giants of the era

Chapter 481 Driverless Cars
Under the auspices of Li Zetian, Cainiao Network Company was formally established, Li Zetian served as the chairman, and Jack Ma concurrently served as the CEO of Cainiao Network.

In the entire logistics network, warehousing is the storage and management link of commodities, and it is the most important!Li Zetian spent huge sums of money to build Cainiao Network, so naturally he would not use the money to build traditional warehouses.The times are developing, and if we want to build, we must build modern warehouses!In Li Zetian's vision, warehousing should be turned into an "unmanned warehouse"! ! !
The "unmanned warehouse" adopts a large number of intelligent logistics robots for coordination and cooperation. Through artificial intelligence, deep learning, image intelligent recognition, big data applications and many other advanced technologies, industrial robots can make independent judgments and behaviors to adapt to different application scenarios. , Commodity types and forms, complete various complex tasks, and realize automation in commodity sorting, transportation, warehouse delivery and other links.

Amazon has built some unmanned warehouses in the United States. According to statistics, the storage efficiency of "unmanned warehouses" is more than 10 times that of traditional beam racks, and the picking speed of parallel robots can reach 3600 times per hour, which is equivalent to 5 to 6 times that of traditional labor.

The "unmanned warehouse" can not help but save a lot of labor costs, but also greatly improve work efficiency!It's just that the initial investment is relatively large and the technical requirements are relatively high, but these two points are no problem for Li Zetian.

On the morning of November 11th, the weather was fine and the quiet West Lake was beautiful.

Cainiao Network held a business summit at the Four Seasons Hotel in West Lake, Hangzhou. Manufacturers, online merchants, third-party service providers, Alibaba, SF Express, Santong Yida and more courier companies gathered in Hangzhou, and even government officials.

At the beginning of the summit, Li Zetian was the first to take the stage. First, he gave a speech at the summit, bringing up the idea of ​​"unmanned warehouses", and even mentioned drones and unmanned vehicles. He said: "'No "Human warehouse" is the development trend of modern warehousing, so I believe that one day, couriers may also be gradually replaced by drones and unmanned vehicles!!! In the future, the warehousing of the entire logistics line will be deployed to the final delivery, Intelligent equipment will be fully enabled, from unmanned warehouses, drones to unmanned vehicles, will provide users with a more efficient and smoother shopping experience!!!”

After speaking, all the bigwigs who came to the summit expressed their shock.

What Li Zetian said vividly described the future logistics scenes for them, which surprised them and broadened their horizons!
As far as the current situation is concerned, the unmanned warehouse is already awesome, but you can still think of using unmanned aircraft or even unmanned vehicles to deliver goods?It's just crazy! ! !
Of course, there are quite a few people who have questioned this, thinking that Li Zetian's ideas are a bit whimsical, and once thought that he was a combination of a lunatic and a genius!

"I can't believe it, if it's really what Chronos Li said, then there must be a lot of logistics personnel who will lose their jobs in the future..."

"It's okay to say that there is no unmanned warehouse, but the delivery of drones and unmanned vehicles is a bit unreliable."

"Hehe, the modern traffic and road environment is so complicated that veteran drivers can't guarantee that they will be safe, let alone unmanned vehicles. If unmanned vehicles drive on the road, there may be many traffic accidents..."

"Chronos Li has a big heart, hehe, he really dares to think about anything!"

"..."

Some people dismiss Li Zetian's ideas, while others are naturally full of curiosity and interest in Li Zetian's ideas.

After the summit, the world's major media reported the content of the summit.

Within a few days, the chairman of BMW contacted Li Zetian.

"Chronos Li, hello, I am Norbert Reitheff, Chairman and CEO of BMW."

Li Zetian was slightly taken aback, slightly surprised, why did the chairman of BMW contact him?
"Oh, hello, Mr. Norbert Reitheff!" Li Zetian paused and asked, "Excuse me, what do you want from me?"

"Yes, Mr. Li." Norbert Reitheff smiled, "A few days ago, your speech at the Hangzhou Summit was very exciting, in which you mentioned the unmanned vehicle project, which BMW is very interested in. "

Li Zetian smiled wryly: "I heard that many people don't agree with the unmanned vehicle project. Your company is actually interested?"

"Haha, Mr. Li, can I say that those people are short-sighted?" Norbert Reitheff laughed, then flattered him, and said, "Who in the world doesn't know that Chronos Li is a super genius, Which design project did not succeed. Although the self-driving car project seems absurd, BMW believes that it is possible to realize it! Mr. Li, BMW is very willing to cooperate with you!!!”

Li Zetian was taken aback when he heard the words, and said flatly, "Mr. Reitheff, I think you should know that I have a car company under my name..."

"Yes, of course I know, it is Rolls-Royce Motor Company. However, Mr. Li, I think you also know that BMW's technology is much more powerful than Rolls-Royce Motor Company! If you want to develop unmanned vehicles , then cooperating with BMW will definitely be beneficial to both parties!" Norbert Reithoff's tone eased, "Mr. Li, BMW and Rolls-Royce Motor Company can jointly form an unmanned car company, you What do you think?"

At this moment, Li Zetian pondered. He was wondering why BMW, one of the world's leading auto giants, had to cooperate with him. Suddenly, Li Zetian thought that unmanned vehicles need to use a lot of artificial intelligence technology, and artificial intelligence technology, Korono The Sri Lanka Industrial Artificial Intelligence Laboratory is leading the way.You must know that almost the entire Internet is currently using the artificial intelligence technology of the Kronos Industrial Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, such as Microsoft Cortana, Apple Siri, Google Home, Baidu Dumi and so on.

