Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 235 Crazy Ocean Blue SEC
In the Internet age, information spreads extremely quickly. The launch conference of Hailan Automobile has not yet ended, and the on-site driving experience has not yet begun.

The relevant news has gone viral on the Internet, not just text, but also videos and photos.

Of course, this is also inevitably fueled by HaiLan Auto's marketing personnel. Many of these HaiLan Auto's marketing personnel jumped over from Zhiyun Technology to take up the position. Under their influence, they naturally brought over many of Zhiyun Technology's marketing methods.

For example, all kinds of propaganda, from top to bottom, 360° all-round propaganda without blind spots, pulling down and belittling competitors, highlighting the advantages of their own products from different angles, and then holding on to a few exclusive advantages and bragging about them, instilling these advantages into users and even ordinary passers-by, and then extending them to the brand.

And they never foolishly exaggerate in the news articles, but always from other angles, such as various professional media, reviews and even the perspectives of ordinary users!
There is a fact that many people in the industry know, but Zhiyun Technology will never admit. That is, Zhiyun Technology’s water army modestly ranks second in the world, so no company’s water army dares to claim to be number one.

The quantity and professionalism are not on the same level!

Therefore, as reflected in online public opinion, the impression given by Zhiyun Technology is that Zhiyun's products are very high-end, and it never bothers to invite celebrities to promote them, and it rarely promotes itself, giving people the feeling that it is down-to-earth in high-tech and disdains to compare with its competitors.

However, in every corner of the Internet, you can see "users" and self-media promoting Zhiyun products.

Some people in the industry who work in the Internet troll industry have even said in private that Zhiyunke alone supports at least half of the studios in the country!
That is not the boy who gives away money, but the God of Wealth!
However, as a law-abiding listed company, Zhiyun Technology will never get involved personally, let alone contact these water armies personally. Zhiyun usually cooperates with marketing and advertising companies to let them carry out brand building and product promotion.

As for what these advertising and marketing companies do, that is their business and has nothing to do with Zhiyun!
Those who understand these things will naturally understand them, and those who don’t understand will not be told to you.

To be honest, marketing personnel from Zhiyun are very popular in the talent market, and many high-tech companies like to invite people from Zhiyun's marketing department to work for them.

HaiLan Auto is no exception. Its vice president of marketing, Wang Jianpan, was previously a middle-level manager in the marketing department of Zhiyun Technology. He is a senior person who has personally led the promotion and marketing of many major projects.

At the invitation of HaiLan Automobile and under the arrangement of Luo Yinian, Wang Jianpan was half transferred and half switched to work at HaiLan Automobile.

Although I left a global giant like Zhiyun Technology and joined a new startup, my platform has become smaller.

However, working in a global giant like Zhiyun Technology, Wang Jianpan is only a project director. It is difficult for him to even be promoted to executive vice president of the marketing department, let alone directly to the level of group vice president or senior vice president.

As the group vice president of Zhiyun Technology, his status is already very high and he always travels in a business jet.

Therefore, unless in special circumstances, it is actually difficult for ordinary people to see Zhiyun’s vice president-level executives in ordinary civil aviation. Their business trips are directly on Zhiyun Airlines’ private planes or temporarily rented business jets.

In order to meet the travel needs of its senior executives and major customers, Zhiyun Airlines has increased its fleet of private jets to five, and has various route permits to fly in most countries around the world. Sometimes, when the fleet is not enough, it charters business jets from other airlines.

Basically, they will not allow their own group vice presidents, senior vice presidents and other executives to travel by civil aviation... they can't afford to lose face!

Wang Jianpan, vice president of Hailan Automobile, believed that it would be difficult to improve his abilities and competitiveness within the group, so when Luo Yinian said that Hailan Automobile was still lacking an experienced head of the marketing department, he accepted the arrangement without hesitation.

Anyway, it's all my boss's business, so it's the same wherever I work.

And if he does well in Hailan Automobile, he may be transferred back to Zhiyun Group and become the vice president of the group... He also wants to become a top business elite who travels by private jet!
Under the chairmanship of Wang Jianpan, Hailan Automobile Company had already made contacts and prepared ammunition before the press conference!
When the press conference started, the hype also began, and a large amount of ammunition prepared in advance was fired!

