Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 396 If You Dare to Use It, I Will Sell It

Xu Shenxue held a joint press conference for the robot and the X14 intelligent drone, not only introducing the two products but also displaying them together.

The X14 intelligent drone carried the newly released Yun Robot D model at the press conference and flew at a low altitude at a speed of more than kilometers per hour. After that, the drone left and the six-legged robot began to perform the scheduled operations on complex terrain.

It is firmly fixed on a narrow platform, and then uses its robotic arm to perform various operations, including welding, cutting, screwing and a series of other operations.

This six-legged robot is positioned as a robot that focuses on industrial applications, and comes standard with a data model for advanced mechanical operation modes... Of course, this high-end robot, which costs four or five hundred thousand yuan, is not used to replace ordinary workers, but to perform operations in dangerous and complex environments, such as some emergency repair tasks.

At the same time, in order to better carry out this high-risk operation, the robot can not only rely on AI to act autonomously, but can also be remotely controlled by a remote control device at the rear.

The operators in the rear rely on control equipment consisting of VR equipment, motion capture equipment, somatosensory sensing equipment, etc., plus a human-computer interaction system, to perform precise control of the robot.

This demonstration was originally intended to demonstrate the flight performance of the X14 intelligent drone, and also to demonstrate the construction capabilities of the Yun Robot D in complex environments.

However, after watching this demonstration, many people had different ideas.

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, in a research institute in the United States, many people came up with a lot of new ideas after learning about the X14 smart drone.

Especially the scene where the X14 intelligent drone quickly transported the robot at low altitude, which made them want to swallow their saliva... What a good thing, they really want it!
This X14 intelligent drone has a range of only over kilometers and a maximum load capacity of only kilograms... It seems to be very different from a helicopter. Even many light helicopters have flight parameters that exceed this standard.

However, the greatest feature of this X14 intelligent drone is not its speed or load capacity, but its low threshold… This crappy thing does not require a pilot at all and can fly independently. At most, it only requires the deployment of a ground control center for certain remote control.

At the same time, its low-altitude flight performance is also quite exaggerated... Flying at a high speed of more than 100 kilometers per hour at an altitude of only seven or eight meters above the ground is something that helicopters can also do, but the risk is extremely high.

Although helicopters are said to be able to fly at treetop heights and perform missions, in fact doing so is extremely risky because the airflow becomes very complex and changeable when the distance from the ground is relatively low.

Helicopters often fly well at low altitudes, but suddenly crash inexplicably... There is no mistake made by the pilot, nor is there a mechanical failure. It is because the aircraft suddenly loses lift due to the complex airflow near the ground.

However, the X14 smart drone is designed for low-altitude flight, and it has eight propellers, so its fault tolerance is far greater than that of a helicopter. In addition, the flight control system of the X14 is also quite powerful. In the field of multi-rotor flight control, Xiaojiang Technology is not just leading the world, but has a technological gap of at least ten years ahead of other companies.

The greater fault tolerance brought by multi-rotor aircraft, the top flight control technology of multi-rotor aircraft, VT artificial intelligence flight system, and a large number of sensors, all of these together give the X14 intelligent drone excellent low-altitude flight performance...

This made military personnel in many countries drool... If you, Xu Shenxue, use this thing to develop low-altitude economy, that's nonsense... The most suitable place for this thing is not in the field of civilian transportation, but should appear on the battlefield.

Moreover, there are many legal problems in the low-altitude economy. Not to mention that it is difficult to do in overseas countries, even in your own territory, Xu Shenxue, it is not easy to commercialize it.

But...if we are on the battlefield, there is no need to pay attention to traffic laws or who is responsible...even the flight safety performance of drones that many people are worried about is not a problem at all.

Even if the flight safety performance of this thing is poor, it is still better than the various light or neutral helicopters commonly equipped by various countries!
The internal agencies in the United States quickly produced an analysis report, believing that this X14 intelligent drone is very suitable for medium- and short-distance wounded transportation, material supply and other tasks on the front line, and can even be used as a personnel transportation tool when necessary.

Considering its flying altitude, which is even lower than that of traditional helicopters, its survival space on the battlefield will be far greater than that of traditional helicopters, and its tactical value is enormous.

Just imagine, an X14 intelligent drone, flying at a speed of more than kilometers per hour at an altitude of about seven or eight meters from the ground... traditional air defense missiles can't even see it, let alone shoot it down.

