BYD made driver-assist free on 21 models — and 'backstabbed' owners who'd just bought in

On 10 February 2025 BYD announced it would fit its 天神之眼 (God's Eye) driver-assist system across almost its whole lineup — 21 models from the 6.98万元 海鸥 up to the 20万级 tier — at unchanged prices, '增配不加价' (more features, same price). CEO Wang Chuanfu: '普及智驾最大的障碍就是高昂的价格，好技术应该人人可享'.

The system shipped in three tiers — 天神之眼A (DiPilot 600 class), B (DiPilot 300) and C (DiPilot 100) — with the C tier a self-developed pure-vision system (三目5R12V, roughly ¥4,000) standard on 10万-20万级 cars. BYD called it '行业首个将高阶智驾带入7万级市场'.

The consequence was a wall of owner backlash, summed up as '背刺' (backstabbing). Owners said BYD had never told them a major upgrade was imminent; 黑猫投诉 logged 600+ driver-assist complaints, and on 车质网 the top ten most-complained-about models were all the newly iterated 智驾 versions — 海豹06 DM-i alone carried 1,291 complaints, 1,277 about the old-vs-new model iteration. Owners bought '没有天神之眼' and '韭菜之眼' tail stickers and demanded a 15% 置换补贴 (trade-in subsidy).

BYD answered that the old cars could not be retrofitted — hardware, architecture and cost, with a single 天神之眼C set running about ¥12,000 — and did not meet the compensation demand. The '增配不加价' strategy, built to win the 全民智驾 race, became a negative-publicity trigger and, as one outlet put it, a potential 绊脚石 for the brand.