Carefully prepared lines of speech, news reports, improvised video footage, and photos were quickly circulated through various self-media, media websites, and even ordinary "netizens'" channels, and then quickly became the top trending search with the help of a large group of people.

“Even good wine needs a bush!” Wang Jianpan expressed his views to a group of subordinates in the conference room of the marketing department, which was temporarily converted into a press conference publicity headquarters: “We must deliver relevant information to every corner of the network in the shortest possible time, so that everyone can see the news of our car release in the first place, no matter where they are!”

"It doesn't need to last too long, just half an hour. One hour is enough to spread the word, arouse heated discussions among the whole nation, and then drive real spontaneous propaganda!"

"The focus of this promotion is autonomous driving. Electric vehicles and batteries can be added as a by-product. The focus should be on autonomous assisted driving!"

"Please note that in any official propaganda, the term 'autonomous driving' or similar words must not appear. The term 'autonomous driving assistance' must be used firmly, including in propaganda on the Internet abroad. The wording must be accurate!"

"Anyone who uses autonomous driving illegally and brings unnecessary legal trouble to the company can submit their resignation to me before the end of get off work today!"

"However, the above is limited to official channels. As for unofficial channels, such as media reports and netizens' discussions, you don't have to worry about so much. Just put the concept of autonomous driving on it and brag about it!"

"Today, I want to make the concept of autonomous driving appear in every corner of the Internet!"

“The term ‘autonomous driving’ must become a hot search on all platforms, including overseas platforms!”

"Just like Mr. Xu said, Hailan has brought about an innovation in the automotive industry, taking people into a new era. Our job is to let people know that the new era has arrived, and the only way to step into the new era first is to buy our Hailan SEC, a super electric sedan!"

"Hurry up, everyone, get moving. Time waits for no one. We must push the relevant hot words to the hot searches on various platforms and pass them to various discussion groups before the press conference officially ends. We must let everyone who is browsing the Internet know that the Hailan car has been launched and the era of autonomous driving has arrived."

----

At the press conference, Xu Shenxue had already introduced the various performance parameters of the car, but there was not much to say about the various parameters of a car. At the same time, the people at the scene did not care much. They were all thinking about the autonomous driving technology that Hailan Automobile had just demonstrated.

What media reporters and ordinary people care about is how magical this thing is.

People in the automotive industry want to know how HaiLan Automotive achieves autonomous driving technology. From the surface, there is not much that can be seen.

Even though Xu Shenxue had introduced the system before, saying that it uses lidar and cameras, these are just ordinary hardware. As for how to turn these sensor data into autonomous driving through algorithms, he didn't mention it at all. He just said in general that it is an intelligent automatic assisted driving system.

In addition to these, many people at the scene were also concerned about the price of this super electric car.

If it's worth millions, everyone should applaud Xu Shenxue and thank him for his exploratory contributions to the progress of the automotive industry.

If the price was 100 or 200,000 yuan, many of the car CEOs present would faint, and the stock prices of countless car manufacturers would plummet.

Ordinary people such as journalists outside of industry insiders, in addition to paying attention to breaking news, are actually also concerned about whether they can afford this super electric car.

And judging by Xu Shenxue’s usual style of making products, it’s probably not cheap!
This is a ruthless person who can sell mass-produced mobile phones for six or seven thousand!
The products he makes are never cheap, and they are not cost-effective.

The starting price for a laptop is 14 yuan. A 15-inch one with slightly better performance will cost more than yuan. A -inch business computer that focuses on high-performance office work will cost nearly yuan with a high configuration.

How much does a tablet made by other Android manufacturers cost? Generally, it costs around one or two thousand yuan, and very few cost more than three thousand yuan.

However, the lowest-end WIFI version of Zhiyun Technology's tablet computer costs more than 3,000 yuan, and the version with communication baseband costs 1,000 yuan more, and the high-end version costs more than 6,000 yuan.

There are also smart watches, which also start at more than 3,000 yuan.