Not only that, but they can also ensure safety, because it is artificial intelligence that is flying... As long as the hardware requirements are met, artificial intelligence can fly. There is not much difference between a hundred meters, ten meters, or even one meter in altitude for artificial intelligence.

This is actually the reason why the X14 intelligent drone is equipped with six high-performance laser radars at once, in order to achieve ultra-high-precision flight control.

The phased array radar can give the X14 intelligent drone a longer detection and scanning distance.

High-magnification ultra-clear cameras can capture a variety of data at medium and short distances.

With the support of these sensor data, the X14 intelligent drone can fly at high speed at a very low altitude from the ground, and can also rise and fall with the terrain...

At the same time, this thing does not require a pilot, which means that there will be no casualties when simply transporting supplies.

This X14 intelligent drone can serve as a very good supplement to traditional helicopters, or even replace some of their functions.

The only problem is that the X14 smart drone is from China!
But... although there are problems, they are not big!
They soon launched their own similar low-altitude AI drone project...but God knows when it will be ready.

Before that, you can sell some X14 smart drones from Xiaojiang Technology to try out first.

Soon, a commercial company from the Philippines contacted Xiaojiang Technology to order a large number of X14 intelligent drones, all of which were top-of-the-line versions with long battery life, including ten unmanned cargo models and five manned models. They also purchased a ground control center, a large number of spare battery packs... and even charging stations.

This company is engaged in the tourism industry, and the X14 intelligent drones they purchased are for commercial operations.

The amount of the entire order is not low, reaching more than 20 million US dollars.

Among them, the X14 intelligent drone long-endurance version unmanned cargo model, a single set, including the aircraft itself, portable instrument remote control equipment, and an accompanying conventional charging station, is priced at eight million by Xiaojiang Technology; the manned version is more expensive because it has an additional manned driving module, costing more than nine million.

At the same time, considering that battery cost is not the main cost, and also for the integrated endurance of the typical initial aircraft, there is only a long-range version in this release, and no short-range version.

Drones are different from electric cars. At least half of the hardware cost of electric cars is batteries.

However, most of the hardware costs of drones come from its various sensors, electronic control equipment, motors and even the body itself. The battery pack is actually a small part of the cost... Among them, the high-performance laser radar with more than 2,000 lines of ultra-high precision and which can meet the many stringent requirements of aviation flight costs more than 300,000 yuan each. The other five auxiliary laser radars are not cheap either, and their prices are more than 100,000 yuan each.

The X14 drone is equipped with six laser radars at once, and the hardware cost of this item alone is hundreds of thousands.

Then the dedicated phased array small radar costs hundreds of thousands.

There are also cameras, ultrasonic radars and so on.

This refers to the various external sensors, but there are also many different sensors inside the fuselage, and they are very expensive.

Then there is the extensive use of advanced materials in the fuselage.

Therefore, the hardware cost of the entire X14 intelligent drone is actually very high, approaching two million in total...which is more expensive than many light helicopters.

And this is only a part of the many costs of the X14 smart drone. The biggest technical advantage of the X14 smart drone, and also the biggest cost, is actually the flight artificial intelligence and ground flight control artificial intelligence, and its research and development cost is very high.

The high R&D costs and hardware manufacturing costs combined have resulted in the X14 smart drone being very expensive... There's no way around it, new products are just so expensive, and Xiaojiang Technology can't lower the price much at the moment, and it can't just work for nothing.

The X14 smart drone is only a part of the whole system. In fact, if you want to operate the X14 smart drone on a large scale commercially, you need a ground control center. In addition to a super AI and server, this ground control center also comes with a large number of sensors for take-off and landing sites, large ground communication towers, Zhiyun satellite communication services, etc.

The smallest deployment unit of the ground control center is 4500 million yuan. If you want a bigger one, that's fine too... As long as you have money, Xiaojiang Technology can build you a complete set of super-large ground control center, which is also equipped with a supercomputer composed of an APO graphics card.

Spare battery packs are relatively cheap, costing only over one million yuan per set.

What? You said this battery is the same as the semi-solid-state battery of Hailan Automobile. Hailan Automobile sells a whole car for only a few hundred thousand yuan, so why does a single battery pack cost more than one million yuan?
What is a dedicated battery? My battery interface is encrypted and uses a special encryption chip. You can try other battery packs to see if you can connect them.

