2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 813 Overwhelming Intelligent Driving System
Tan Jincheng's speech shocked everyone present.

The room was filled with about a hundred intelligent people, and everyone could tell from the host's words that he was deliberately making things difficult for Lei Jun.

Lei Jun was already very impressive to be able to come up with a solution in such a short time. The matter should have just passed, but no one expected the host to bring up Tan Jincheng.

His answer was even more domineering.

He was arrogant, but everything he said was true, and there was no way to refute it.

Even Bruce wouldn't be an option. If Tan Jincheng's achievements were in the US, he would be a quintessential American Dream figure, and the publicity would be far more intense than in China. Look at their Zuckerberg; he's been made a role model.

Even someone as arrogant as Lao Ma had nothing to say; at 29, he was still a translator, nothing special.

The host's embarrassment didn't last long. Tan Jincheng drew the attention away from him, and Lei Jun had to cover for him. He took over the conversation from Tan Jincheng, hoping that his image wouldn't be seriously damaged after this incident escalated.

Otherwise, who knows how the news would write it, and he might become a clown.

At this point, the female host realized that she shouldn't have changed her strategy to flirt with Tan Jincheng. She originally wanted to create some buzz, but now the buzz would probably fall on her.

Sure enough, young and hot-blooded people are not to be trifled with.

There's absolutely no need for this. There's no need to create topics. High-level dialogues are never short of topics. For example, Dr. Zhang forgot to wear socks, and Academician Ni Guangnan of the Chinese Academy of Engineering was blocked outside the door and unable to enter the conference due to the excessive enthusiasm of fans and the media.

After Lei Jun's conversation with Bruce ended, Ma Yun went all out, first making sarcastic remarks about Lei Jun, who is involved in hardware, and then directly criticizing Li's question about Baidu as inexplicable.

The most outrageous thing was when he went all out against Dong Ge, saying that Ah Li's responsibility was to cultivate more Jing Dong.

In fact, Lao Ma initially wanted to bring Orange Products Club along. In Ali's eyes, he didn't even care about Jingdong, which was growing rapidly, let alone Orange Products Club, which focused on vertical categories. In addition, Lao Ma had recently been somewhat unhappy with Tan Jincheng.

However, since Tan Jincheng had just gone all out and completely disregarded the host and Apple, he decided to hold back.

If this kid starts hurling insults at him and makes him lose face, he really won't know what to do.

Engaging in verbal battles with Lei Jun, Dong Zi, Baidu Li, and others, whether you win or lose, is harmless. But engaging in a verbal battle with Tan Jincheng is shameful if you lose, and it would be seen as bullying a junior if you win.

The two-hour entrepreneur summit was full of highlights, but overall it can be described as a personal show by Lao Ma, who criticized almost all the domestic entrepreneurs present and stole the spotlight.

Of course, it wasn't just Jack Ma who stole the spotlight; Baidu's Li Keqiang also had a crazy female fan rush up on stage to present him with flowers, though such behavior is somewhat comical for an entrepreneur.

This summit also gave rise to many buzzwords, such as Tan Jincheng's phrase "I sit and watch," which was the first to spread.

The most exciting and attention-grabbing session of the three-day Internet Conference was the one where the debates were so intense that no one expected them to be so heated.

"Thanks."

Lei Jun, now that he was out of the room, had no more inhibitions. He was taller than Tan Jincheng, and he put his arm around Tan Jincheng's shoulder and let out a long sigh of relief.

"Haha, don't worry about it, time will tell."

While Lao Ma's eloquence is undeniable and Ali's performance on Singles' Day is equally impeccable, it's hard to believe that Ali's public relations efforts weren't involved, given that he was the only one making such a bold statement with the help of a host.

"Haha, that's right, time will tell."

That's what he said, but his words revealed a sense of helplessness. In Xiaomi's four years, whenever there was such an important occasion, he would always be met with all sorts of difficulties, from the media, colleagues, and even people outside the industry.

