Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 582 The Stunning Drone and Fireworks Show at the Bluegogo Car Launch Event
After Xu Shenxue saw the smart electric vehicle from Vcool Electronics, Vcool Electronics quickly started preparations for the mass production of 'Little Blue 2020' and, most importantly, launched its promotional campaign.

While VK Electronics Group was somewhat confident in the appeal of its own brand, it wasn't confident that the appeal of its Xiaolan brand could be compared to that of Hailan Auto.

Hailan Auto has exuded a high-end and luxurious aura since its inception, and Xu Shenxue even personally endorsed and promoted it... Back then, in order to promote Hailan Auto, Xu Shenxue even used Hailan for the fleet of cars that transported guests to his own wedding!
Back then, countless top billionaires from all over the world experienced the shock brought by intelligent electric vehicles!
The term "autonomous driving" was quickly spread globally by Hailan Auto!

It can be said that Hailan Auto has single-handedly popularized the concepts of 'intelligent electric vehicles' and 'intelligent mobility' for people all over the world, and has used its formidable strength to make people accept these two concepts!

Their Level 4 autonomous driving technology is a cutting-edge technology on Earth today, something that other car companies can only dream of.

Among the car companies that are out of reach, there is also Vcool Electronics, a newcomer to the industry!

With its technology not being advanced enough and its brand appeal in the automotive field only average, Vcool Electronics is actually very cautious when developing smart electric vehicles, and its technology adoption is relatively conservative... To exaggerate a bit, they play the "borrowing" approach, purchasing mature components and technologies from various suppliers and then doing limited integration and design themselves.

Then leverage its strong financial resources, software ecosystem, and brand advantages accumulated over many years in the smart terminal sector for further promotion!

To promote their first smart electric car!

Vcool Electronics Group spared no effort, not only inviting a large number of media personnel before the press conference—a standard practice—but also holding a rather special opening ceremony on the evening of the press conference!

A top domestic drone performance team was specially invited, and a drone show featuring tens of thousands of drones was performed using a combination of drones and cold flame fireworks, a method that is still rare at present!
When tens of thousands of drones formed a giant blue logo and then sprayed fireworks, while a giant dragon soared into the night sky below, the world was stunned...

Even if a drone show or fireworks display by a regular company or local organization were equally spectacular, it would never spread so quickly and reach such a global audience!

But why can VK Electronics...?
Because before the press conference even officially started, a massive amount of publicity funds had already begun to be poured in!
As the press conference officially began and the drone fireworks display started, the stunning scene of this drone fireworks show was already appearing on various online platforms, especially short video platforms, in the main market areas of Vcool Electronics Smart Terminals in China!
A large amount of money is spent on promotion and marketing, buying traffic, and various bloggers reposting... enough to create a huge wave in a short period of time.

Along with this wave, the car itself hasn't been seen yet, but the huge blue logo has attracted countless people's attention!
While everyone was still in awe of the unprecedented and incredibly spectacular drone fireworks show, Bai Qiwen, CEO of Vcool Electronics, walked onto the stage at the press conference!

As the CEO of Vcool Electronics, Xu Shenxue has long been considered a right-hand man in the field of smart terminals. Although his reputation and influence in the industry are not as great as Ji Chenghe's, they are not far behind.

After all, Bai Qiwen is also the CEO of a top company with a market value of hundreds of billions of dollars!
Bai Qiwen frequently appears in various public settings, attending technology forums and giving speeches, but he also enjoys organizing various product launches for Vcool Electronics. As a result, many ordinary people are actually aware of Bai Qiwen.

As soon as Bai Qiwen took the stage, everyone began to look forward to what kind of intelligent electric vehicle Weiku Electronics and Bai Qiwen would bring to the audience...

After all, the previous publicity was very loud, saying that the upcoming smart electric vehicle had cost Vcool Electronics tens of billions of yuan to develop... It was completely different from the small-scale efforts of other new forces and the stingy efforts of traditional car companies.