Do you really think the encryption algorithm team in Zhiyun Group are idiots? Zhiyun Group is also world-class in encryption algorithms.

The entire X14 intelligent drone is actually a complete system... Even if individual users buy it and use it, they have to use a portable remote control command device, and they also need to use Zhiyun Satellite's satellite Internet communication service and pay a monthly fee... Zhiyun Satellite will not provide you with satellite communication services for free.

As a result, the cost for enterprises to purchase and use the X14 smart drone is actually quite high.

A little-known travel company in the Philippines spent more than 14 million US dollars in one go to purchase more than a dozen X smart drones, as well as a ground control center and a large number of spare battery packs.

This situation would naturally attract attention... A quick check would reveal that this was a company owned by Commissioner Smith. But everyone pretended not to know, because it wasn't a threat anyway.

After all, it would be very difficult to expect the artificial intelligence drone purchased by Xiaojiang Technology to fly over your head one day.

All exported X14 intelligent drones will be directly prohibited from flying within China in the underlying algorithm.

Unless the other party can crack the artificial intelligence inside and then modify the underlying data of the artificial intelligence, or simply replace it with its own artificial intelligence... But if the United States has this ability, it will be faster and simpler for them to build their own X14 intelligent drone.

If the other party is careless and connects to the civilian network, including the Zhiyun satellite network...tsk tsk, who knows one day the X14 smart drone will take off automatically and drop things on their heads.

Of course, the other party would not be so stupid. It is easy to guess that they would dismantle the communication modules of this batch of drones as soon as possible, and then replace them with their own dedicated internal communication modules to isolate them physically.

However, they cannot modify the underlying data of the drone...it is directly bound to the flight artificial intelligence.

If the entire artificial intelligence flight system is dismantled, then the X14 smart drone will only be a facade... If only the hardware is left, in fact, the United States' own technology companies can also make it, but it will be of no use.

The greatest value of the X14 smart drone lies in the flying artificial intelligence inside it...this is where the soul is.

This is also the reason why the export of the X14 intelligent drone is not banned despite its good military potential...it really poses no threat.

As for copying and imitating...it's not that Xu Shenxue looks down on them, they really can't copy.

As for the level of artificial intelligence of American technology companies such as Google... To be frank, at this stage, even if you show them the code of VT flight artificial intelligence directly, their technical teams won’t be able to understand it.

Not to mention the artificial intelligence technology of the soul, even the hardware part of the body is difficult for them to copy!
The hardware part of the X14 intelligent drone is actually not some black technology. The most amazing parts of it are the laser radar technology, battery technology, EYQ3 chip and ZY24 chip.

But these things have been sold all over the world on Hailan Automobile or Zhiyun Robotics... So far, no company has been able to develop high-performance lidar or semi-solid-state batteries and onboard computing chips.

Especially the EYQ3 chip and the ZY24 chip, these two airborne computing chips, one is used for comprehensive computing and the other is used for sensor data processing.

Among them, the ZY24 chip, which is not well-known, is specially used for processing massive sensor data. It is manufactured using a -nanometer process and has more than billion transistors... How did you copy so many transistors? I can't even understand it.

This is currently the most advanced civilian airborne computing chip on the planet, and it beats a large number of similar chips in the field of sensor data processing. Countless research institutions in the world are focusing on the research of this chip, but they have not made any progress.

The EYQ3 chip is similar, and is also a very complex and technically difficult airborne general-purpose computing chip.

Zhiyun Group Semiconductor has monopolized the global airborne computing chip field, relying not on any other off-field factors, but on real technological advantages.

Just like the technical advantage in the server GPU field, that is, the APO4500 graphics card, it is very large, so large that semiconductor design companies such as Intel, Qualcomm, AMD and others behind it cannot even catch up.

If you want to copy, you have to have the ability to do so!

Of course, the most important thing is that before the X14 smart drone was officially released, it had actually transferred the relevant technology to a shell company, which is the company that currently recognizes the artificial intelligence swarm drone.

This is a company that has nothing to do with Xiaojiang Technology on the surface, but is actually a subsidiary of Xiaojiang Technology.

The company used the technology on the X14 smart drone and developed a specialized military version based on it.