Ultimately, it's simply that Xiaomi has taken away too much of people's profits. Just the Redmi series alone has effectively banished counterfeit phones, which has offended countless people.

In just four years, Xiaomi has become the number one company in China, which has also taken away a lot of profits from its competitors, especially their pricing methods, which have almost overturned the industry's unspoken rules.

Previously, people would sell crappy configurations for three or four thousand yuan and make money comfortably. Now, it's time to compete fiercely and focus on high-end configurations.

He also brought a whole new level of difficulty to marketing.

"Let's go, let's find somewhere to eat quickly, we have activities this afternoon."

The highlight of the afternoon is the demonstration of Weilai's latest L2 intelligent driving technology. This is the main purpose for Tan Jincheng's participation in this Internet Conference.

After a busy day and a half, isn't it all just to increase my own popularity and boost attention to Weilai Intelligent Driving?

"Alright, let's go. You can rest for half an hour longer than me. I'll visit your Beicang in a while."

"Is it about Mr. He? I ran into him when I came in."

"Haha, yes, he wants to start a new business making cars. It's a bold idea, but as a fellow townsman, I still support him. To be honest, selling UC was a last resort."

UC is the culmination of the efforts of him, He Xiaopeng, and Yu Yongfu. Yu Yongfu even gave up his position as vice president of a certain investment firm. However, due to the hidden dangers left during the early equity financing, Ali has controlled 66% of UC's shares through various means in recent years.

He Xiaopeng and others no longer carry much weight in the company; rather than waiting to be destroyed, they might as well just sell it off.

This move was very bold, but it was indeed the best choice.

“I know, Mr. He talked to me about it. Actually, Li Xiang from our company also had this idea. In my opinion, it’s a good idea. The entry of more new players can also make everyone feel some crisis.”

"You mean those subsidy fraud schemes? I've heard about them too, and it really is outrageous."

"That's right. With such favorable policy support, and now that we and Tesla have both disclosed our relevant patent technologies, the road has been paved for everyone. If we don't work hard, we can only wait for others to take over the market."

"Haha, you sound a bit like an industry bigwig when you say that, but given Wei Lai's current status in the new energy vehicle industry, you certainly deserve that title."

Traditional major manufacturers are unable or unwilling to invest in the gasoline-powered vehicle sector because the profits are too high, and other companies with average strength are even less worth mentioning.

Currently, the leading companies in the new energy vehicle industry have emerged, namely Wynn, BYD, and Tesla.

BYD's heavy investment in new energy vehicles is largely due to the difficulties they faced, such as declining sales of gasoline vehicles and a significant drop in expectations, which led to their transformation. Tesla, on the other hand, has focused solely on new energy vehicles from the very beginning.

Of the three, only Wei truly put aside personal interests and made a determined investment in new energy vehicles.

"Haha, I don't want to be an opinion leader. I just want everyone to work together to expand the market so that everyone can make money, and even more money."

People who point fingers are always annoying, but it's different if you can lead the industry forward with your actions.

The afternoon exhibition was attended by many news media, including automotive media and many internet media. Many media outlets come during the conference, so inviting them is very convenient.

"Mr. Yu, it's up to you now. Please try to use simple and easy-to-understand language to explain it to everyone, and also try to keep the demonstration concise and clear."

The task of explaining the intelligent driving system was naturally assigned to Yu Kai, as he was a professional.

"Don't worry, I will try my best to explain it in a way that everyone can understand."

"Oh, right, don't brag. Intelligent driving is just an aid. Don't give people the impression that it can replace normal operation. This is very important."

"Understood. Driving safety is always the most important thing, I understand that."

Yu Kai was also somewhat excited. This was the best Wei Lai could offer at the moment, and he could confidently say that it was the most advanced intelligent driving system in the world, even more advanced than Tesla's.

Users only need to set their routes once, and the system will be opened for use after passing cloud quality inspection, providing more personalized services.

