From knock-off old-man's electric vehicles to industrial giant

Chapter 187 What?! If we don't dig now, we won't find it anymore?!
This comment was posted.

That does express the sentiments of many people.

To be honest, as Xingchen Automotive gains more and more fame and has a larger and larger customer base, a considerable number of people online are also curious about the company.

They wanted to use various information channels to delve deeper into Xingchen Motors' information and technology.

But to their utter dismay, they discovered that they couldn't dig out any valuable information at all.

They've done an excellent job of protecting information.

Unlike some listed companies that regularly engage in publicity and disclose technical details, repeatedly touting a technology from its development to its release.

All they could find online were technologies that StarCraft had already released.

So when they saw this news, many people who follow Xingchen Automotive were quite pleasantly surprised.

The entire comment section below.

Some people criticized Baidu, some criticized Xingchen Automotive, and some stood up to support Xingchen Automotive.

As always, all sorts of opinions were expressed.

In most cases, opinions online will never reach a consensus.

Public opinion is destined to be difficult to reconcile.

However, in this comments section...

However, people have surprisingly reached a consensus on criticizing Baidu.

……

Due to the powerful effects of the internet.

Soon, the "cursing" reached Xu Yi's ears.

Wu Xinzhou flew back to the United States to poach talent for Qualcomm... oh no, he went to lobby them.

Given his foundation and leadership at Qualcomm, many people were willing to follow Wu Xinzhou rather than Qualcomm, which is why he was able to bring over a group of talents in algorithms, chip design, and communications.

After spending some time together, the two found that they shared similar views on the path of autonomous driving.

That means starting from the bottom and working your way up, instead of doing what companies like Baidu, Google, and Pony.ai are doing now, trying to develop the entire L4 system directly.

It goes without saying how unrealistic this is.

Xingchen aims to profit from intelligent driving as a better safety and vehicle add-on feature, thereby increasing user base through OEM sales and creating a positive feedback loop to pave the way for this path.

The engineers who recently joined the Xingchen Intelligent Driving Department generally agree with this approach.

Compared to the internal strife and short-term profit pressures at Baidu, Xingchen offered them only a simple and comfortable R&D environment and high-level benefits.

After all, Xingchen doesn't plan to rely on intelligent driving for profit right now, which alone sets it apart from Baidu.

"Mr. Xu, Baidu just finished its AI Developer Conference today. Is it pointing fingers at us and criticizing us?"

Fang Ziqiang rushed back from Kyoto and dug up the news online. Unsurprisingly, their Xingchen Auto brand was "hot" again, albeit thanks to the internet giant Baidu.

"What are the public opinion and netizens saying?" Xu Yi asked.

"Netizens are all criticizing Baidu," Fang Ziqiang said bluntly.

These netizens are genuinely criticizing, without any pretense or insincerity. Some comments have even been censored, demonstrating just how "sincere" their feelings are towards Baidu.

"That solves it! It proves we're righteous!!"

Xu Yi was amused.

This is what is meant by "those who do many unrighteous deeds will surely perish."

He actually said their methods of poaching people were dirty; I really don't know how Baidu could have such a mouth.

In fact, many people voluntarily resigned after being contacted by headhunters. They didn't resign before because they hadn't found a suitable job. Now, Xingchen Motors is willing to take them on and offers good conditions. They recruited a group of people with almost no tricks.

After all, Wu Xinzhou was leading the team, along with Li Ligeng, Lang Xianpeng, Zhan Kun, and others from the original Apollo team.

These individuals each have their own "small groups," which are enough to motivate a core group of technical personnel.

Even the technicians who were initially hesitant were tempted; everyone was willing to work with a top expert.

...

"Baidu is strengthening and supplementing non-compete agreements, and we are also working hard on this side. At the same time, we are asking former Baidu colleagues to lobby more. In another week or two, we probably won't be able to poach anyone from the autonomous driving field," Fang Ziqiang said with particular regret.

This "satisfying dig" can be considered a successful sneak attack.

But once they realize what's happening, such a great opportunity won't come again.

Other domestic companies.

There really isn't anything that can replace it.

"It's already quite impressive to have achieved these results in such a short time."

Xu Yi nodded. The intelligent driving team was able to be assembled so quickly thanks to Baidu, and he really had to say thank you.

If it weren't for the other party's major internal restructuring and large-scale exodus of talent, Xingchen would have had to spend at least several times more to recruit its current staff.

Of course, he also noticed the regret in Fang Ziqiang's tone, and a sudden idea struck him. "Baidu's voice recognition is pretty good too, and they also have high-precision map positioning..."

Xu Yi immediately replied.

"Mr. Xu, what do you mean..." Fang Ziqiang suddenly realized, as if he had found his way again.