The focus of unmanned vehicles is "unmanned driving".Obviously, BMW will never be able to win against Li Zetian if it develops unmanned vehicles by itself.However, if it cooperates with Li Zetian, BMW can quickly enter the unmanned vehicle market and become the first company to eat crabs.In the future, if BMW makes its own unmanned car brand again, it will have technical advantages and rich development experience than other car companies.

In addition, since Li Zetian proposed the unmanned vehicle delivery project, it means that after the unmanned vehicle is built, there will be a large number of orders.

Li Zetian thought of this very quickly. He smiled and declined politely: "Mr. Norbert Reitheff, I need to think carefully about this matter!"

"No problem, Mr. Li, we have plenty of time, as long as you think about it, you can call me anytime."

"Oh well."

After speaking, the two ended the call.

Li Zetian shook his head secretly. Although the unmanned vehicle project has not yet been approved at this time, he has been doing technical reserve work.The unmanned vehicle project has great potential for development. I would rather develop it independently than let BMW get a share of the pie, unless BMW is willing to accept its own acquisition.

Self-driving cars caused a storm in the auto industry, but it soon calmed down.Research and reports on driverless cars have always existed. In 2004, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) took the lead in conducting the most important challenge to driverless cars in history. The car traversed the Mojave Desert.In 2005, a converted Volkswagen Touareg from Stanford University took on the challenge even more perfectly.

However, no car company really regards unmanned vehicles as a key development project, at least until they see the prospect of unmanned vehicles, they will not spend their main resources on the development of unmanned vehicles.

Where there is demand, there is a market.

In Li Zetian's view, people have great doubts about the safety of unmanned vehicles, and they are by no means the best users.Just go to the street to do a market survey, and most people say they dare not take an unmanned car!

Unmanned vehicles must first pass the test of the market, and only after they are approved will people buy unmanned vehicles with confidence.So the best use for the first self-driving cars will be delivery.When people find that unmanned vehicles deliver goods without accidents, they will gradually recognize unmanned vehicles.

Therefore, Li Zetian vigorously developed logistics, and after forming a huge scale, he felt that he could develop unmanned vehicles, produce and sell them by himself, without worrying about sales.

……

After the Hangzhou summit, Li Zetian did not return to the United States immediately, but continued to stay in China for a while.He then went to Shenzhen to investigate Xiaomi.

Because of the Android system and the support of powerful spare parts suppliers, the development cycle of Xiaomi mobile phones will not be very long.

When Li Zetian came to the Xiaomi company, Lei Jun led the company's top management to welcome him out.

This was the first time Li Zetian saw Lei Jun, so he couldn't help but take a closer look at him. He was quite tall and gentle, perhaps because of the heavy work pressure, the dark circles under his eyes were a bit serious.

Well, another tech tycoon from a previous life...

Li Zetian smiled, and Lei Jun stepped forward with excitement on his face, and said excitedly: "Mr. Li, hello, I'm Lei Jun, welcome to Xiaomi!!!"

It's hard to describe how amazing the iPhone is!

Lei Jun couldn't help but regard Li Zetian as his idol, and the Xiaomi mobile phone was almost developed after the iPhone.

Li Zetian reached out to shake his hand, and said, "Hehe, hello, Lei Jun."

"Oh, by the way, Mr. Li, let me introduce you to the people around me. This is Zhou Guangping, the former senior director of Motorola BJ R&D Center, and this is Liu De, the former director of the Industrial Design Department of BJ University of Science and Technology..." Lei Jun pointed to several people around him and introduced them one by one.

"Hello!" Li Zetian nodded at them and shook hands.

After a brief introduction, Lei Jun took Li Zetian to visit the Xiaomi mobile phone research and development laboratory.

In the Xiaomi mobile phone research and development laboratory, Lei Jun introduced the characteristics and development progress of Xiaomi mobile phones to Li Zetian in detail.

Li Zetian nodded secretly, very satisfied.

The development speed of Xiaomi mobile phone is very fast. From September to now, it took two months, and Xiaomi mobile phone has almost completed 9% of the development progress.

"Xiaomi is still recruiting people, and the speed of mobile phone development will be further improved in the future!" Lei Jun said, "We will strive to officially launch Xiaomi mobile phones in April next year!"

Li Zetian nodded, pondered for a while, and said, "By April next year, Nokia will release a new mobile phone. This will be a huge challenge for Xiaomi!"

Lei Jun said confidently: "Mr. Li, don't worry, my team and I are full of confidence in Xiaomi phones!!!"

"Well," Li Zetian nodded again. He wanted to mention Xiaomi's marketing methods, but he swallowed the words. If Lei Jun and others don't have the ability to stand alone, what's the use of it...

There are many properties owned by Li Zetian in Shenzhen.

The next morning, Li Zetian went to Tencent (China) Company, and in the afternoon, he went to Baidu Company.

On the third day, Li Zetian went from Shenzhen to Hong Kong to visit his parents.Spent two days in Hong Kong before returning to the United States.

As soon as he arrived in the United States, Norbert Reitheff, chairman of BMW, actually called again. It can be seen that BMW is really interested in unmanned vehicles.

Li Zetian thought for a while, and decided to show off with him, so he said, "Mr. Norbert Reitheff, it is not impossible for BMW to cooperate with me, but I have one condition."

"Say, what are the conditions?"

"I want to invest in BMW!" Li Zetian said lightly.

"If Mr. Li wants to invest in BMW, we certainly welcome it!"

"Mr. Norbert Reitheff, maybe you don't quite understand what I mean, I want to buy BMW!" Li Zetian paused and said, "Rolls-Royce Motor Company can be merged into BMW. In addition, I will also contribute 250 billion U.S. dollars, and BMW will sell 60% of the shares to me."

Norbert Reithef immediately frowned when he heard that!
PS: I have something to do in the past few days, so the update is a little bit less, and I will update a little more tomorrow

(End of this chapter)