By Song Jianan, NUPIAO Correspondent
Recently, a dashcam-style video captured by Guangdong passenger Ms. Chen sparked serious conversations across social media. She booked a Hello carpool ride starting from Xuwen, Zhanjiang, and heading straight to Luohu, Shenzhen—a trip dominated by high-speed highways. For a large chunk of the journey, the car was pushing around 114 km/h. Here’s the kicker: the driver had their vehicle’s advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) engaged for roughly 95% of the trip. In that time, they actually dozed off six times, tilting their head back to catch some zzz’s. Ms. Chen tried waking them up multiple times, but nothing worked. Fearing for her safety, she made the smart call to alert the authorities.
On June 17, Hello Travel stepped into the spotlight to address the situation. According to our tracking of the case, the platform launched an immediate investigation as soon as the report came through. The verdict? The driver’s actions crossed a major safety line, constituting dangerous driving. Hello didn’t hesitate—they permanently banned the account. “We sincerely apologize for this passenger’s harrowing experience,” the company stated. “We’re currently working out compensation details directly with her.” Bottom line: when it comes to rider safety, Hello’s got zero tolerance for shortcuts.
Moving forward, Hello plans to ramp up its driver education programs, tightening up both rewards and penalties for unsafe behavior. They’ve made it crystal clear: passenger safety is non-negotiable. If you ever spot something sketchy on a ride, don’t sit tight—just dial the dedicated safety hotline. The platform promises to jump on it the second they get the call. We at NUPIAO believe this kind of proactive stance is exactly what the mobility sector needs right now.
Now, let’s be real—this isn’t an isolated blunder. Back in May last year, Huawei executive Richard Yu (Yu Chengdong) found himself in a very similar hotspot. Footage showed him taking the wheel of an AITO model equipped with top-tier ADAS, only for his head to dip near the dashboard for nearly twenty seconds while his hands left the steering wheel. Traffic police jumped in almost immediately. While he later explained he was just glancing at a text message, he still voluntarily turned himself in, took the penalty, and lost three points on his license. Notably, he used the moment to publicly push for clearer regulations to fast-track Level 3 autonomous driving. It just goes to show that even tech insiders aren’t immune to ADAS overconfidence.
At the time, Shenzhen traffic police made one thing abundantly clear: whether you’re nodding off or scrolling through your phone behind the wheel, it’s a hard no. Your eyes and hands need to stay where they belong—on the road.
So, what does the official rulebook actually say? China’s national standard on automated driving levels (GB/T40429-2021) draws a hard line. Right now, most consumer vehicles rely on Level 2 combined assistance features. That means the tech might handle lane-keeping or adaptive cruise control, but YOU are still the boss. Hands on the wheel, eyes on the road, ready to snatch the controls at a second’s notice. There is absolutely no legal framework yet that lets a system take full responsibility for driving you down the highway.
Things are slowly shifting on the policy front. In April 2025, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers teamed up with the Chinese Society of Automotive Engineers to drop a new industry initiative. Their pitch? Automakers have a duty to spell out exactly what drivers are responsible for, how the system actually works, proper usage guidelines, and emergency protocols. The goal is simple: make sure users stop confusing driver-assist features with full self-driving. When everyone’s on the same page about these boundaries, we all stay safer on the roads.
But here’s the thing—Hello’s recent stumble isn’t just about carpool safety. Look at their bike-sharing operations, and you’ll see a pattern. Earlier this year, Shanghai’s Transport Commission slapped them with a 100,000 RMB fine for failing to properly register, deploy, or retrieve shared bikes according to regulations. Shockingly, they’d already been hit with an identical fine back in January for the exact same paperwork slip-ups. It’s becoming a familiar refrain.
Beijing wasn’t having it either. Just days after the Shanghai fine, the city’s traffic enforcement bureau opened a formal probe into Hello’s over-deployment of unregistered bikes in the capital. By mid-April, local regulators called the company in for a stern administrative review. Officials laid it out plainly: flooding the streets with unapproved bicycles violates municipal regulations, disrupts the shared mobility ecosystem, and hogs up precious public space. The message was loud and clear: pull back those extra bikes by April 17, or face further action.
Hello’s response was pretty straightforward. They admitted their Beijing branch dropped the ball on fleet rotation and cross-region logistics, leading to sluggish response times. Instead of making excuses, they rolled out a full-scale overhaul: threw extra maintenance crews onto the streets overnight, reorganized parking zones, and tweaked their internal management playbooks. They’ve pledged to keep city officials and the public in the loop as they tighten up their operations. It’s damage control, but at least they’re facing it head-on.
Honestly, the bike fines are just small fish compared to what went down during this year’s 3·15 Consumer Rights Gala. CCTV exposed Hello’s e-bike rental network, revealing a widespread loophole across their franchise stores nationwide. Investigators found that over 5,000 locations were secretly hacking vehicle firmware and overriding speed limiters on the dashboard. Once modified, these “rental” e-bikes could legally clock speeds up to 75 km/h—blowing past national safety limits by a wide margin. Talk about a ticking time bomb.
Panic set in, and Hello moved fast. They issued an apology statement the same night, confirming an immediate internal audit. Their defense? The rental arm operates purely as a matchmaking platform connecting users with third-party franchisees. They insisted they don’t own or run the physical stores themselves, meaning the rogue mods were allegedly driven by independent merchants looking to squeeze out more revenue.
Still, they couldn’t entirely shrug it off. “CCTV’s coverage proves we’ve got gaps in our vetting and oversight processes,” they acknowledged. And honestly? You can’t really argue with that. Platforms may claim they’re just middlemen, but when your name is attached to a faulty product, the buck stops there.
To put this in perspective, Hello isn’t some fly-by-night startup. They started with shared bikes and e-scooters, now operating in over 400 cities with a user base smashing past 750 million. Their four-wheeled division splits between carpool services and aggregated ride-hailing, boasting more than 33 million verified carpool hosts. Plus, they’ve branched into vehicle rentals, battery swapping, local lifestyle services, and even EV sales. When you scale that big, keeping quality control consistent across every touchpoint becomes a massive logistical challenge.
Here’s the takeaway for every mobility platform out there: growth metrics will always look shiny on a balance sheet, but they should never trump human safety. If you want to build trust, you have to lock down the entire chain—from strict driver onboarding and real-time ride monitoring to bulletproof emergency response. Until then, every shortcut taken is just borrowed time. At NUPIAO, we’re watching closely, and we expect the industry to step up before another close call makes headlines.
