Software package to cure erratic and over-zealous driver assist will start with Cannon Alpha and Tank 500 sister ships.

TWO high-profile Great Wall Motors products are the first recipients of a software update to sort issues with over-zealous advanced driver monitoring and driver assistance system across all its cars.

The revised programming for make’s largest off-road models, the Tank 500 sports utility and Cannon Alpha utility - which share common drivetrains, platforms and computer hardware - will avail in the first quarter of 2025.

A communication from GWM New Zealand today said the updates won’t be over-the-air. 

Rather, said a spokesperson, “customers will be contacted in the new year for an appointment with a nearby dealership to have these implemented to their cars.” No timeframe for the work was given.

GMW acknowledged it had altered the DMS and ADAS software due to user feedback, notably about over-zealous, occasionally bizarre behaviour

The make acknowledged in September that the technology wasn't wholly sorted for New Zealand and Australia, so engineers from China were rewriting the software.

“As part of GWM's philosophy, we remain committed to ‘improving little by little every day’ and place great value on customer and media feedback,” a statement said.  

“This input helps us identify new opportunities to improve our products.” 

The brand’s driver monitoring system (DMS) has been so poor that, in this writer’s press drive use, the in-cabin camera (on the driver’s side A-pillar) has been covered over, which causes it to shut down.

GWM says the revision will alter the distraction on/off switch and memory so it will no longer default on every cycle, but instead retain previous setting, while the fatigue alert will change from “please take a break” to an alert sound, at a lower volume.

The emergency lane keep (ELK) has been revised to reduce false alerts, and any alerts will represent as a simulated lane flash on graphics. An ‘off’ switch button will add to the short cut screen in the infotainment.

The active cruise control calibration has changed, to “reduce the impact of intelligent corner, reducing the likelihood of car slowing down too much while cornering.” The vehicles’ acceleration while in ACC has increased allowing vehicle to respond quicker and therefore reducing the gap between vehicles.

Specific to Cannon Alpha, the reversing camera display adds a tow hitch guideline.

GWM has also altered the transmission’s Hybrid Normal and Sport modes, to improve overall throttle response to overcome sentiment often expressed that the power and torquer feel less than the make claims.

It is also changing the parameters to address impression of “engine runaway” or “sticky throttle” after full or heavy throttle input. “We have lowered the rev hang and increased regen to improve this.”

In Normal mode, it says, feedback that sometimes a lag is experienced during the transition from EV to hybrid mode has been taken onboard. 

“We have adjusted the hybrid mode engagement logic.”

For Sport mode, the throttle and engine response has been sharpened “while maintaining smooth gear changes.”

GWM senior staff, including Haval Motors Australia managing director Charles Zhao, opened up about the issue at a drive day for potential future products in Queensland on September 2.

Zhao said then that “a lot of the engineering evaluation has been done, benchmarking has been done and the engineers are working on what rollout of that could look like at the moment.”

The engineers were conducting their work just in Australia, because they were confident road conditions there were largely akin to New Zealand’s.

At that point, it seemed the GWM Jolion crossover, Cannon ute, Tank 300, Ora small car and Haval products were also among those models set to be adjusted. Nothing was said about those today.

ADAS includes autonomous emergency braking (AEB), lane keep assist, lane departure warning, blind-spot detection, and other types of crash-prevention technologies. 

These work best when combined with DMS which monitors a driver for signs of tiredness.

The technology is required for consideration of achieving a top safety score from the Australasian New Car Assessment Programme that is New Zealand’s national standard.

Past issues range from the DMS urging drivers to take a break just minutes into starting out a journey and the ADAS alerting phantom transgressions. 

GWM said it could not remove hardware because that would jeopardise ANCAP (or European NCAP) scores. Also, the cars would likely have to be retested, a huge cost.

“A lot of these things might potentially impact the ANCAP scores we have. If a car has five stars, we would not want it to reduce to four. We have to make sure ANCAP is okay with changes we make,” said a spokesman with deep understanding of how the systems interact.

The Tank 500 and Cannon Alpha meantime are due for more revision in 2025, with introduction of versions with plug-in hybrid drivetrains.