traveling at almost 50 kilometers per hour and could not be stopped in any way, despite the owner's efforts.
Speaking to the BBC, Morrinson said he felt “kidnapped” by the vehicle, which did not respond to his commands. To avoid misfortune, he had no choice but to avoid red lights and roundabouts on the A803 towards Kirkintilloch, near Glasgow.
"I realized something was wrong when I was approaching a roundabout and I went to slow down, but it didn't work," he explains to this medium. The owner claims that, at that moment, he “heard a loud squeak that sounded like brake pads,” but since it was such a new car he assumed “there couldn't be a problem with them.”
Morrinson managed to stop in time thanks to the intervention of the police, which allowed him to slowly crash into his van to stop it. Scottish officers also confirmed that it was "a driver who was unable to stop his electric car."
Everyone agrees that the man was lucky, because the incident occurred after 10 p.m. on Sunday night, when Scottish roads were quiet and not very busy.
According to the BBC, after learning about the incident, the brand assured that it would review what happened. "MG Motor UK has been urgently trying to contact Mr Morrison so that our engineering team can fully inspect his vehicle," a spokesperson explained, adding that "they take this matter very seriously."
The manufacturer has not clarified what could have gone wrong. "When I called 999, they sent the police to help and put some engineers on the line to try to solve the problem, and they asked me if it was a self-driving car," Morrinson says. Despite the specialists' attempts, the vehicle did not respond.
Now, an investigation is being opened to find out what could have happened and why the MG ZS EV did not respond to the driver's commands. Chinese brands like this are increasingly present in European markets. According to a study carried out by the Coches.net portal, the MG ZS was the best-selling vehicle in the Spanish market in August for the first time in history.
