Chinese Tourist Hails BYD Taxi in Azerbaijan, Wakes Car System with Mandarin

In early August, a passenger in Azerbaijan hailed a ride-hailing vehicle and was picked up by a BYD new energy car. After confirmation from the driver, the passenger spoke the Chinese phrase “Nǐ hǎo, Xiǎo Dí” (“Hello, Xiao Di”) inside the car, successfully activating the vehicle’s infotainment system, which responded in English with “Hello.” The user then continued in Chinese, saying, “It’s a bit hot in here,” and the system recognized the command and replied in Chinese: “No problem—I’ve increased the fan speed for you.” The rearview mirror captured the foreign driver’s look of astonishment during this interaction. According to publicly available data, BYD’s overseas sales reached 179,841 units in July, a year-on-year increase of 124.3%, accounting for more than 40% of its total monthly sales. As of the end of July 2026, BYD’s cumulative overseas sales of passenger cars and pickups had reached 969,000 units. Although some BYD vehicles exported to markets like Azerbaijan have undergone localization adaptations, they still retain their Chinese voice assistant system. He Zhiqi, Executive Vice President of BYD Co., Ltd., previously noted that some overseas users have proactively learned Chinese to interact with their vehicle’s voice system due to the lack of support for local languages.