None of the other ecological products are cheap. Even a mobile phone case, the cheapest one costs 199 yuan... They are simply crazy about money.

In addition to the Zhiyun system, the drones we used to make were actually quite expensive. Those that cost a few thousand yuan were just small, low-spec versions with very short battery life, while the better ones cost tens of thousands of yuan.

If Xu Shenxue wants to make products, he won’t make cheap ones!
Well, at this time people directly ignored Weiku Electronics’ mobile phones and a large number of mid- and low-end ecological chain products that took the cost-effective route.

This spring, Wecoo Electronics officially launched an ultra-thin business notebook with a starting price of only 5,000 yuan. It has very good configuration and even comes with an independent graphics card... although I don't know what an independent graphics card is used for in an ultra-thin notebook.

At the same time, at this year's spring conference, WeCool Electronics also released their first thousand-yuan phone, a mini blue phone priced at 999 yuan... directly lowering the price of smartphones to less than one thousand yuan.

Other smartphone manufacturers haven’t reacted yet, and a large number of feature phone and copycat phone manufacturers have died!
The various products of Weiku Electronics are relatively cheap and have a good price-performance ratio, but people don’t regard these things as Xu Shenxue’s products!
Although WeCool Electronics is a company under Xu Shenxue in all aspects, people still forcibly separate WeCool Electronics and Xu Shenxue.

In short, people generally believe that Xu Shenxue is a ruthless person who is good at high-tech, but high-tech is not cheap!

Self-driving electric cars will be no exception!
Xu Shenxue did not let people wait too long and soon announced on the spot the multiple versions and prices of the Hailan SEC, namely the Hailan super electric sedan, which is transliterated as Hailan SEC.

"Our Ocean Blue SEC, regardless of the version, is equipped with driver and passenger airbags as well as rear airbags, tire pressure monitoring, heated seats, 360-degree imaging, reversing radar, anti-lock braking system, body stability control system, traction control system and other basic functions. It also offers four basic body colors: Star Black, Deep Space Gray, Silver Pearl White and Peony Red, as well as a variety of interior colors."

"Similarly, our entire series is equipped with an automatic assisted driving system based on visual recognition, which provides assisted driving functions such as adaptive cruise control, lane keeping, automatic following, automatic anti-collision braking, and hill-start assist!"

"On this basis, we launched the Aquamarine Standard Edition to meet the needs of different users."

"The standard version of the Aquamarine has a pure electric range of 300 kilometers and can accelerate from 0 to 100 kilometers in 4.8 seconds. The domestic price of this version is 450,000 yuan."

"The performance version of the Aquamarine has a pure electric range of 380 kilometers and can accelerate from 0 to 100 kilometers in 4.2 seconds. The price of this version is 500,000 yuan."

"The luxury version of the Aquamarine has a pure electric range of 450 kilometers and can accelerate from 0 to 100 kilometers in 3.5 seconds. The price of this version is 550,000 yuan."

In order to increase sales, Hailan Automobile did not set the bare car price too high. However, this bare car price does not even include the full version of assisted driving. If you want complete assisted driving, you have to pay extra!

So I just listened to Xu Shenxue continue: "We provide an additional automatic assisted driving enhancement option package, which provides an 'advanced automatic assisted driving solution' based on laser radar and high-definition cameras, high-performance chips and research and development. This is the advanced automatic assisted driving solution you just saw. The price of this option package is 100,000 yuan."

"At the same time, we also provide additional starry sky color, pink and purple color and other additional customized colors, customized interior color and other personalized options, including super enhanced wheels, full car speakers, etc."

"You can choose the configuration on our official website or our direct flagship stores in various cities." "We will officially accept pre-orders after the press conference, and subsequent production and car delivery will be queued according to the pre-orders!"

After Xu Shenxue introduced the various versions and prices of the HaiLan SEC, a number of domestic manufacturers said that it had nothing to do with them... This thing is priced too high and has nothing to do with them for the time being.

Today's domestic automobile manufacturers are all producing low-end cars. Not to mention a starting price of 400,000 or 500,000 yuan, after adding optional features, the car would probably be a luxury car worth 600,000 or 700,000 yuan. Even if you want to break through the 200,000 yuan mark, it is still very difficult.