In terms of adaptability, Weilai's intelligent driving system is suitable for a variety of complex driving scenarios, including traffic cone recognition and avoidance, large truck avoidance, nighttime overtaking reminders, avoidance of disabled vehicles, and super following in congested roads.

In addition, it also performs well in scenarios such as U-turns and roundabouts. After so many years of development, Weilai Intelligent Driving is the first advanced intelligent driving system in Beijing that can pass U-turns and roundabouts without prior scanning and learning.

In terms of hardware configuration, it uses 31 sensors, including several of the most advanced LiDAR, ultrasonic sensors, and cameras. The chip is also NVIDIA's most advanced chip, which is specially customized for Weilai Intelligent Driving.

As one of Nvidia's major shareholders, Wei Lai certainly has the capability.

In the parlance of the mobile phone industry, it's called "piling on features"—spending no expense to maximize the user experience. Since they can't make a profit right now, they might as well crush their competitors from the start.

In addition, there are advanced intelligent driving functions and urban navigation assisted driving, etc. Overall, it is already close to the intelligent driving system of more than ten years from now. Tan Jincheng, who has experienced it, is the most qualified to speak on this point.

The differences lie mainly in the hardware system and some concepts, but once the tone is set from the beginning, WILAI will always be at the forefront.

In addition, raising the bar is also intended to promote Weilai's intelligent driving system to other manufacturers.

Although Wei Lai is still the actual controller, Horizon Robotics is the producer. In addition, Tan Jincheng can open up equity to other manufacturers in the future to jointly hold shares in Horizon Robotics through joint ventures, thereby achieving the purpose of promotion.

Yu Kai has a strong reputation. His technical background and overseas academic background have attracted many well-known figures in the technical field who want to see what Horizon Robotics' intelligent driving system, which has been working on for several years, is really like.

If it can gain the approval of academics, it can be said to add another layer of endorsement to the intelligent driving system, which will have many benefits for Wei Lai.

"Mr. Li, Mr. Zhang, welcome, welcome, thank you for your presence."

Today, Mr. Tan is in charge of welcoming guests. He came as arranged with Li from Baidu and President Zhang Yaqing. Currently, Baidu is making progress in artificial intelligence research, and it should be said that Baidu is keeping pace with Wei Lai.

It's quite interesting that an internet company and a traditional car manufacturer have both started researching artificial intelligence.

"Mr. Tan, you're too kind. We've come here with a learning attitude. Please give us a proper introduction later."

Li, the handsome guy, was clearly putting on a brave face. He had adopted a humble attitude that morning, reflecting on his actions and mentioning transformation, but he still couldn't escape Lao Ma's sarcastic remarks.

This guy is really infuriating; what's there to be proud of?

I should have just made up an excuse to refuse to come, like Xiao Ma did. "Then we'll have to find President Yu later. I don't know anything about this, so I really can't explain it to you. But if you want to do a driving experience, I can give it a try."

During the ES6 test drive, Tan Jincheng was almost always involved personally. His ES6 was a prototype vehicle, and he was the first to use all the equipment and push notifications and experience them firsthand.

When he has nothing else to do, he drives his ES6 around to test its intelligent driving system.

In addition to Tan Jincheng, Weilai also has a professional testing team, which includes several professional racing drivers. This team serves the entire testing system of Weilai.

A professional team, coupled with its bugs, must achieve a crushing victory.

“We need to be certain from the very beginning that our intelligent driving system is the most advanced in the world, and that’s what Horizon Robotics needs to do.”

As Yu Kai prepared for his speech, the boastful words he had made to his boss during their initial meeting about intelligent driving systems echoed in his mind.

It's hard to believe that such a highly professional topic would come from the mouth of a car company executive who didn't even attend university. It's also hard to believe that Wei Lai was involved in this research a long time ago, when even BYD, which placed the most emphasis on new energy vehicles, didn't realize the importance of intelligent driving.

Most car company executives don't even know what intelligent driving is.

In addition, the boss's idea of ​​car (mobile phone) interaction is also very advanced. It is not that it is unrealistic, but rather that it is an advanced way of thinking.

