Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 378: Autonomous Driving Disguised as Assisted Driving
Ever since Zhiyun Group took the lead in installing a voice assistant based on artificial intelligence technology on the S11 mobile phone in the summer of 11, it has triggered a wave of research and development of artificial intelligence technology.

Five and a half years have passed since then.

However, Zhiyun Group's artificial intelligence technology is not very user-friendly in application... The only thing that ordinary people have more contact with is the voice assistant, but this voice assistant is just a human-computer interaction model in the conventional sense, and its scope of application is limited.

In the past few years, Zhiyun Group has mainly used the research and development and application of artificial intelligence technology in the industrial, national defense and scientific research fields.

In the civilian field, Zhiyun Group is mainly engaged in autonomous driving and robotics projects, and also has some software applications, such as voice assistants.

However, the technology application of autonomous driving is Hailan Automobile, and the robotics technology is YunRobot, and both of these products are relatively expensive and unaffordable for most people.

With the further development of artificial intelligence technology, Zhiyun Group has continued to make breakthroughs in the research and development of core artificial intelligence algorithms. At the same time, with the advancement of semiconductor process technology, the cost of computing power is becoming lower and lower, and the cost of training data models continues to decline.

Xu Shenxue believes that the time is ripe for large-scale promotion and popularization of artificial intelligence technology.

In addition to subsequently launching generative AI to the market and open-sourcing several AI models, it will stimulate and guide other high-tech companies to enter the AI ​​field and facilitate the sale of AI chips.

Xu Shenxue is also planning to accelerate the promotion and application of artificial intelligence civilian hardware products within Zhiyun Group.

We are already working on robots. The first-generation general-purpose robot YunRobot has achieved initial success and is expected to achieve annual global sales of 400,000 units in the first full year of sales, with bipedal models accounting for more than 60% of sales.

To this end, Zhiyun Group is working closely with Weiku Industrial to expand the production line of artificial intelligence robots.

Gu Zhiming, who is in charge of supply chain business, said: "We reached a new cooperation agreement with Vicoo last year. According to the agreement, Vicoo will build two new robot production lines in the Shenzhen base."

"The second production line will be put into production in April, mainly producing existing high-end models. Together, the two production lines will be enough to expand our high-end robot production capacity to 500,000 units per year!"

"The third production line will be put into production this fall. This production line is expected to be used to produce mid-range robot models for R&D centers, with a designed production capacity of 300,000 units per year."

"At the same time, we have also reached a new strategic cooperation agreement with BYD. BYD will also prepare to invest in the construction of a new production line. The new production line is expected to be put into production in the spring of next year. The expected production capacity is 400,000 units, which will also be used for the production of mid-range robots!"

"Our initial plan is to increase the production capacity of our robots to 1.2 million units per year in the next year, with the production capacity of high-end models reaching 500,000 units and the production capacity of mid-range models reaching 700,000 units!"

"This production capacity is based on the research and development plan and sales plan of the robot project team!"

At this time, Tang Quanyong, who has been promoted to vice president of the group and general manager of Zhiyun Robotics Co., Ltd., said: "We are going to officially release a simplified version of the general robot model this winter. The price of this robot will be further reduced to about 150,000 yuan, further expanding the market capacity and making it affordable for more people!"

"At the same time, at this year's winter conference, we will also release the second-generation high-end robot models, further enhancing their performance and even equipping them with 4-nanometer EYQ34 chips, ZY35 chips, and ZY chips. The price will remain at the two levels of and . At the same time, we will reduce the price of the existing first-generation robots to between and ."

"According to our calculations and those of our colleagues in the marketing department, by releasing new flagship models to maintain technological advancement, brand value and discussion heat, while reducing the price of previous-generation products and launching simplified mid-range models, this will stimulate market heat and expand market capacity through price cuts. Next year, our robot sales are likely to double to more than one million units!"

“Based on this forecast, we have expanded our production capacity!”

"However, due to the price cuts and huge production line investments, our robot product revenue will grow significantly this year and next year, but the hardware gross profit will remain at a relatively low level. At the same time, R&D investment will further increase, and the project will continue to lose money!"

Tang Quanyong looked at Xu Shenxue, and then said: "We estimate that the project will suffer a huge loss of about 3 billion US dollars this year, most of which will be caused by the construction of the production line and the research and development costs of the robot."

Xu Shenxue said: "When opening up the market, we don't need to consider the gains and losses of the moment. We should first improve the technology and then develop the market."