Although a number of foreign automobile manufacturers and joint venture manufacturers that produce mid- and low-end models have some concerns, they can also breathe a sigh of relief.

Their main models are mid-range models priced between tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands. Although they have high-end models, they are not the main sales force.

However, people from several foreign luxury car brands had very bad expressions, especially those from BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi... The pricing of Aqualung can be said to be in direct competition with them.

In addition, some luxury brands, such as Porsche, also felt the threat. The positioning of Aquamarine directly threatened their entry-level mass-market models.

Moreover, with the super-strong autonomous driving performance that Aqualung has demonstrated before, it is likely to create a stir in the high-end luxury market.

The capacity of the high-end market is limited. After Aqualung entered the market, the market share that these traditional high-end brand car manufacturers can get will naturally be reduced.

Many people also recalled the scene when Fruit and Zhiyun were making waves in the high-end mobile phone market, and finally beat all the high-end mobile phones of traditional mobile phone manufacturers to death on the beach.

The current situation is highly similar!
China has Zhiyun, and the United States has Tesla. News from all sides also indicates that Tesla is about to release their first mass-produced electric car.

The automobile market, at least the high-end automobile market, is likely to face a huge shock.

Where should these high-end car brands go in the face of this impact?
no one knows!

After the press conference officially ended, a group of media and industry insiders excitedly went to the test site outside the building and took turns getting in the car to experience the Aquamarine.

Hailan Automobile has specially arranged more than ten small-scale mass-produced vehicles in advance for experience. These experience vehicles are naturally all top-of-the-line versions with laser radars, which are enough for the experiencers to enjoy the sci-fi experience.

A foreign media member had an assistant start filming the moment he got on the bus, and then continued to give various explanations and introductions. The whole process was extremely amazing.

For example, they discovered that the car had no door handles... Xu Shenxue didn't even give a special introduction to this in the previous stage press conference.

But when he walked forward with the keyless automatic induction key and reached for the hidden door handle, the door handle popped out automatically, and with a slight pull, the door opened.

After getting in, the co-pilot's safety officer, who is also the commentator, explained: "Our car does not require a key. You just need to wear the automatic sensing key to get in the car, and then you can start it with a button. Or you can use a cooler way to start it directly with voice after recording your voiceprint!"

Under the guidance of the security guard, the foreign reporter first recorded his voiceprint, then looked at the camera lens held by the cameraman in the back row and said, "Now I want to try this voice activation!"

Then, he said, "Xiao Hai, start the car!"

Then, a small cartoon head appeared on the dashboard display, twisting its body and replying electronically: "Xiao Hai is starting the system."

About two or three seconds later, the lights in the car lit up and a lot of data indicators appeared on the dashboard.

At the same time, an electronic voice came: "The vehicle has started, and all systems have completed self-checks. Everything is normal!"

This voice activation seems very sci-fi, but it is not that sci-fi. This thing is an electric car, not a gasoline car. Strictly speaking, it only needs electricity to work.

If the power is on, in fact, when the user uses the induction key to open the car door, most of the electronic systems in the car are already turned on.

The reason why users are given the process of pressing a button to start the car is purely to avoid users making mistakes when getting in the car, and to give users a sense of ritual.

If there is no power... users can't even summon the voice assistant!

As for voice activation, it is a pure product of prestige, which is purely to meet the user's need to show off and add some science fiction elements to it.

The term "system self-check" may sound very grand at first, but it is actually not that mysterious. It is just a word deliberately added by the R&D staff out of bad taste.

Because if there is a fault, the car won't start... The car has already started, and you say that the system self-check is complete and there is no fault, which is pure nonsense.

No, it is actually somewhat useful. For example, if there is any abnormality in the tire pressure monitoring data, it will still remind the user... It’s just that traditional gasoline vehicles use a yellow light on the dashboard to remind the user, while the Aquamarine reminds the user through voice when starting.

But with this, the sense of science fiction comes out!

The yellow fault light on the dashboard doesn’t sound as advanced as the electronic voice!
After hearing this, the foreign reporter exclaimed: "Look, what I heard and saw, it doesn't feel like driving a car, but like driving a spaceship from the future. This is amazing!"