Xu Shenxue had promoted this product to his superiors before. After seeing it, they thought it was quite interesting, so they decided to make some to try it out and see how it works.

Of course, they don’t want the civilian version, they want the military version!
This military version of the drone is actually similar to the conventional hardware performance of an aircraft, especially in terms of battery life and load capacity... After all, they all use Hailan Automobile's semi-solid-state batteries.

However, it is better in areas such as flight systems, data perception, and data networking.

The laser radars used are all military versions, and the various sensors are also special-purpose.

At the same time, various capabilities such as resisting electronic interference and improving temperature adaptability will also be developed.

Most importantly, the underlying VT flight artificial intelligence will be modified to better meet the needs of the military, such as lifting various no-fly restrictions, dangerous action restrictions, etc. At the same time, there is no need to use a dedicated ground control center, but you can directly join the battlefield AI system and directly accept the command of the battlefield AI.

In addition, a functional module for controlling swarm drones and other small remote-controlled drones and mechanical dogs has been added!
Some people have wild imaginations and think that the size of this drone is large enough, the flight time is long enough, and the flight distance is long enough, so it can carry a large number of disposable attack drones and fly these drones tens or even hundreds of kilometers away.

When necessary, the onboard artificial intelligence can be used to remotely control these disposable drones on-site, making the performance of the swarm drones even more powerful.

After all, swarm drones are limited in energy supply due to their size and weight. If the power supply is limited, the performance of the chip will also be limited, and the performance of the onboard AI will be relatively poor.

At this time, if there is a drone mother machine to provide computing power command, it is possible to achieve better results.

Of course…there’s still the issue of interference with wireless communications, so this model still has huge problems.

At the same time, the existence of electronic interference is also a key factor in promoting the development of the field of artificial intelligence drones. With artificial intelligence, there is no need for any radio signals for remote control, so there is naturally no need to worry about electronic interference.

The military version of the X14 smart drone will not be available for several months due to major changes.

But it is worth it. The specially modified military version of the X14 intelligent drone will still be very useful in areas such as transporting wounded soldiers and supplying materials to the front line.

Even if it is not a military version, the civilian version is actually very easy to use...but Xiaojiang Technology directly prohibits any open military purchase orders!
Xiaojiang Technology has always claimed that it is a company that manufactures civilian drones and has nothing to do with military use.

Therefore, we will not accept any public military orders!

But... you can use a shell company. A large number of Xiaojiang remote-controlled drones that have appeared in various countries all came from this. Xiaojiang Technology will not investigate who the drones were purchased by regular commercial companies and then sold to.

As long as you don’t place an order directly from a military organization, as long as you change your skin, Xiaojiang Technology will open up global supply... Of course, some of the more professional drones purchased by these special customers are exported in special backdoor versions.

Don't talk about backdoors. If there were no backdoors, you wouldn't be able to sell this kind of high-tech good stuff...

The same is true for the X14 smart drone. It has a lot of backdoors, which are laid out openly... But basically everyone knows that as long as you don't plan to let the X14 smart drone fly to China, it actually has no impact.

Xiaojiang Technology's good reputation is evident here... Over the years, it has never restricted overseas customers from using the drone freely. Only when overseas customers try to fly the drone to China will the drone automatically return. If customers do this more often, the drone will simply crash.

and so!
If you dare to use it, I dare to sell it!

It’s no wonder that quite a few companies dared to use it. A large number of shell companies came to Xiaojiang Technology to place orders. Before long, the order amount reached more than 300 million US dollars.

Then the management of Xiaojiang Technology thought about it silently and were speechless.

After going public, it sold more than 300 million US dollars worth of goods in total, and only a mere 10 million US dollars of orders were legitimate commercial orders, the rest were all orders from shell companies.

The commercial order of 10 million US dollars was placed by Xiaojiang Technology and its partner companies to operate domestic specific routes.

This means that after the X14 smart drone was launched on the market, the civilian market was not opened at all, but the military forces of various countries came here to smell the scent.

Faced with this situation, Xiaojiang Technology reported it to Xu Shenxue. Xu Shenxue was unable to make a decision on his own, so he went to talk to his superiors.

The boss said: You have already made a bunch of backdoors, what are you afraid of? You are a bastard if you don’t make money. Sell it!
(End of this chapter)