"As long as the production and sales volume increases, and we can use more production capacity to reduce the average R&D and manufacturing costs, things will be easier in the future!"

"We can afford the current $3 billion loss!"

In fact, the robot project has already achieved great success. If it were replaced by some companies with insufficient funds, they might continue to sell at high prices, selling a robot for three or four hundred thousand yuan, or even launch higher-end models to raise the average price and gross profit margin.

After all, this is an industry without any competitors...it's up to them to decide how much they want to sell the robots for.

As long as they are willing, they can immediately turn losses into profits, and even achieve annual profits of billions of dollars.

However, this approach is not advisable in the eyes of Zhiyun Group’s management!
Because Zhiyun Group doesn’t just want a few billion dollars in profit, they want at least tens of billions or even hundreds of billions of dollars in profit... They are very ambitious.

Therefore, Zhiyun Group would rather suffer some losses now and continue to lower the price, then expand the market capacity, strive to reduce the price of mainstream mid-range robots to about 100,000 yuan, and then use high-end, mid-range and low-end products to cover the price range of 50,000 to 60,000 to 300,000 or 400,000 yuan.

Make sure that rich people can buy expensive high-end products, but also allow ordinary people to buy cheap and affordable products.

Imagine that Zhiyun's robots reduce the price of mainstream mid-range robots to around RMB 100,000... How many people around the world can afford them? What will be the annual sales volume?
According to the market department's estimates, this is a market with a sales volume of at least 20 million units. In terms of revenue, the hardware revenue can reach at least 200 billion US dollars.

And with such huge production and sales volumes, R&D costs and production line investment costs will be compressed to a very extreme level, thereby greatly increasing profits. It is possible to make two to three hundred billion US dollars a year just by selling hardware.

At the same time, with sales of 20 million units, the accumulated stock of robots on the market may reach hundreds of millions in a few years... Zhiyun Robot adopts a dual payment model for hardware and functions. If users pay for the robot to activate additional advanced modes, they will need to pay an additional fee of at least one or two hundred yuan, or up to several thousand yuan per month, depending on the different functions.

This will bring in huge software revenues... Based on the average software revenue of a robot being 300 yuan per month, that would be 3,600 yuan per year.

One hundred million robots would amount to 360 billion, which translates to more than 50 billion U.S. dollars... and this 50 billion U.S. dollars in revenue would not bring in any additional cost expenditures... because the training and development costs for advanced models are actually fixed. If it costs one billion U.S. dollars to develop an advanced model for one robot, then developing an advanced model for 10,000, 10 million, or even 100 million robots would also only cost one billion U.S. dollars.

The cost is fixed, so naturally the more you sell, the more money you make!
The most important thing is that this more than 50 billion US dollars in revenue from paid functions is generated every year...it's like making money by lying in a mountain of gold!
In order to maintain its attractiveness and attract more users to subscribe, Zhiyun Robotics Co., Ltd. also needs to continue to improve, develop better algorithms, train better models, and pay the necessary R&D costs.

But no matter what, this business is extra profit, and the gross profit margin will be very high!

This brings overall high profits to the robotics business!
Compared to selling hundreds of thousands of units a year and making billions of dollars in profit.

Zhiyun Group prefers to sell 10 to 20 million units each year and make tens of billions of dollars in profits every year.

The current price reduction does not mean that Zhiyun Group has given up its operating principle of high gross profit. On the contrary, it is only a temporary sacrifice made by Zhiyun Group for the sake of high gross profit in the future.

It belongs to the cost investment of early market development and technology research and development.

Therefore, Xu Shenxue does not care about the continued losses of this year's robotics project.

As I said, it is a mere 3 billion US dollars, it is an affordable loss… Anyway, several billion have already been invested before, and now another 3 billion is added. Even if there is continued loss next year, Zhiyun Group can withstand it and can definitely hold on until large-scale expansion and then a good harvest.

Of course, only a multinational giant like Zhiyun Group, which is not short of money and has strong technology, can do this...

The reason why Zhiyun Group dared to do this was that it had both money and technology...but having money is not important. An initial investment of one or two hundred billion US dollars or even more may seem like a lot, but it is nothing to some multinational giants, and they can just take it out.

The problem is that they are not very confident that they can reduce costs quickly.

Reducing the cost of robots may seem simple, but it is actually very difficult. It is not a matter of simply increasing production.