To some extent, Tan Jincheng's forward-thinking approach impressed Yu Kai. Having a boss who is not confined to existing frameworks and has a wildly imaginative mind is very beneficial for technical research.

Of course, what impressed him most was that Boss Tan was really willing to spend money and was very generous in his investment in Horizon.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go, let Mr. Yu explain it to us."

Speaking of Yu Kai, the already somewhat depressed Li Dashuai became even more depressed.

Today's Wuzhen clashes with his luck, and this kid in front of him doesn't seem like a good person either.

"Okay, please."

Whether or not we can cooperate with Baidu is a matter for the future, and we certainly can't poach Zhang Yaqing, but it's not too much to poach some of Baidu's engineers working on intelligent driving, right?

11 PM on November 20th.

The L2 intelligent driving promotion meeting officially began. Yu Kai, who had made thorough preparations, slowly entered the exhibition area and began to introduce the entire intelligent driving system with great enthusiasm, accompanied by a PPT presentation. The boss asked that it be as easy to understand as possible, but also not lacking in sophistication.

Currently, the only mature intelligent driving systems on the market are those from Tesla and others, making comparisons quite convenient.

A comparison of the two makes the difference quite obvious.

Using competitors for comparison is a very popular practice in the mobile phone industry. This time, with the promotion of the intelligent driving system, Weilai is applying this intuitive method to car companies for the first time.

"Tesla's in-vehicle infotainment system was our initial model to learn from, but in terms of overall performance, our current intelligent driving system is in no way inferior to Tesla's, and its overall performance is superior to our predecessor."

"In the words of our CEO Tan, we believe that Mr. Elon Musk will be very impressed when he sees our latest intelligent driving system."

"Therefore, if any car companies are interested in cooperating, please contact us as soon as possible. Horizon Robotics will treat every partner equally."

"In addition, we will complete the OTA update on the in-vehicle infotainment systems of current users as soon as possible, but this will take some time, so please be patient with future users."

"Furthermore, starting next year, our latest in-vehicle infotainment system will be gradually applied to the Aion S, allowing Aion S users to experience the joy of intelligent driving."

As Yu Kai spoke more and more fluently, he dropped one bombshell after another into the media and audience present.

Installing intelligent driving technology on the Aion S was a decision that Tan Jincheng had considered for a long time.

The specific plan will definitely not be a "one-size-fits-all" approach. As taxi drivers and ride-hailing drivers, they pursue efficiency; the more fares they make, the more money they can earn.

Intelligent driving can improve their work efficiency, and if the price difference is not significant, they would likely prefer to choose it.

This is the result Tan Jincheng wanted: to widen the sales gap with the BYD Qin in this way. Currently, the sales of these two models are roughly equal. The Aion S has its advantages, but the Qin also has its own strengths.

In addition, in terms of brand awareness, BYD is still superior to Weilai.

The ride-hailing industry has been booming for a year, with Alibaba and Tencent alone burning through billions of dollars. The market has entered a phase of irrational growth, with countless ordinary people joining the industry. Those with cars do part-time jobs, while those who want to become full-time drivers even invest in a suitable electric car.

Previously, the boatman, who thought that too many ride-hailing vehicles would affect Qin's image and was somewhat resistant, has now succumbed to the pressure of sales.

Forget about ride-hailing services, that's just promoting new energy vehicles.

The information Yu Kai dropped one after another shocked the knowledgeable people present. Based on Yu Kai's introduction, if what he said was true, then the intelligent driving system led by Wei Lai was absolutely unique in China.

There are no rivals; it's an overwhelming force.

With this system in place, let's not even discuss what kind of impact its application to the Aion S will have on the BYD Qin.

The WooLai ES6 alone is an electric SUV that is already very popular among electric vehicle enthusiasts due to its excellent workmanship, high performance and cost-effectiveness.

With a guide price range of 30 to 50 yuan, and being a niche new energy SUV, this car, packed with niche appeal, has managed to sell over 5000 units in China from January to October this year, truly dazzling the market.

