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

Chapter 316 Fun
Baidu's Li Yanhong and Zhou Hongyi from 360 were furious because they didn't receive the respect they deserved.

They stared at the car with grim faces the whole way, as if someone owed them hundreds of millions of dollars.

Led by Xingchen's sales manager, they had an in-depth experience with a sample vehicle on site.

however.

Half an hour later, Zhou Hongyi was surprised by the car.

He always travels in gasoline-powered vehicles and never drives himself.

But that doesn't mean he doesn't understand cars.

On the contrary, he has high requirements for the style and comfort of a car, but his understanding of new energy vehicles is still at the level of BAIC and BYD.

The Starry Night L7 in front of him exceeded his expectations; it definitely deserves a score of 80 or higher.

“I think Mr. Xu is a bit arrogant. Car manufacturing is a long-term endeavor. He has only taken a few steps ahead and he doesn’t respect car manufacturing giants like Toyota or companies like Tesla. He also doesn’t respect the experience of the guests who are looking at the cars. If I were to organize this event, I would at least not handle it this way.”

Xu Yi rarely commented on other people individually, but Zhang Yong had a strong desire to comment on Xu Yi and Xingchen Motors.

They couldn't wait to show off their "ambition".

However, the two people present seemed not to have heard what he said.

Zhou Hongyi looked directly at Li Yanhong and said, "Before I came here, I kept hearing you talk about in-vehicle intelligence and autonomous driving, but after seeing the Xingchen in person, I realized that even putting aside the intelligent aspects, the actual quality of the car is worth the price. Can Baidu catch up in this area?"

He spoke with a cheerful tone.

In other words.

The cars that Baidu partnered with at the event today were rather oddly shaped.

Perhaps they put a lot of effort into the vehicle's intelligent system, but in terms of overall configuration and other aspects of space design and quality, it is far inferior to the Starry Sky.

Li Yanhong was speechless.

This car was made by a car company!

Poor design and quality.

What does this have to do with Baidu?

We work on software functionality, okay?

But he had to admit that Zhou Hongyi had a point.

Automobiles are highly integrated products.

Consumers won't buy a car just because it has a good infotainment system or intelligent driving features; at the very least, the car's basic attributes in all aspects need to be good.

Li Yanhong vaguely realized this was a problem.

Now that Baidu and these car companies have finally opened up channels for cooperation, the cars equipped with Apollo functions are all products put into the market for testing purposes, and are not the car companies' own popular models.

Testing the waters means novelty, but it also means immaturity; not all resources will be invested in its development.

The actual vehicle's quality and the refinement of its various functions naturally cannot compare to the best-selling models of car manufacturers' "own children," let alone products like the Starry Sky, which have a "purebred" unified system.

If sales fail to pick up, Apollo's commercial value will be further reduced.

"This is the responsibility of the car manufacturers. We at Baidu sometimes offer suggestions on the overall vehicle design, and these suggestions will not only be used in the low-to-mid-range market, but will also be further applied to higher-end new energy vehicles."

After a brief silence, Li Yanhong shared his thoughts.

Zhou Hongyi: "There aren't many high-end new energy vehicles on the market. Tesla and Star are the ones that develop their own solutions. Even NIO, which buys solutions from overseas, is said to have to set up its own team to develop them."

Li Yanhong nodded: "Automakers have plans to develop their own technologies, but they also recognize the difficulty of developing autonomous driving solutions and software. In the future, most automakers will still consider purchasing mature solutions."

That's what it says.

He also believes that Baidu's current pace of progress is too slow.

Could it be that Baidu is really going to build its own cars? This idea was immediately rejected by Robin Li in his mind.

Manufacturing cars is too complicated. It has high barriers to entry, requires building your own factory, and has low overall profits. Baidu prefers to do projects with higher profits.

"Mr. Li, our Nezha Auto has not yet selected a provider for its autonomous driving solution..."

Zhang Yong shamelessly approached again.

Li Yanhong was taken aback, then looked directly at the chairman of Nezha Auto: "Oh? Which car are you planning to launch?"

Zhang Yong's expression brightened, and seeing that he had finally seized an opportunity, he hurriedly began to introduce: "What we are internally pre-producing is a small SUV, which is expected to be targeted at the 70,000 to 100,000 yuan market segment, but we also have plans to develop higher-end models later..."

But the words are not finished yet.

He was then ruthlessly interrupted by Li Yanhong, who said, "Let's talk about that when you're specifically developing a high-end model."

He was disappointed.

For a car of this caliber, even the cost of a complete set of integrated hardware for the Apollo solution is prohibitive; it's more like it could be equipped with Baidu Maps.

……

the other side.

A minor conflict broke out at the Starry Sky booth today, though it was short-lived.

However, this did not deter the "enthusiasm" of the crowd at the scene, and someone filmed a four-minute video and posted it online.

[At the Capital Auto Show public day, Xingchen Motors was suspected of having a conflict with Tesla executives]

The title is very eye-catching.

Clicking in reveals even more fun in the video.

Because this enthusiastic bystander was quite cunning, he actually started recording the entire incident from the moment Zhu Xiaotong loudly berated Xingchen's sales staff.

Some were shocked, some were stunned!
"Damn, this is the first time I've seen President Xu speak like this. He's so intimidating!"

"Hiss, isn't Mr. Xu being a bit too aggressive? Musk is visiting and scheduling a car viewing appointment. The communication between car companies is so ruthless. It's handled too sloppily."

"You don't understand. President Xu has always been hot-tempered. Did he show any mercy when he went head-to-head with Toyota? Did he show any mercy when he invited President Jia back to China?"

"Mr. Xu's handling of the matter is fine. If communication is necessary, it can be done on a professional day or by making an appointment in advance. It's inappropriate that the other party didn't make an appointment in advance. Also, are you guys biased? Imagine you are a visitor to the exhibition. If an ordinary person suddenly encounters this kind of arrangement and is really treated differently by the car company, how would you feel?"

……

If some of the comments above are still debating the right and wrong of the whole incident.

Looking at the other group of onlookers, they've gone so far as to forget all about the world and its intricacies in the memes.

"This is hilarious! How come you didn't catch the subtext of Mr. Xu's words? Let me translate: How dare you! You don't even pay your employees' salaries, and you still dare to insult them without permission!!"

Zhu Xiaotong: A low-level salesperson dares to neglect corporate communication? Let General Manager Xu come! -- General Manager Xu: I'm here! A regional vice president dares to scold my employees? Who do you think you are? Let Elon Musk come!!

"6666!"

“Now I understand.”

The Starry Sky booth attracted even more attention due to an unexpected conflict.

Let's set aside what industry insiders think.

Many working people felt a strong sense of identification with the comments and gave it a thumbs up.

And the phrase "Let Musk come!" finally reached the ears of the person in question.

Musk, who had just landed on the plane, fell silent upon learning of the controversy.

(End of this chapter)