The expansion of production capacity is accompanied by the application of a large number of new technologies.

Otherwise, blindly expanding production capacity will result in a loss on every unit sold. The more units sold, the greater the loss, and eventually the entire enterprise will be killed.

But Zhiyun Group is sure of this!
This is not only true in the field of robotics, but also in the field of smart cars!
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Hailan Automobile, which uses artificial intelligence technology, has gradually developed from a pure high-end car in the beginning to a mid-range sedan priced at more than 300,000 yuan. Hailan Automobile is also preparing to continue to lower the price, striving to reduce the price of smart electric vehicles to around 200,000 yuan in the near future, further expanding the market capacity and increasing production and sales.

And this also requires technical support!
However, in the field of smart electric vehicles, Zhiyun Group is only limited to being a smart driving solution provider and does not make cars itself.

Zhiyun Group’s current partner in the automotive field is HaiLian Automobile.

Although both companies are Xu Shenxue's industries, there are still significant differences between them. Zhiyun Group is a listed company with many shareholders. It is not Xu Shenxue's sole proprietorship, so the interests of other shareholders need to be considered in many matters.

On the HaiLan Auto side, in order to continue to monopolize Zhiyun Group's technology in the field of autonomous driving, the management is ready to introduce Zhiyun Group as a strategic investor.

Otherwise, when Zhiyun Group grants its autonomous driving technology to other manufacturers for broader cooperation, HaiLian Automobile will have several major competitors.

Xu Shenxue personally supports this. After all, they are all his companies, so it is normal for them to invest in each other.

In mid-January, senior executives from Zhiyun Group and Hailan Automobile gathered together, and the two sides held negotiations that lasted for several days.

Xu Shenxue did not participate in the negotiation process... After all, both companies were his own companies, but each company had its own interest groups, so it was not easy for Xu Shenxue to force the distribution of interests.

No matter how the benefits are distributed, the management of both sides can negotiate it themselves, as long as they can reach a cooperation in the end.

After three days of continuous negotiations, the two parties signed a strategic investment agreement.

The autonomous driving team of the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute under Zhiyun Group was separated into an independent subsidiary, and then this subsidiary was merged with Hailan Automobile... In this way, Hailan Automobile completely swallowed up the autonomous driving team in Zhiyun Group, including a series of various autonomous driving patented technologies that came with it.

At the same time, according to the agreement, Hailan Automobile and Zhiyun Group will continue to carry out all-round and in-depth cooperation in chip development, artificial intelligence development, etc., including jointly developing the EYQ series computing chips and providing the manufacturing technology of the chip. At the same time, Hailan Automobile obtains the exclusive rights to this series of chips in the field of civilian automobiles.

At the same time, Zhiyun Group will inject US$5 billion in cash into Hailan Auto to support various large-scale projects such as Hailan Auto's technology research and development, capacity expansion, construction of global sales and after-sales service channels, etc.

While the two parties are cooperating deeply, Zhiyun Group's share in HaiLan Automobile has also increased from 5% to 30%.

For Zhiyun Group, it has found a good husband for its own autonomous driving technology, and then it can make money without doing anything.

As for Hailan Automobile, it completely swallowed up the "artificial intelligence autonomous driving technology" of Zhiyun Group, avoiding the possibility of other automobile manufacturers obtaining the same technology.

This kind of thing could really happen...

Although these two companies are both Xu Shenxue's industries, Xu Shenxue has also done a lot of work in the past to license his own technology on a large scale for the development of the entire industrial chain.

After all, Xu Shenxue’s interests are often not highly consistent with the interests of the subsidiary’s management and shareholders.

Xu Shenxue is involved in the industrial chain, and he also has a bit of idealism and social responsibility!

Therefore, even though Xu Shenxue had a HaiLan Automobile Company under his control, he did not give up supporting other domestic automobile manufacturers.

For example, in the field of power batteries, he participated in the investment and supported Ningdai Battery, and even opened up a lot of battery patent technologies to BYD Battery.

Nowadays, these two power battery manufacturers are developing very well. BYD batteries are used for their own use and supplied to various new energy vehicles under BYD, while Ningdai batteries are supplied to other domestic and even international manufacturers.

At the same time, in the upstream lithium mining and rare metal industries needed for power batteries, Xu Shenxue basically did not set limits on the domestic power battery industry. He even continued to expand production capacity and obtain more reserves to further lower the prices of lithium and many other rare metals... thereby lowering the price of power batteries and reducing the overall cost of electric vehicles.

