Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 417 The Dawn of Virtual Devices

Shenzhen Qianshan, the headquarters base of Weiku Industry.

Xu Shenxue made this headquarters base the first stop for his production inspection.

This is also the old territory that the Xu family has run for twenty years. It was here that Xu's father founded Weiku Electronics Co., Ltd., starting with the earliest tape players.

Later, it got involved in making CD players, then switched to making MP3 players, and finally got involved in the feature phone industry, gradually developing a small factory into a medium-sized electronics factory with annual revenue of hundreds of millions.

After Xu's father died in a drunk driving accident, his original self Xu Shenxue took over Wecoo Electronics. However, the company's business performance became worse and worse after he took over, and he eventually died of overwork due to exhaustion.

This is the story of Xu Shenxue who came from another world.

Relying on his knowledge from another world and the scientific research system, Xu Shenxue started to develop Internet mobile phones with Wecoo Electronics. Relying on more fashionable appearance and Internet channels, he initially opened up the market and brought about the re-emergence of Wecoo Electronics.

When the feature phone business was booming, Xu Shenxue decisively entered the field of smartphones, which was still a blank in the market, and established Zhiyun Technology Co., Ltd. He was the first to launch the C1 mobile phone based on the Android ecosystem in the domestic market. In the same year, he launched the S9 mobile phone that caused a global sensation.

This ultimately laid the foundation for today’s Zhiyun Group!

And the starting point of all these real industries is this place.

The former location of Weiku Electronics Co., Ltd. is now the headquarters of Weiku Industrial Group!

Of course, the current headquarters of Weiku Industrial Group no longer occupies the original small area, but has swallowed up the entire surrounding industrial zone. At the same time, a building with more than 30 floors has been built as the headquarters office building.

However, the current headquarters base is not actually the main production base of Wecoo Industry... After all, the land here is expensive, and there is not much vacant space around for Wecoo Industry to build a super-large factory.

The main production base of Weiku Industry is the Anhua Base located in Anhua, Shenzhen. It is a huge industrial park with more than 200,000 people working all year round.

The second one is the Dongguan base of Weiku Industry. The base is close to Shenzhen and has convenient transportation. At the same time, the land is cheap and there are a lot of industrial land. At the same time, the local area is also a major city for workers. It is a veritable world factory and it is easy to recruit workers. The base also has a huge scale of nearly 300,000 people, but it is divided into four branch bases. The main reason is that there is not enough land in the local area to concentrate on building such a large factory.

So the Dongguan base and the Shenzhen Anhua base are both nominally one base, but in fact they are divided into many phases, but these sub-bases are not too far apart.

The third one is the Ancheng base, which is relatively special. The entire base is located in an open industrial area, covers a larger area, and is a relatively special type of one factory and one city.

The above three production bases are the core factories of Weiku Industrial. There are at least 800,000 employees in these three bases alone.

In addition to these three major production bases, Weiku Industry has more than a dozen factories of different types across the country for OEM production of different businesses. Among these factories worth mentioning, the smallest one has more than 10,000 employees, and the largest one has even 70,000 or 80,000 employees.

For example, the Weiku Huacheng production base in Huacheng provides OEM services for smart home products for Zhiyun Group. This place is also the main production base for various smart home products under Zhiyun Group.

Fengcheng is next to his hometown. Xu Shenxue was deeply impressed by this city. He invested in several supply chain factories at the beginning. Later, he felt that the local conditions were very good, so he continued to increase his investment. Specifically, Weiku Industrial invested in and built a factory with tens of thousands of employees in the local area to produce some smart terminal products under Weiku Electronics, such as tablets, student smart watches, etc.

The production bases in other places are also different, but they are all large in scale.

Finally, it is the production base at the headquarters of Wecoo Industrial Group. The headquarters production base here is actually not large in scale, but it is the most technologically advanced production base in Wecoo Industrial, because it produces Zhiyun robots that represent the most advanced technological level of the contemporary era.

The reason why Weiku Industrial is so large is that it needs to undertake the huge production tasks of Zhiyun Group and Weiku Electronics.

Except for semiconductors and some of its core supply chain subsidiaries which have their own factories, Zhiyun Group outsources production of all other products and spare parts.

Weiku Electronics is a purer design, assembly and sales company, and does not have any factories under its umbrella.

Many of Zhiyun Group's non-semiconductor and core parts production businesses and Weiku Electronics' large-scale smart terminal product production businesses are outsourced to Weiku Electronics.

With the world's largest and world's fourth largest companies providing a steady stream of orders and technical support from a large number of sister companies, Weiku Industrial's OEM capabilities in the consumer electronics field are very strong, with low costs, good workmanship, high yield... and most importantly, a really large production capacity... They are a behemoth that produces several mobile phones a year. No matter what kind of customer comes, and no matter how large the production capacity requirements are, Weiku Industrial can handle it for you.