“Our software department and intelligent driving department are also lacking in highly skilled personnel in this area. We can also put in some effort in other areas.” Xu Yi smiled.

The Starry Sky 1.1 in-vehicle infotainment system is currently very powerful, but its voice control is not yet among the best in the industry in terms of intelligence and smoothness.

For example, it seems a bit rigid in terms of continuous instructions and long instructions.

These all require time to develop, and the large voice model also involves deep learning. It would be even better if the R&D team could be expanded.

Secondly, engineers working on high-precision maps and fusion positioning are just as important as the localization and real-time mapping for the early stages of autonomous driving. It doesn't mean that if you don't take the high-precision map route, you don't need maps and positioning.

……

Baidu openly "criticized" a certain emerging car company, and this news quickly spread throughout the automotive industry.

On the BYD side...

Wang Chuanfu also received the message immediately.

He seemed very interested in seeing the latest industry information and insider data.

"Mr. Wang, Xingchen Motors seems to be betting on autonomous driving, which has angered Baidu. I wonder if this will spark even bigger controversy," Lian Yubo said.

As a fellow professional, I am still happy to see these rumors and gossip about Xingchen online.

"Internet companies and car manufacturers can't really work together, but I didn't expect them to bet on autonomous driving next," Wang Chuanfu said with a soft exclamation.

Their internal views on autonomous driving have always been conservative.

The Intelligent Connected Vehicle Business Unit does exist, but it mainly deals with in-vehicle infotainment and vehicle networking businesses, and only has some basic R&D layout for L2 driving.

He also looked at Apollo and described it as "showy but impractical."

These internet companies have very powerful algorithms, but they lack experience in car manufacturing. Their autonomous driving systems not only do not conform to driving logic, but also pose significant safety risks.

It won't be profitable for at least several years.

BYD has always been very cautious about directions that cannot generate profits.

However, the entry of Xingchen Motors brought Wang Chuanfu a completely new perspective.

Previously, their R&D focused more on hybrid technology. Who would have thought that Xingchen Automotive would overtake its competitors in battery technology, using almost the same technological logic to achieve such good market results? This honor originally belonged to BYD.

However, the progress was more than a year slow.

Due to time constraints, they haven't been able to launch a new model with dual-gun charging yet.

Sales are suffering now.

The rise of Xingchen Motors has indeed put considerable pressure on them.

Fortunately, the overall new energy vehicle market is growing, and everyone is still making progress together, rather than fighting to the death for sales.

However, we still have to think about it in advance.

What are Xingchen Motors' plans for their next car? If they really achieve something in autonomous driving, how much impact will it have on their fellow new energy vehicle companies?

He doesn't take other emerging forces seriously, but he really has to be wary of Xingchen Motors.

We absolutely must engage in "defensive research and development"!

"Mr. Wang, do you think we should follow Xingchen's lead?"

Lian Yubo noticed something amiss from his pensive expression and couldn't help but speak up.

"Yes, it's time to start implementing smart technology..."

Wang Chuanfu did not refute.

"Baidu has such great talent, and they just happen to have the opportunity."

Since Xingchen Motors is poaching talent, we'll poach talent too!

……

　Seeing that Zhang Ping had some comments about Wu Xinzhou, I'd like to clarify this separately.

　　In the early stages, this person was quite valuable. Developing intelligent driving was only one part of his work. He could also be recruited from Qualcomm to design chips, which was a dual consideration. Moreover, during his time at XPeng, he developed a complete high-precision map, NGP. Later, he transitioned to a different field and within a year followed Tesla to develop the BEV+transformer technology path, which does not rely on high-precision maps but is based on a self-developed solution on the NVIDIA Xavier platform.

　　In terms of technological achievements, they're not entirely useless. After all, Lao Huang is a tech fanatic and wouldn't hire such a useless person.

　　Secondly, there is the issue of stance. Wu Xinzhou's departure is strongly related to the U.S. Department of Commerce's Export Administration Regulations of October 2022. In fact, it not only completely cut off the export of new energy vehicles, but also restricted semiconductor and chip talents from working in China. Wu Xinzhou left his job after that, but a month before that, he was still vowing to speed up the implementation of the new version of NGP.

　　So there's a reason behind this, and there will be some arrangements in the later parts of the book, including the subsequent development of the protagonist's company. It's not just random writing without a reason; it will generally follow a certain logic.

　　Another issue is the enjoyment factor. The R&D and operation processes have inevitably been lengthened, since it's no longer the initial stage of building electric vehicles for the elderly.

　　However, similarly, having initially operated in a small market, the impact of new car launches on the entire domestic car manufacturing industry, including their ripple effects, is enormous, even influencing overseas markets. Therefore, the scope of influence is undoubtedly expanding, and we hope you will understand the groundwork laid for this discussion.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)