In the field of intelligent driving, although Xu Shenxue did not open the EYQ computing platform, he did open the EYEQ series platform of his subsidiary Mobileye. This platform not only provides chips, but also sensors and core algorithms.

There is also the PX computing power platform under its subsidiary NVIDIA.

The two computing platforms provide intelligent driving solutions for automobile manufacturers.

If one day, Xu Shenxue believes that it is necessary to license the EYQ chip-based autonomous driving technology to other countries in order to support the overall development of domestic smart electric vehicles... he will really license the EYQ chip-based autonomous driving technology in Zhiyun Group to other domestic automobile manufacturers.

Xu Shenxue has done this kind of thing many times, especially in the consumer electronics and semiconductor industries.

Many of the emerging high-tech companies in the current consumer electronics industry chain and the semiconductor industry chain have developed in this way: In order to support the development of the entire industry chain, Xu Shenxue selected several manufacturers for technology licensing and even invested money, which eventually gave birth to several supply chain companies with good technology.

The reason why several newly emerging domestic semiconductor manufacturers are able to possess the 28-nanometer process technology is basically because they were supported by Xu Shenxue...and this situation is obviously not conducive to Zhiyun Microelectronics, because after these newly emerging domestic semiconductor manufacturers develop the 28-nanometer process, they will snatch Zhiyun Microelectronics' foundry orders.

The management team of HaiLan Automobile has seen all these things...The boss never cares about the gains and losses of one or two subsidiaries, but the industrial chain.

This means that if Xu Shenxue deems it necessary, Hailan Automobile may also be sacrificed!
Of course, the management of Shanghai Blue Automobile Company will not say anything openly, let alone dare to say anything, so they simply took a drastic measure: by introducing a strategic merger, they directly took Zhiyun Group's EYQ platform as the core automotive autonomous driving technology and completely brought it home, changing its name from Zhiyun to Hailan.

This is to prevent Xu Shenxue from having a sudden impulse to authorize this platform in the future, and also to dispel other automobile manufacturers' inappropriate ideas.

In recent years, many automobile manufacturers have been looking for feasible ways to obtain authorization for the corresponding EYQ platform's autonomous driving technology. This is not referring to foreign automobile manufacturers, but domestic automobile manufacturers.

However, due to the contract between HaiLan Automobile and Zhiyun Group, HaiLan Automobile had an exclusive period of several years for this technology, so these automobile manufacturers were unable to achieve their wish.

Now that the exclusive period is about to end, HaiLan Automobile’s senior management is trying to avoid any unexpected events in the future.

Therefore, it simply entered into a more in-depth and comprehensive partnership with Zhiyun Group, swallowing up Zhiyun Group's autonomous driving business department directly through a strategic merger, and at the same time making Zhiyun Group an important shareholder of its own.

This model is somewhat similar to the relationship between Zhiyun Group and Wecoo Electronics. Zhiyun Group also owns 30% of Wecoo Electronics' shares.

Therefore, Weiku Electronics can openly use all the resources of Zhiyun Group, especially various new technologies, which also makes other shareholders of Zhiyun Group and even some investors in the secondary market speechless. Now, Hailan Automobile has also embarked on this path.

Xu Shenxue didn't have any major feelings about this. After all, it was his own business. Since the management under him thought it was better this way, then just do it. He had no objection.

As for the development of smart electric vehicles by other domestic automobile manufacturers, Xu Shenxue is actually very confident. Even without the support of Zhiyun Group's autonomous driving technology, they can still develop.

They did a very good job in the original time and space.

What's more, although Zhiyun Group sold the EYQ autonomous driving platform directly to Hailan Automobile, Zhiyun Group also has the EYEQ assisted driving platform and the PX chip platform that provides higher computing power. With these two platforms, it is not a big problem for domestic companies to develop intelligent driving on their own.

Furthermore, the automotive industry still needs a certain degree of diversity... If Zhiyun Group directly sells its own autonomous driving technology everywhere, then domestic smart electric vehicles will end up being highly similar, with only some differences in hardware at most.

But this is not what Xu Shenxue wants to see.

The development of an industry requires the participation of a large number of enterprises and practitioners, so that they can promote each other and develop better things, while also giving consumers more choices.

Such a competitive environment with a hundred flowers blooming can also bring better and more healthy competition stimulation to Xu Shenxue's company.