They have proclaimed the slogan of redefining intelligent mobility and aim to disrupt the intelligent electric vehicle industry and reshape the new energy industry landscape.

He's really arrogant...

It's one thing to be boastful, but to go around bragging to the world... throwing money around to brag.

Some busybodies have done a simple analysis and concluded that Vcool Electronics has already spent at least 100 million yuan on advertising even before the official launch of its electric vehicle…

It's hard to say how well the car is made, but the hype is definitely outrageous.

However, this is also a common practice for Vcool Electronics: they attach great importance to publicity!
Vcool Electronics spends a considerable amount on advertising and marketing every year... even more than their research and development budget!
This is a typical integrated marketing design company... When Bai Qiwen was reporting to Xu Shenxue, he even joked to himself: We don't develop technology, we are just technology movers!
Now, entering the smart electric vehicle market naturally requires a huge investment in advertising and marketing!

Many executives from traditional car companies couldn't help but criticize Vcool Electronics after watching the drone and fireworks show before and at the beginning of the press conference: "Vcool Electronics has no sportsmanship!"
Just from this scene, they can guess that the marketing investment must be an extremely high figure!
With so much money spent on advertising, will your car business be able to recoup its costs?

Bai Qiwen didn't even bother arguing with them. What did a bunch of people from traditional manufacturing know about modern internet marketing?
Xu Shenxue was also at the press conference, watching Bai Qiwen boast about Bluegogo 2020 on stage... But what Bai Qiwen said on stage was completely different from what he had told Xu Shenxue before.

The items are actually the same, but they've been given all sorts of fancy and high-sounding terms!
Xu Shenxue felt a little embarrassed listening to this... After all, he knew the details of the Bluegogo 2020. Apart from its good-looking shell and decent battery life, there wasn't much else to say about it.

But Bai Qiwen's words were too exaggerated!

They keep talking about all sorts of intelligent, disruptive, and redefining concepts!
Those who don't know the details might think they've used some kind of cutting-edge technology, like top-tier artificial intelligence... In reality, the only thing related to artificial intelligence in the entire Bluegogo 2020 was connecting to their own deployed GTAI 4.6 interface to work with voice commands.

As for the driver assistance system, it uses the EYEQ system sold globally by Zhiyun Group, which is L2+ level... This kind of thing is actually very common. Basically, all slightly high-end smart electric vehicles use this system. Domestic car companies, overseas car companies, and even some new car companies are all using it.

After all... Zhiyun Group is openly selling EYEQ solutions, the kind that will sell to anyone who pays... You can even take it back and claim it's self-developed, and Zhiyun Group won't expose you anyway. Of course, whether your competitors will come out and expose you is another matter.

At the Vcool Electronics car launch event, Bai Qiwen said that Vcool Electronics, after years of development, has created a proprietary advanced intelligent driver assistance system relying on top-tier computing chips…

Well, it's basically a customized adaptation of the EYEQ6 system.

Instead of saying it's L2+, they used L2.9+ to describe it!
If their car really can't meet the L3 level standard in intelligent driving, and if saying that L3 level assisted driving is illegal, Bai Qiwen would dare to directly boast that it is L3.9 level and say: It is only a hair's breadth away from Hailan Auto's L4 autonomous driving!
To regulate the intelligent driving industry and prevent false advertising by major automakers from misleading consumers, and to avoid every car equipped with an assisted driving system from claiming to be autonomous, last year, at the suggestion of Hailan Auto, China established a graded standard test for intelligent driving technology, and strictly formulated standards for L2, L3 and L4 levels.

Only those who pass the testing standards are permitted to use formal L2, L3, or L4 level vocabulary in advertising.

Hailan Automotive has naturally contributed significantly to the establishment of this autonomous driving standard. After all, globally, they are currently the only ones with L4 autonomous driving technology and L3 level intelligent driving technology. They are very dissatisfied with other manufacturers using L2 level assisted driving to claim the name of autonomous driving and intelligent driving.

