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

Chapter 308 China's Iron Man

"It moved! The tires moved!"

"What...the car started moving by itself?!"

"Steel—Iron Man?!"

...

Paul is an international media journalist from Reuters. He is visiting the China Auto Show to participate in the media day, mainly to gather information on the topic of "global electrification".

While we're at it, let's also take a look at the booming new energy vehicle market in China.

Paul had done thorough research before coming.

They believe that the so-called development of new energy vehicles in the Chinese market is merely "superficial prosperity."

He consulted publicly available data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China.

Although China's new energy vehicle market saw a 300% growth rate in the past year, two-thirds of that growth was driven by A00-class electric vehicles priced below 50,000 yuan.

This level of car isn't much more technologically advanced than the American electric golf cart.

He thinks.

This phenomenon clearly reflects that China's car manufacturing industry chain is still at the low to mid-end level of manufacturing.

The market size was maintained purely by trading cost for volume.

But when it came to electric golf carts, he remembered them.

In the second half of last year, the US low-speed electric vehicle market was suddenly flooded with a large number of low-speed electric vehicles exported from China. Some of them looked very similar to the Golf, while others were exactly the same as these A00 models, but with an extremely quirky appearance.

How would you describe those low-speed electric vehicles?
Some look a lot like Porsches, some look a lot like Bentleys and Lamborghinis, some are shaped like pickup trucks, and some can even look like a mini tractor...

This has consumers in the European and American markets gone crazy with joy!

The low-speed vehicle market in the United States was the first to be affected, and it offered almost no resistance.

First, some car companies that were offended by "design infringement" filed lawsuits against the company for trademark and design patent infringement.

Because this thing is just too addictive.

However, when the investigation actually began, it was discovered that these four-wheeled electric vehicles from China did not constitute complete infringement of the design patents. Even if some of the vehicles did infringe, it was only within a very small scope. They seemed to be circumventing this aspect of the experience.

Ultimately, the matter could only be dropped.

The most furious people are the local low-speed electric vehicle manufacturers!

Their golf carts were originally going to sell for several thousand dollars each, but sales nearly halved in just a few months, eventually falling to less than a third of their original price. The profits lost during that period almost drove these personal transportation manufacturers crazy.

As a result, the "Personal Transportation Manufacturers Alliance," which recently formed a coalition of manufacturers including ClubCar, LLC, and Textron Specialized Vehicles, Inc., filed an application with the Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission last month, requesting an anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigation into certain low-speed passenger vehicles from China.

The International Trade Commission has accepted the case application, but it is still in the preliminary injury determination stage. The relevant progress will depend on further thorough verification before a ruling can be made.

If there are reasonable indications that U.S. industries are being harmed by imports sold below fair value plus Chinese government subsidies, then the Department of Commerce will take action!
After the news was published, local consumers were furious!
They vehemently denounced these manufacturers as capitalists and bloodsuckers.

Chinese manufacturers are the ones who truly serve the people.

Paul saw someone post a comment saying "Long live the stars" in the comments section.

It was later learned that this was the brand name of one of the Chinese import manufacturers that was being investigated.

And today he came here.

I also saw the brand "Star Auto".

He didn't know if there was any connection between the two; he only went to this booth because Reuters, as an international media outlet, had been invited in advance.

But what he saw before him truly shocked him!
He thought that China wouldn't be able to produce a truly high-end new energy vehicle at this international auto show.

If the topic is "global electrification," Porsche and Tesla would be more suitable for this title.

And now.

What did he see!
The mecha is moving... Oh no—the mecha sports car is moving!!

The young Chinese man standing on the exhibition stand before me was tall and straight, seemingly radiating some kind of invisible brilliance!
He didn't use his phone or a remote key; just like Iron Man summoning his armor in the movies, he summoned the mecha sports car in front of him!
The most outrageous thing is that the car actually responded to his movements.

God... how did he do that??

Paul's eyes were wide open, bigger than a cow's!
At that moment, he seemed to see "China's Iron Man"!!

...

Other domestic social media users and car reviewers were no less shocked than Paul.

"Holy crap... why did the car suddenly shift gears?"

"Who started the car using their phone or the car key? Who started the car?"

"I understand, it's the backend, there must be backend staff operating it."

"That can't be right. If that's the case, why didn't Mr. Xu take out his phone himself? Was it just for cosplay?!"

"The car unlocks with a snap of the fingers, and moves with a clenched fist. Can the cameras on this Starry Sky car capture the owner's gestures? Is it some kind of visual recognition technology?"

They were all dumbfounded.

I never expected the car to shift gears and start moving on its own.

How the hell did they do that?
Some people have even speculated that it relates to the field of "visual neural recognition"!
This is not just a wild guess.

Visual gesture recognition technology in the industry is far more mature than the accurate recognition technology of wristband sensors!

-

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the latest product from Xingchen Automotive – the Polestar electronic watch."

Xu Yi opened his palm, and the mecha sports car in front of him paused for a moment and then braked to a stop on its own!
As he raised his wrist, everyone noticed the digital watch he was wearing that day, which was different in appearance from other digital watches on the market.

"As everyone knows, the Starry Sky L7 supports summoning and controlling the car, and this time we've integrated this function into a smartwatch, equipped with a three-axis gyroscope and accelerometer, which can accurately recognize relevant human gestures..."

Xu Yi chuckled softly as he showcased the product!
This "Polarstar watch" looks very dark and inconspicuous.

However, upon closer inspection, one will find that its surface is extremely delicate, the entire wristband is made of soft, skin-like nylon material, the dial is made of artificial sapphire crystal and aluminum alloy frame, and the bezel is made of titanium alloy.

"Because we have equipped it with a UWB signal module, the accuracy and speed of wake-up far exceed those of ordinary Bluetooth car control. This is also the world's first car to be unlocked using a UWB solution!"

As Xu Yi spoke, he raised his wrist to show the dial to the media and the public, displaying the electronic screen interface for gesture-based car control, confirming that the car was not being controlled through any other means at the moment.

The sheer amount of information casually revealed in those two sentences sent a huge shock through everyone.

Cutting-edge technology!!
It's some kind of cutting-edge technology again!!!

"Fuck me!"

"That's fucking awesome!"

"UWB key, and it can even control the car with gestures!!"

Yang Li was so excited that his blood was boiling!

This appearance alone could fill several pages of exclusive reports!
Nearly half of the media personnel present looked completely bewildered.

They had never heard of "uwb" before; in the current industry, it's definitely a niche technology.

Do you know about UWB keys?

Yan Yupeng looked on in astonishment as he re-examined the breadth of Yang Li's knowledge.

To everyone's surprise, Yang Li shook his head: "I don't know, but Xingchen Automotive has actually invented another unlocking method. It seems that Bluetooth is more accurate and faster. Isn't that awesome enough?!"

"Holy crap!!" Yan Yupeng almost fainted!
I'm truly impressed.

You know nothing and you're acting all high and mighty here. You're the loudest one among the media here; I thought you knew some inside information!
(End of this chapter)