Then the foreign reporters first explored many small functions, which were insignificant and not worth much, but somewhat novel functions... Hailan Automobile is Xu Shenxue's company, and there are many people from Zhiyun Technology in its management and technical teams. Therefore, it likes to use these flashy things when designing products.

It looks very high-end at first glance, but it is actually useless in daily life.

Just like voice start, you just press a button, the car starts quietly, and then you drive away. If you choose voice start, the system will start and you have to speak a few words...

But that's how high-tech is!
The foreign reporters first took the car for a drive and naturally gave it all kinds of praise, saying it was very quiet, very comfortable, and there was no sense of bumps.

What follows next is the highlight. Under the guidance of the safety officer, the foreign reporter turned on the advanced automatic assisted driving function. The vehicle began to move forward under the control of the system. The steering wheel moved automatically throughout the process, and it even avoided simulated obstacles parked on the roadside and met oncoming vehicles.

This made the foreign reporter feel it for himself and shouted to the camera frantically: "Did you see it? I saw it, my God, I didn't do anything the whole time, it was driving all by itself, it's unbelievable, I feel like I've arrived in the future."

“This is crazy!”

"Now I finally understand why Xu Shenxue said he redefined the car. This isn't really a car, it's a magical machine from the future!"

Similar scenes also appeared in other experience vehicles. Everyone who experienced the Aquamarine was inevitably shocked.

It didn’t take long before the Hailan Automobile SEC, a super electric sedan and its advanced automatic assisted driving system became popular on the global Internet!

The test drive experience videos of many media reporters have made headlines on major video websites!

However, in order to gain traffic, most media chose to ignore the fact that HaiLan Technology has repeatedly emphasized that "automatic assisted driving" is not mentioned in any official statement, and the term "autonomous driving" is used in all reports.

The word "auxiliary" has been directly ignored or deliberately omitted by countless media.

So much so that when countless people saw the above news and the test drive video, they immediately believed that HaiLan Technology had developed a true self-driving car!

In fact, this system is really an assisted driving system, which is at best L2++, and is still a long way from L4 level autonomous driving.

In actual use, it is very unreliable to rely solely on this system for autonomous driving.

It’s just that... HaiLan Automobile doesn’t care what the media says. After all, they can’t control what the media says. HaiLan Automobile just sticks to its own propaganda line and will never say that it is an autonomous driving car.

At the same time, when the user turns on automatic assisted driving, the user will be reminded that the system cannot achieve automatic driving and requires the user to keep observing and take over the car at any time. At the same time, Hailan Automobile does not assume any responsibility for any accidents under the use of automatic assisted driving.

To this end, HaiLan Technology specifically asked the legal team of Zhiyun Technology to prepare a detailed and complex legal exemption agreement for its own automatic assisted driving function, which is slightly different according to the laws of each country to ensure 100% exemption in all countries where the product is listed.

The disclaimer for the American version of the automatic assisted driving function is more than a hundred pages long, thicker than a book.

At the same time, after the user turns on the advanced automatic assisted driving function, the user will be reminded to provide feedback at intervals.

If the user still does not respond for a long time after being reminded, the system will issue a harsh noise alarm to prevent the driver from falling asleep.

It’s true, if the driver is on a highway where the road conditions are relatively good, he can actually fall asleep...but once he falls asleep, it depends on his luck whether he can wake up.

The driver may not give up his life, but HaiLan Automobile cannot give up its brand, so various restrictions will be imposed.

However...reporters from major media outlets ignored HaiLan Auto's official statements and restrictions, and promoted autonomous driving extensively.

Amidst extensive publicity, HaiLan Automobile also officially launched the pre-order channel on its official website at 12 o'clock in the evening of the same day after the press conference.

Many are watching to see how many pre-orders there are!

This is the first self-driving car in human history, and it has great historical significance. Although it is considered a high-end model in terms of price, a price of around 500,000 is still a normal price.

Many people are watching to see whether this loudly blown sea-blue SEC can set off a real sales frenzy!
(End of this chapter)