Therefore, WeCool Electronics also undertakes external business and accepts OEM business for various types of smart terminals from a large number of companies at home and abroad.

There are really a lot of orders. In order to meet these production needs, even though Weiku Industrial already has a large number of factories, it is still constantly selecting locations to build new factories.

Of course, Xu Shenxue came here today not to visit the Weicoo Industrial Group... nor to listen to the various so-called reports from the management of the Weicoo Industrial Group.

The headquarters of Weicoo Industrial Group is actually very close to the headquarters of Zhiyun Group, with a straight-line distance of no more than ten kilometers. On daily basis, Xu Shenxue listens to various reports from the management of Weicoo Industrial Group and handles affairs at the group headquarters.

Not only is the headquarters of Weiku Industrial close by, but the headquarters of many other companies under Xu Shenxue are also nearby!

The headquarters of Yihai Technology Group is about three or four kilometers away. From Xu Shenxue’s office, he can see the Yihai Technology headquarters building on the other side.

The headquarters of Weiku Electronics Group, formerly the Qianshan Insurance Building and the former Zhiyun Technology headquarters, is also a few kilometers away.

The headquarters of Fairy Mountain Holding Group is also here, about five kilometers away in a straight line. Not far away is the headquarters of Gulf Technology Co., Ltd., a top domestic semiconductor equipment manufacturer.

The headquarters of many other subsidiaries or office buildings of important subsidiaries are basically also located in this nearby area.

There is no way, Xu Shenxue is here, and many of these companies are from the Weiku and Zhiyun systems, so for the convenience of management they are naturally placed nearby.

Hailan Automobile is a special case... Although Hailan Automobile is in Shenzhen, it is in Anhua District, more than 30 kilometers away from the headquarters. The main reason is that the automobile factory is a heavy industry and the area required for the factory is too large. In addition, there is also a lithium battery factory and an electric motor factory, so they can only build the factory in this remote place. At the same time, automobile research and development and testing also require a large site, so they simply set up the administrative research and development headquarters at the factory.

Xu Shenxue chose the headquarters base of Weiku Industrial mainly to see the expansion of robot production!
Accompanying Xu Shenxue on the inspection was An Dayu, CEO of Wecoo Industrial. An Dayu is a relatively taciturn person who rarely appears in public. He is a man who focuses on getting things done.

Of course, don’t think that he is insignificant. As the actual manager of one of the world’s largest OEM companies, he is actually a guest of honor in many places.

At this time, he was talking to Xu Shenxue: "Mr. Xu, the robot production line in front of us is the third production line of our headquarters base. It is currently in the mass production stage. The overall plan is to start production about two months ahead of schedule, and the production capacity can reach 300,000 units."

"This production line is expected to reach its designed capacity this month. It is mainly designed for the production of mid-range robots, with a designed capacity of 300,000 units per year!"

"In the back, there is a fourth production line, also designed for the production of mid-range robots, with a designed production capacity of 400,000 units. It is expected to be put into production next spring!"

"After these two production lines are completed, our total robot production capacity here at the headquarters base, plus the production line at the Anhua base, will be able to reach 1.2 million per year, of which high-end models will have a production capacity of 500,000 and mid-range models will have a production capacity of 700,000."

Xu Shenxue nodded slightly after hearing this: "You guys are doing pretty well here. It's not easy to produce 1.2 million units a year. Thank you for your hard work!"

As a high-precision artificial intelligence device, Zhiyun Robot has complex processes and high technical difficulty. Even if Weiku Industrial is just an assembly factory that produces some non-critical spare parts, it is actually not that easy to do.

The complexity of this industrial product is even greater than that of a car.

Therefore, it is not easy for Weiku Industrial to expand its production capacity. In order to obtain more production capacity, Zhiyun Group has also reached a OEM cooperation with BYD.

However, BYD's OEM factory has never made such top-level performance robots. Even if it is just a finished product assembly, the production of non-critical components is quite difficult. They started to work on the factory in the first half of the year, but it has not yet been put into production. It is estimated that it will not be able to start production until the first quarter of next year.

The production capacity of the foundry that cooperates with BYD is expected to be around 400,000 per year, mainly used for the production of mid-range robots.

Weiku Industrial has a production capacity of 1.2 million units, and BYD has a production capacity of 400,000 units. This is the production capacity that Zhiyun Group has prepared for the robot market next year.

But it is still hard to say whether so many robots can be sold.

Although Zhiyun robots are very popular now and have attracted a lot of attention in the news, they are ultimately very expensive industrial products, with prices similar to those of cars, so the market still needs to be gradually nurtured.

The robotics business department of Zhiyun Group currently has a two-step marketing plan. One part is aimed at middle- and high-income families, especially overseas regions where service staff salaries are high. It is aimed at high-income families and dual-income families. It launches general-purpose home robots that can be used for housework or to look after children and the elderly.