If the superior intelligent driving system is added to the mix, it goes without saying that the sales of the Weilai ES6 in 2015 will see another significant increase.

Weilai is undoubtedly the leader in the new energy vehicle industry!

Today is Thursday, and the A-shares market has a history of adjustments on Thursdays.

Yesterday, Weilai Co., Ltd. surged to a new high since its listing, but it remained in a sub-sold state throughout the day. The press conference started at 2:00 PM, and Weilai's stock price only reacted at 2:30 PM.

The stock price of Weilai, which had been fluctuating at a low level throughout the day, surged rapidly from 2:30 pm until it turned positive.

In half an hour of trading, Weilai's stock price closed at 77.06 yuan, continuing to set a new high since its listing.

Undoubtedly, this is the market feedback brought about by the Weilai Intelligent Driving Promotion Conference.

"Damn it, thank goodness I bought some shares a few days ago. These damn institutions know about things way too fast."

Is it enough to generate hype in the secondary market based solely on Wei Lai's one-man intelligent driving promotion without any substantial market feedback?

It's enough, and it's a speculative model that those who don't have a deep understanding of the A-share market can't comprehend.

Friday, September 11st.

Today is the last session of the World Internet Conference. The conference will close at 12:15 pm and conclude completely after lunch at 2 pm.

That is, today, Weilai Automobile, which was salvaged from the water yesterday and hit a new high, began a rapid upward trend at the start of trading at 9:30 am.

In less than half an hour, under the continuous attack of trading volume, the stock price of Weilai Co., Ltd. rose rapidly, and finally closed at 84.77 yuan at 10 o'clock, with the stock price rising by 10.01% during the day.

"Holy crap, these big investors are absolutely insane. Luckily, I bought some initial shares a few days ago."

"That's right. I started to build a position yesterday morning after it stabilized after a 5% drop. Who would have thought it would rally in the afternoon and even hit the daily limit today?"

"Damn, the market value surged by more than 100 billion in one day, and now it exceeds 1800 billion yuan. That's outrageous."

"Look at that form, it seems we won't be able to get in today, what a pity."

As of the 21st, it was exactly the fifteenth trading day since Weilai Co., Ltd. was listed. Within fifteen trading days, the market value of a company with an estimated value of more than 500 billion yuan has more than tripled.

After the limit-up price was broken, those who didn't buy in were filled with regret, while those who had bought in earlier were equally uneasy, hesitating between selling and holding.

According to the forecast given in the Caitong Research Report, the stock price of 103 yuan still has a growth potential of about 20% compared to today's stock price.

"We're not selling. We haven't even finished building our position yet. It's not worth worrying about such a small profit."

Faced with investors' doubts about the valuation and speculation, professional stock investors Lao Li and Xiao Zhang seemed very confident, firmly believing that Weilai's stock price was definitely more than 103 yuan.

103 yuan corresponds to a market value of 2241.28 billion yuan for Wei Lai, but in the eyes of these two, it is far from enough.

Unfortunately, very few items were collected after the release.

At this moment, Mr. Tan, who was in Wuzhen thinking that the continuous high-intensity activities were finally coming to an end, had no idea that his net worth had increased by more than 160 billion yuan, and that his apparent net worth exceeded 1400 billion yuan.

Tan Jincheng's net worth briefly surpassed that of Lao Ma, making him the richest man in the country!

"What the hell? The richest man in the country? Ignore him."

Meeting Shen Nanpeng's amused gaze, Tan Jincheng was also stunned. How could he become the richest man? Wasn't it a bit too early?

"Let's not talk about that. You said you wanted to come back to Beicang with me to have an in-depth discussion about the acquisition of Southeast Asian car brands?"

Shen Nanpeng nodded: "Yes, let's go to Beicang and have a good talk. We've gathered information on several companies that are willing to sell their shares, which are quite suitable for our acquisition plan."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go back right away."

(End of this chapter)