A dealer parking lot in Saitama, Japan was the stage for an unusual test drive crash involving a Mazda CX-5 and its two occupants.
Apparently, a prospective buyer was trying out the autonomous braking system (or as Mazda calls it, Smart City Brake Support) that the Japanese crossover now comes with as standard, and it failed, sending the car into a fence, injuring both the driver and dealership representative – the first suffered whiplash and the latter broke his arm.
Mazda quickly responded and acknowledged the incident, putting out a press release with all of the currently available details as well as their “sincere apologies.”
An investigation has been launched, but hopefully it will be of the kind we do hear about again, in the future… Until then, if you have an autonomously-braking CX-5 or other Mazdas equipped with the system, don’t put all your faith in it until the matter is resolved.
Even Top Gear managed to prove it’s not fool-proof, as the brief video excerpt posted below undeniably shows.
By Andrei Nedelea
VIDEO