At the same time, Xu Shenxue can also benefit from the development of the entire industry... Xu Shenxue not only buys cars, he also sells computing chips, power batteries and even lithium metals and other rare metals.

Then we also sell lidar, various automotive-grade chips, sensors, etc.

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After Zhiyun Group and HaiLan Auto reached a strategic cooperation, Xu Shenxue also met with HaiLan Auto's management team including Bao Yongyan.

Bao Yongyan explained to Xu Shenxue the future strategic development direction of Hailan Automobile.

"In the next few years, we will continue to deepen the research and development and market development of mid-sized sedans and SUVs, focusing on the market with a price range of 200,000 to 400,000 yuan!"

"For the Hailan SLMC mid-size sedan, we will continue to cultivate the market price range of 300,000 to 400,000 yuan. This year, as the market continues to boom and the cost of power batteries continues to drop, we will launch a new entry-level Hailan SLMC and lower the price to 300,000 yuan!"

"At the same time, we are also developing our first mid-size SUV based on the Hailan SLMC platform, with a starting price of RMB 350,000. We will also further reduce the price to RMB 300,000 by launching a new entry-level version in the future."

"So, in the price range of 300,000 to 400,000 yuan, we have sedans and SUVs to cover more potential consumers and expand sales!"

"At the same time, we are actively promoting the design and development of a new generation of low-cost smart electric vehicle architecture. If all goes well, we hope to launch this new platform to the market next year. The first model of this platform will be a mid-size sedan with a scheduled price of around 250,000 yuan."

“This is our attempt to enter the 200,000-level market.”

"The models we made before were too expensive. The previous Hailan SEC coupe, Hailan SEV large SUV, and Hailan SLC large sedan were all expensive. The overall sales were hot in the early stage, but weak in the middle and late stages. Now the sales of Hailan SEC and Hailan SEV have declined seriously, and it is difficult for them to bear the company's main sales task!"

"Our company's recent sales mission is mainly undertaken by the Hailan SLMC mid-size sedan. This model sold more than 500,000 units last year, which is a very outstanding achievement. It has largely made up for the sales gap left by the Hailan SEC and Hailan SEV models after the sales volume of the models dropped sharply, and maintained the company's revenue and profits!"

“This proves that the mid-range path is feasible!”

"Given the success of the Hailan SLMC model, we are planning to launch a new generation of low-cost mid-size sedans."

"After all, although the Hailan SLMC is a huge success, its price is still too expensive. The price of 300,000 or 400,000 is unaffordable for ordinary families. But if it is changed to a price of just over 200,000, then ordinary middle-class families can almost afford it!"

"The price range of 200,000 to 400,000 yuan is the price range we plan to focus on in the future. We will strive to launch a variety of different types of mid-size sedans and SUVs in this price range to meet the needs of different customer groups, including pure electric and extended-range models. At the same time, we are also promoting plug-in hybrid technology through acquisitions and introduction of traditional internal combustion engine technology. We expect to launch a relatively mature plug-in hybrid platform this fall."

At this time, Xu Shenxue said: "It is a good idea to pursue three technical routes at the same time. If we want to gain enough market share, we must meet the needs of different types of customers and provide different products for different customers. Therefore, we must promote the three technical routes of pure electric, extended-range and plug-in hybrid at the same time."

"We don't need this little bit of research and development funding anyway!"

"But I must say that we, Hailan Automobile, have been a smart electric vehicle company from the beginning to the end. The pure electric technology route is our future. The current extended-range and plug-in hybrid are just helpless measures in the transition period. You must convey the relevant information to the people below you, and don't make a misjudgment!"

Bao Yongyan said: "Our management is also very clear about this. The core advantages of our Hailan Automobile are intelligent driving, battery technology, and electronic control technology."

"The pure electric technology route is the model that can maximize our technological advantages!"

Bao Yongyan is actually a firm supporter of the pure electric technology route. Now Hailan Automobile uses extended-range models and is also developing plug-in hybrid models. That's because the energy density of power batteries these days is limited, and the range of pure electric models cannot be achieved... If the pure electric range is barely achieved, the battery cost will be too high, which will result in the vehicle price being too high.

There was no other choice but to develop extended-range models to expand sales, and then develop plug-in hybrid technology as a supplement.

