BYD created an eye under the car to avoid a silent tragedy

BYD has filed a patent application in China for a security system that uses cameras and artificial intelligence to detect people or animals under the vehicle before it leaves the parking space. The document was published on June 12 by China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), under the number CN122200729A.

The technology works by comparing images. With the car turned off, the system captures a record of the underbody region and stores it as a reference. Before the vehicle starts moving again, new images are taken in real time and compared with this base portrait to point out any change in the environment.

Instead of continuously analyzing the entire area under the automobile, the software focuses only on the points that differ from the original image. Fixed components such as suspension parts, the battery case, aerodynamic panels and structural elements remain unchanged between readings, which reduces processing and directs computational effort only to new objects or movements.

Once the alteration is identified, the system extracts information from the region and evaluates whether there is a living organism there, classifying whether the change corresponds to a person, an animal, or just factors from the environment itself. This two-step architecture, according to the document, increases detection accuracy and decreases false alarms caused by shadows, dirt, debris and lighting variations, common conditions in the underside of vehicles.

The proposal is to increase safety in situations of low visibility, reducing the risk of accidents with children, pets or other obstacles that may be under the car.

Registration is not an isolated movement. BYD recently released another patent aimed at identifying forgotten occupants inside the vehicle, using radar signal analysis. Together, the two systems cover opposite sides of the car: one watches over who stayed in the cabin and the other who is under the body, and reinforce the brand’s bet on an ecosystem of sensors that combines computer vision, radar and intelligent monitoring.

The strategy also appears on other fronts. In May, the automaker filed a patent for a solid-state battery with sulfides, and in June it opened its first 1,500 kW ultra-fast charging station in Germany, part of a 3,000-point plan in Europe.

Despite the registration, the technology has not yet reached production models. The publication of a patent application does not mean commercial application, and BYD did not reveal in which cars or when the feature could debut.