For them, it means using the price of an economical grocery cart to get a reliable and convenient home assistant... a robot nanny.

This part of the market positions robots as important auxiliary tools in the home, just like vehicles!
Most families are reluctant to buy a toy, but many families will grit their teeth and buy an important auxiliary tool for housework.

The other part is for high-income, technology-conscious trendsetters. These people have no defects and do not lack nannies. Their main attitude towards these high-tech products is that they are just for fun. They are also the main purchasing group for Zhiyun Robotics' high-end models.

In addition, marketing is carried out in the field of auxiliary work, promoting the advantages of Zhiyun robots in assisting people in their work. Zhiyun general-purpose robots actually also have some of the performance of industrial robots and can also assist people in completing some common tasks.

Finally, the service industry, especially in public places such as hotels and clubs, will introduce service robots, such as delivering drinks to guests in the hotel, or simply as a decoration to reflect the hotel's high-end and technological features.'

Finally, there are special operations, such as using Zhiyun robots to work in dangerous environments that are not suitable for human workers. Of course, this requires high-end models, even hexapod models, and conventional wheeled or bipedal low-end models are not very suitable. Daily home assistance, common work assistance, public service assistance, and special applications are the main application markets of Zhiyun general robots.

As for the professional production field, these general-purpose robots are no longer needed. Companies in need can purchase more professional Zhiyun industrial robots. There are various types of industrial robots to choose from... more efficient and more professional.

In fact, some people have tried to use Zhiyun robots to do illegal things before, but Zhiyun Group has considered this a long time ago and directly blocked all kinds of instructions that may cause legal risks in the underlying core.

For example, some people want the Zhiyun robot to use a knife to chop people... This is impossible. The Zhiyun robot is not a conventional robot, but an artificial intelligence robot with its own judgment ability.

Any instructions that may cause casualties or property damage to others will be rejected. If the user makes forced requests multiple times, the robot will directly lock the machine and go on strike for a period of time to allow the customer to calm down.

So, it’s not that the robot can do whatever the customer wants it to do.

Some people even have wild ideas, thinking of sending Zhiyun robots to the battlefield... This is purely wishful thinking.

Zhiyun robots will not do some common illegal things, let alone things in the military field.

There is no support from both hardware and software.

Zhiyun Group did not install various military-grade sensors on this thing, nor did it feed it with big data models in the military field... It's not that it can't be done, but it's not used.

Among the secret projects of Zhiyun Group, there are a lot of large models in the military field, and these military artificial intelligence, or big data models are all prepared for special military equipment.

Robots used in warfare are all secret projects that the outside world doesn’t know about!

The Zhiyun robot sold for public commercial use is more accurately called the 'Yun Robot'. It is a very pure civilian robot that does not support the military field in terms of hardware or software.

This is also the key factor for Zhiyun Robot to be used commercially on a large scale and even exported on a large scale!
It would be terrible if the robots sold could be transformed into killing machines at any time... Especially after many people saw the high mobility of Zhiyun Group's Ren in "emergency power mode", they were all very worried. If they found out that Zhiyun Group's Ren could also hold a gun and shoot, it would be even more terrible.

Not to mention abroad, it must be banned in China as soon as possible.

No one wants to see the Zhiyun robot transform into a killing machine at any time...including Xu Shenxue himself.

Therefore, the technical staff of Zhiyun Group have banned all possibilities from the bottom-level artificial intelligence model. If you have the ability, you can also replace the artificial intelligence inside it.

But without its internal artificial intelligence, this Zhiyun robot is nothing more than a more expensive and less sophisticated piece of scrap metal with no practical use.

The soul of Zhiyun robot lies in its artificial intelligence, not its body!
Military and civilian use must be strictly distinguished and cannot be mixed together, otherwise it will easily lead to big trouble.

As for robots in the military field, Zhiyun is not responsible for the development of the body of the robot, but is only responsible for the research and development of military artificial intelligence modules, as well as the supply of core components, such as sensors, precision motors, batteries, etc.

As for how the aircraft is designed and produced, that is the responsibility of the cooperating manufacturers.

The robots developed by Zhiyun Group are limited to civilian use.

The production line of Weiku Industrial produces these civilian robots.

Xu Shenxue has visited the first and second production lines, and is now visiting the third production line that specializes in producing mid-range models.

Watching the production line running continuously, with the help of many automatic equipment and some personnel, one Yun RobotC7 bipedal robot after another came off the line.

At this time, An Dayu said: "At present, the bodies of these C7 robots have been assembled and installed. Next, various tests need to be carried out to ensure that there are no problems!"

Later, Xu Shenxue saw the testing of the C7 robot. The staff would start the robot and then test it through voice commands or other means.