But Bao Yongyan, like Xu Shenxue, is a firm supporter of the pure electric route... You know, they didn't start out with new energy vehicles, but "smart electric vehicles". It was only later that pure electric vehicles had major limitations, so they were forced to develop extended-range vehicles. Now they are promoting the plug-in hybrid technology route.

Therefore, under the leadership of Bao Yongyan, Hailan Automobile has made huge research and development investments in the pure electric field, especially in the crucial power battery field, in recent years... just to increase the range of pure electric vehicles and solve mileage anxiety.

In his opinion, when the pure electric mileage reaches a certain level, such as 700 to 800 kilometers or even thousands of kilometers, the extended-range and plug-in hybrid vehicles used as supplements can be discarded.

At this time, Bao Yongyan also said: "We are making rapid progress in power battery technology. We are preparing to launch the third-generation power battery this year. This battery is a semi-solid-state battery with a further increased energy density. The new Hailan SMLC equipped with this battery will have a pure electric range of 600 to 500 kilometers."

"Compared to the previous range of more than 500 kilometers, it has been greatly improved!"

"And this is not our limit in the battery field. We have already obtained successful solid-state batteries in experimental data, with an energy density of an astonishing 450 WH/KG. We are now solving the problems of mass production and cost control!"

"According to the calculations of the technical team, it will probably take us several years to solve the mass production problem of solid-state batteries. Maybe in two years, maybe in three years, we will be able to mass produce solid-state batteries and use them in vehicles!"

Xu Shenxue also knew about the solid-state battery project. This was the most important basic research and development project in Hailan Automobile Company. Several years ago, huge amounts of money had been invested in various research and development projects, and a large number of various technical patents had been accumulated. In addition, all-solid-state batteries had been successfully realized in the laboratory, and a small number of experimental solid-state batteries had been produced... The problem was that this thing was difficult to mass-produce now.

Or low-cost mass production!

It will take time to advance the technology.

Once solid-state batteries are developed, the pure electric range of electric vehicles can even be doubled, easily reaching a pure electric range of one thousand kilometers or even higher.

Because the energy density of all-solid-state batteries is several times that of liquid batteries.

At the same time, because the all-solid-state battery eliminates the electrolyte, it greatly reduces the natural improvement of the battery caused by various factors, such as collision and extrusion, and also increases the safety under high temperature conditions...

This is also the core reason why Hailan Automobile has invested heavily in research and development in the field of all-solid-state batteries.

Not only HaiLan Auto is doing this, other battery manufacturers are also developing all-solid-state batteries, but their technological progress lags far behind HaiLan Auto.

At this time, Bao Yongyan continued to talk about future plans: "At the same time, in order to continue to maintain the high-end attributes of our Hailan brand, we have made a number of improvements to the Hailan SEC coupe platform. In addition to the two-door hardtop coupe model, we also plan to use this platform to develop a two-door convertible sports car model."

“For a high-end car brand, a sports car is a must!”

"We previously used the Sea Blue SEC two-door coupe to take on this responsibility, but it was obviously not enough, so we plan to develop a two-door convertible model!"

"Of course, this sports car is just an entry-level sports car, priced at 600,000 or 700,000 yuan. Later, we will also appropriately launch super electric sports cars priced at 1 to 2 million yuan to further enhance the brand image!"

When Bao Yongyan talked about sports cars, his focus was on the brand. As for making money, he didn't expect it at all, and he could even accept a certain amount of losses... After all, making sports cars is really not profitable. With that small market size, even if a car can be sold for tens of millions, it may seem expensive, but how many can be sold in a year?
At most, it’s in the single digits!

Do you think those supercar brands really make limited edition models because they are so high-end? What a joke! They are open for business, so why wouldn’t they do business when customers come to them?

The reason for limited edition is purely because there are only so many potential customers, so a limited edition sports car does not mean that the car is limited, but that the number of customers is limited.

Therefore, the revenue and profit of sports cars are generally very poor... From a business management perspective, it is better to make electric two-wheeled or three-wheeled vehicles than supercars.

If we make an electric two-wheeler/three-wheeler and do well, we can even develop into a large automobile group with annual revenue of tens of billions.

But when it comes to making supercars, no matter how well it develops, it’s just a small workshop... the kind that would be disliked by investors even if it went public.

But even though sports cars don’t make money, why do so many car companies still make them?
The reason is similar to that of Hailan Automobile, which is to raise the brand's status... This is actually a form of advertising and marketing.