Because other brands of vehicles often have accidents involving assisted driving technology, and every time someone criticizes autonomous driving, it leads to doubts and concerns about the technology.

Despite countless explanations from Hailan Auto, claiming that their L4-level autonomous driving technology, even the L3-level intelligent driving on the low-end models, is on a completely different level from other junk cars... most ordinary people just can't tell the difference.

Therefore, Hailan has been promoting autonomous driving classification standards for many years, using various rigorous tests to differentiate between levels. Only after passing a certain level of test can a certain level be used for advertising.

Last year, we successfully promoted the tiered testing of assisted driving, which is now mandatory. If you want to promote assisted driving, intelligent driving, or autonomous driving, you must submit your vehicle for testing and pass the corresponding tests in order to obtain the relevant terms for advertising.

Otherwise, you'll face hefty fines!

Meanwhile, the Blue 2020 from Vcool Electronics was also sent for testing... and the result, unsurprisingly, was only Level 2...

When Bai Qiwen was making the claim, he could only say it was 2.9+... This was actually exploiting a loophole, because the standard only distinguishes between L1/L2/L3/L4/L5, and doesn't specify that decimal points or plus signs cannot be used.

Of course, the EYEQ6 system of Xiaolan 2020 is not bad, because only Xiaolan Automotive can pass the L3 and higher L4 level tests worldwide.

Other Teslas and a large number of other manufacturers' driver assistance systems are still at Level 2... Of course, there are actually big differences in this Level 2 system.

The EYEQ6 solution from Zhiyun Group is one of the top-of-the-line solutions.

When taking the L3 level test, you can pass 18 out of 26 tests.

This is why Zhiyun Group calls this system L2+ level, meaning it's a high-level driver assistance technology within the L2 level. Other manufacturers' driver assistance systems lag significantly behind.

For example, Tesla's self-developed driver assistance system can only pass fifteen tests.

Other companies have also developed driver assistance technologies, most of which cannot even pass ten tests!

Many were even completely wiped out, failing not a single test.

Of course, most people can do Level 2 driving; it's all technology from ten years ago. After all, adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assist, and other driver assistance technologies aren't difficult. With a little more money and effort, almost anyone can do it...

If all else fails, you can purchase a complete solution from Zhiyun Group; it's very cheap.

Currently, the main focus of major automakers' efforts in developing driver assistance technologies is on Level 3... Each one wants to become the second automaker, after Hailan Auto, to break through Level 3 technology.

As for Level 4... no car company is hoping for that anytime soon.

Hailan Auto's L4 level autonomous driving is incredible... It involves the most advanced artificial intelligence technology.

The source of Hailan Auto's artificial intelligence technology comes from the AI ​​Research Institute of Zhiyun Group... Otherwise, Hailan Auto alone could not have done it.

To acquire the core underlying algorithm for autonomous driving, Hailan Auto paid the price of 30% of its own shares to acquire the autonomous driving technology department of Zhiyun Group, and then gradually developed it to L4 level.

Other automakers, however, cannot obtain AI technology support from Zhiyun Group...

Currently, the only company that can truly obtain the core AI algorithms of Zhiyun Group and improve them independently is Hailan Auto... although they only obtained the early core underlying algorithms.

Many of the other companies under Xu Shenxue's management also use Zhiyun Group's artificial intelligence technology, but they mainly use it directly without possessing the core underlying algorithms or being able to make improvements.

For example, Dongning Technology, which develops drones, also uses artificial intelligence technology, and their core algorithms are provided by Zhiyun Group.

However, they can only use this algorithm for training; it doesn't mean they own the algorithm, nor do they have the technical ability to modify the core underlying algorithm...

Even the engineers in Dongning Technology's artificial intelligence department don't know what the underlying core algorithm looks like.

Because the underlying core algorithm is encrypted... you can't see it even if you want to.