The entire testing process was very cumbersome, and Xu Shenxue was unable to watch the entire testing process. Instead, he went directly to the area where the C7 bipedal robots had already been tested.

Here, dozens of Yun RobotC7 bipedal robots that have been tested stand quietly, looking very sci-fi at first glance.

It's a bit like the scenes in science fiction movies where robots rebel and the robot armies line up in formation.

But in reality, these robots have been turned off and will not respond at all. The packaging equipment is using various devices to lift these robots into the packaging boxes for packaging and sealing.

Finally, they became large boxes, which were then lifted into cargo boxes outside and stacked up.

Once a container is full, a truck will take it away and send it to other markets domestically or overseas for sale.

Xu Shenxue looked at the entire robot production process and nodded slightly: "The degree of automation is higher than I expected. The production efficiency is good!"

Then, he turned back to Gu Zhiming and said, "Now it seems that it shouldn't be a problem for us to reach a production capacity of two million units next year!"

Gu Zhiming said: "If there is market demand, our first and second production lines can also switch to produce more mid-range robots to further increase production capacity. It will be no problem for Weiku Industry and BYD to achieve a production capacity of 2 million units!"

After listening to this, Xu Shenxue looked back at Ji Chenghe and said with a smile: "See? The production capacity is two million units. Your marketing department must think carefully about how to sell more robots next year!"

Ji Chenghe said: "Although two million is a lot, we are still confident. After all, our robots are unique and can even be said to be products that are ahead of their time!"

"There are no competitors. At the same time, the performance is outstanding, there are many applicable scenarios, and the price is gradually decreasing. The market prospects of general-purpose robots are still very broad!"

After seeing the robot's production line, Xu Shenxue also took a look at the VR glasses production line in the headquarters base.

This headquarters production base was not very large in the past, and for a long time it was used for technical research and development, testing of various production equipment, production analysis and testing of some OEM products... It is said to be a production base, but in fact it is a research and development center.

Later, we also started to produce some high-tech products with low demand, such as robots in the beginning and VR glasses now.

Zhiyun Group's VR glasses have been released for a long time. Although they caused a heated discussion at the beginning, with the passage of time, the VR ecosystem is still not mature, and people have gradually lost interest in VR glasses products. Therefore, the sales of Zhiyun Group's VR glasses are very average, and the shameful sales volume so far is less than 100,000 units.

This has a lot to do with the fact that Zhiyun VR glasses are expensive, with a starting price of nearly 20,000 yuan. At the same time, the VR ecosystem is immature, and simple VR glasses have a lot of applications!
From a purely commercial perspective, this VR glasses project is undoubtedly a failure.

Of course, Xu Shenxue did not feel disappointed about this, because from the very beginning, Xu Shenxue did not position this VR glasses as an ordinary display, or something like AR enhanced display.

This VR glasses, or head-mounted display, was designed from the very beginning to suit the virtual device in Xu Shenxue's mind.

Xu Shenxue has always wanted to create a head-mounted display similar to the one in Ready Player One, and add various sensor costumes, gloves, omnidirectional treadmills and other virtual gaming equipment.

The VR glasses now being launched on the market are just a preliminary commercial exploration of the head-mounted display project. It doesn’t matter if they are not successful, as long as we accumulate experience.

Today we are taking a look at the VR glasses just as a side note.

Xu Shenxue also tried out the VR glasses. The second-generation VR glasses are even larger than the first-generation ones.

An engineer at the side introduced that in order to obtain better display effects, this second-generation VR glasses uses a more excellent high-definition screen. At the same time, in order to fit in better sensors to capture changes in the eyeballs and eye sockets, the entire head-mounted display is made larger.

At the same time, it is inevitable to continue to connect a small host at the back... otherwise, the size of the head-mounted display alone cannot provide much computing power and energy.

But after Xu Shenxue put it on himself, he was very satisfied... This second-generation head-mounted display has done very well in terms of clarity. What he just experienced was a 3A-level shooting game that Yihai Technology is currently testing. The picture is known for its extreme realism.

This monitor, combined with the ultra-high-performance X2 gaming graphics card on the small host, is enough to make the images presented by this monitor so vivid that even Xu Shenxue could not see any obvious flaws.

It’s as if you’re not looking at a game screen, but a real screen!
In Xu Shenxue's opinion, with this level of display technology, there are many things that can be done!

Thinking of some technological advances in the fields of somatosensory and omnidirectional treadmills, Xu Shenxue wondered whether he could combine these things and try to make a virtual device like the one in Ready Player One to see how it goes?

Even if it is not yet practical and the performance is extremely poor, we can first make it and see the effect, and then continue to improve it if there are any shortcomings!

After coming up with this idea, Xu Shenxue quickly gave instructions and went to the virtual equipment project team to take a look tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)