Especially for a car company like Hailan Automobile that promotes its brand with high-end models and makes money by selling mid-range cars, they have to make sports cars even if it means losing money.

Previously, Hailan Automobile’s large luxury sedan, Hailan SLC, had a similar product positioning, which was not for making money but for advertising.

After all, as a large luxury sedan, the sales volume of the Hailan SLC is very poor.

Xu Shenxue, the world's richest man, is the spokesperson himself and drives the Aquamarine SLC, but the sales of the Aquamarine SLC are just so-so, with only more than 10,000 units sold a year.

It’s not that the car is bad, but the market for luxury cars priced over one million is limited.

It's not like rich people are everywhere on the streets. On the contrary, rich people are a more scarce group than beautiful women, and their proportion in the population is very low.

Therefore, the sports car business mentioned by Bao Yongyan, whether it is the entry-level sports car of the Hailan SEC series or the future super sports car, is actually used for advertising... and is part of brand marketing.

From top to bottom, no one expected to make money from this.

In this regard, Xu Shenxue’s attitude towards Hailan Automobile’s supercar plan is that if there is a need for advertising and marketing, then just do it.

After Bao Yongyan reported on these routine business, he also reported on the development of artificial intelligence cars.

It is not the concepts of "intelligent assisted driving" and "intelligent electric car" that Hailan Automobile currently uses for advertising, but a car driven by pure AI.

Things that belong to the concepts of strictly autonomous driving, unmanned driving, and artificial intelligence cars.

This project has always been promoted by Zhiyun Group. After Zhiyun Group packaged its autonomous driving business and merged it with Hailan Auto, the business naturally became Hailan Auto's business.

"We will continue to advance in the field of autonomous driving, but the technology is too difficult to commercialize in the short term."

"Our current autonomous driving technology can be used for the most common assisted driving, and can even achieve true autonomous driving without the need for a driver to be involved. However, the technology is still far from perfect and there are still many risks!"

“We can’t ensure the safety of self-driving cars!”

When it comes to safety, Bao Yongyan is also helpless!
With the current autonomous driving technology of Hailan Automobile, it has actually achieved L4 level autonomous driving to a large extent. There is no need for the driver to take over. The autonomous driving system can fully control the vehicle to complete the entire operation.

However, the fact that it can be achieved does not mean that L4 level autonomous driving can really be promoted and used on a large scale.

Due to the limitations of current technological levels, the current L4 level autonomous driving technology is still relatively stupid... This also means that there are certain safety issues.

As for true autonomous driving... or when Hailan Automobile launches an autonomous driving car that directly eliminates the driver's seat and does not even have a steering wheel, it will face a huge problem: who will be responsible if a car accident occurs?

If it is just the current assisted driving mode and there is a driver, then naturally the driver will bear the responsibility... Who told you to turn on the assisted driving and then sleep?

However, if the driver is removed, then the car's self-driving system will be responsible... Should the car owner be responsible? Or should the car manufacturer be responsible?
If the car manufacturer is held responsible, then this legal risk may even cause Hailan Automobile to go bankrupt on the spot!
Therefore, even though Hailan Automobile's autonomous driving technology has reached the L4 level to some extent, it is still promoted as advanced intelligent assisted driving... This is an assisted driving mode.

As for purely self-driving cars without steering wheels, under the current legal model, it is impossible for Hailan Automobile to launch purely self-driving cars.

At most, they will create some concept cars for publicity.

Of course, purely autonomous driving vehicles cannot be made, but it is still very useful to continue to apply the corresponding technology to the existing Hailan cars to improve the performance of Hailan cars' "advanced intelligent assisted driving".

The reason why Hailan cars are sold well all over the world is because of this trick!
In modern times, Hailan Automobile is a typical representative of autonomous driving. When people talk about Hailan Automobile, the first thing that comes to mind is not an electric car or a new energy vehicle, but an autonomous driving vehicle!
Autonomous driving is Hailan Automobile’s core competitiveness...at least for now.

This summer, Hailan Automobile will launch an advanced intelligent assisted driving solution called "L2++D"!

L2++D is the fourth version of Hailan Automobile's L2-level assisted driving..., although in fact it already has the characteristics of L4-level autonomous driving.

But HaiLan Automobile will never admit that it has L4 level autonomous driving!

This is L2 level assisted driving, which requires a driver to monitor the situation at all times and take over the vehicle at any time.

Don't try to hold me legally responsible!

(End of this chapter)