The core algorithm underlying the artificial intelligence technology of Zhiyun Group is a top secret, and the confidentiality measures are very strict... Not only has the algorithm never been published, but even the technical route has never been made public.

At the same time, no patent applications for the underlying core algorithms of Zhiyun Group's artificial intelligence technology can be found in patent offices of various countries.

Because Zhiyun Group never applies for patents for its core underlying algorithms.

After all, applying for a patent means disclosing the technology, and technology cannot be disclosed.

As for being copied or imitated... Go ahead and copy if you dare, copy whatever you want.

Of course, some surface-level, application-related patents that don't involve core underlying technologies will still be applied for, but they're not very useful.

This has led to considerable dissatisfaction within the scientific and high-tech communities, especially overseas, regarding Zhiyun Group's reluctance to share its artificial intelligence... You should share this valuable information with everyone; you should have the spirit of open source and sharing!

Zhuyun Group never comments on this... Say whatever you want, we just won't release any information!

As for open source, there's also GTAI...

This large-scale generative AI is pretty good, at least it's better than the ones you guys made yourselves...

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Bai Qiwen talked on stage for more than an hour, but industry insiders could tell at a glance that there were no major technical highlights.

However, when Bai Qiwen mentioned the price, it attracted a lot of attention.

Because the 700km range version of this car is priced at only 200,000 yuan after subsidies, its price-performance ratio is quite good for this range and this price.

Then, with its appearance looking remarkably similar to the Aqua SEC7... many people think that even if this car doesn't become a huge hit, it should still have a decent sales volume.

After all, Vcool Electronics is not a small company. It is the world's fourth largest smart terminal company, with a product line that includes mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches, wristbands, Bluetooth headsets and various smart home devices. Its ecosystem is quite complete.

In terms of revenue and profit, it ranks only behind Zhiyun, Fruity, and Fourstar.

Its market capitalization is even higher than that of Four Star Electronics, which is around four or five hundred billion US dollars... This is the advantage of a purely asset-light company, with little capital expenditure and low R&D costs!

Although the overall gross profit margin is low, all the profits go to the shareholders!
Unlike fruit companies, which, although also considered asset-light businesses, spend too much on technology research and development every year in order to catch up with Zhiyun Group, severely dragging down their profit performance.

It's not like a four-star company... They also work in semiconductors, design their own chips, and manufacture hardware for various industrial chains. Their capital expenditure on hardware construction and R&D is very large, but they don't make as much money as Zhiyun Group, resulting in a very poor profit margin.

This results in a very low price-to-earnings ratio, and consequently, a very low market capitalization...

Four Star Electronics and Fruit are both ambitious and technology-driven R&D companies that have been striving to catch up with Zhiyun Group. But Weiku Electronics Group is different... They don't invest in hardware or do R&D; they just honestly work as a design, assembly, and sales company!

They earn less, but all the money they earn goes into their pockets!
Therefore, the price-to-earnings ratio is very high, and the market capitalization is also high... It feels a bit like an internet company.

Such a company as Vcool Electronics Group... you can say it doesn't have any core technology of its own, but you can't say it doesn't make money.

Therefore, its market value is still relatively high.

The fact that a giant corporation like Vcool Electronics Group is seriously developing electric vehicles, and directly engaging in the field itself rather than through joint ventures, brings a significant advantage: it alleviates many people's concerns about purchasing them. They don't have to worry about Vcool going bankrupt in a few years, losing after-sales service, poor workmanship, or the vehicle's infotainment system becoming unusable after a few years.

The formidable strength of Vcool Electronics Group is more than enough to guarantee the future of Vcool cars!
And this is something that many consumers value!
Whether the car is good or not is another matter, but you can't go bankrupt in a few years... Otherwise, if a new car company goes bankrupt in a few years, who will the car owners turn to for after-sales service, car infotainment systems, and other things?
(End of this chapter)