Rebirth 99 to become a car giant.

Chapter 597: Autonomous driving starts, another first for Nanshan Group
  In 2010, in the eyes of most people, a mobile phone was a mobile phone and a car was a car.

They are all good friends in life, but they have no special connection with each other.

On the one hand, let alone 4G, 3G mobile phones are not yet popular in China, and the advantages of smartphones have not been fully realized.

On the other hand, the number of various APPs is not particularly large. Except for HONOR 3G users, most people are not particularly familiar with APPs.

But Cao Yang knows very well that the connection between mobile phones and cars will become closer and closer in the future.

Some car companies have even begun to sell cars as great mobile phones.

Traditional cars are gradually transitioning to consumer electronics.

In the past, the quality that everyone pursued has gradually turned into the pursuit of a sense of technology.

Many traditional car companies have not kept up with the changes in this, and do not even recognize this change.

But the market will tell everyone what consumers like.

Look at 2023, once-splendid joint ventures such as Modu Volkswagen, Spring City Volkswagen, Modu GM, Yangcheng Honda, Didu Hyundai, Changan Ford, etc., have seen their profits plummet.

That was a real plunge!
  It has fallen to the point where it is almost impossible to make any money from selling cars, or even a loss.

In 2010, this was almost unthinkable.

However, the market share of Huaxia's own brands exceeds 60% and is still expanding.

Such a situation is something that people today cannot even imagine.

This is certainly due to the rapid development of electrification, but it is also due to the development of intelligent networking.

Chinese people are very good at writing, and Chinese programmers are famous for their hard work.

Adding a function to the car system may be completed in a week by a Chinese car company, but it may take half a year for Volkswagen.

The key is that the functions that those employees received very high wages and spent half a year developing are still very difficult to use and do not conform to the usage habits of consumers at all.

Almost none of the major automobile giants' car models in China have very good car-machine systems.

For this reason, Volkswagen even directly fired the entire IT business department.

It was also because Volkswagen realized that it was not good at developing software that it invested heavily in Xpeng Motors because it was interested in Xpeng Motors' intelligent technology.

Even though Xpeng Motors only sold more than [-] cars a month at that time, it had more than [-] R&D personnel engaged in intelligent network connection business.

The key is that the combat effectiveness of China's more than [-] programmers is definitely higher than the [-] programmers of Volkswagen, Honda, and Toyota.

In this case, there is naturally a big gap in the performance of the products developed by everyone.

Cao Yang realized this early and naturally wanted to remind Yao Yongxiang and Zeng Tingting to pay attention to this aspect.

"Mr. Cao, according to some reports I have seen before, what consumers use most in cars is the navigation APP of our HONOR 3G mobile phone. In this case, the navigation accuracy is higher than that of the car."

"And the current cost of car navigation is quite high. Basically, the price difference in the same car with or without navigation is at least more than [-] yuan, and can even reach [-] to [-] yuan."

"Even if the navigation is installed by consumers themselves, it usually costs several thousand yuan more, and the performance is often not guaranteed."

"So I think the next step is to focus on developing mobile phone navigation. On the one hand, the mobile phone can be fixed on the dashboard by installing a bracket."

"The other is to use the car-machine system to allow our mobile phones to be integrated with the car-machine, directly turning the car-machine into a big mobile phone."

"You can use it to operate various APPs on your mobile phone, whether it is navigation, listening to music, surfing the Internet, etc., you can consider it."

Zeng Tingting thought about the messages she had received in the past and felt that some of the information seemed to have special reference value combined with what Cao Yang said.

Xingchen Auto is a luxury brand with little historical heritage.

Although it seems to be successful now, no one is sure whether it can maintain its reputation as a luxury brand.

The continuous enhancement of the sense of technology of Xingchen Automobile makes everyone feel that Xingchen Automobile is the most technological model. Using technology to enhance the sense of luxury is something Zeng Tingting feels is feasible.

Of course, the sense of science and technology is very simple to say, but it is obviously not that easy to actually do it, or even to produce results.

However, Zeng Tingting is still very confident in her group's R&D capabilities.

That’s why I dare to make these suggestions so boldly.

Naturally, Cao Yang would not have any objections after hearing this.

In later generations, the connection between car systems and mobile phones seems to be mainly through Carlife or Carplay.

One is an Apple product, and the other is something that supports Android systems.

However, these functions are still not good enough. Many electric vehicles have gone a step further to make their vehicles understand you and consumers better.

In this regard, Cao Yang naturally has a say.

"Your ideas are very good. The Intelligent Network Center has been established for some time. They can come up with several first-generation products and officially use them on new models."

"It doesn't matter if it's not perfect, you can continue to improve."

"Of course, considering that software is developing rapidly and functional requirements are also changing, it is best for our in-car system to support OTA functions so that we can upgrade it when necessary in the future."

When Cao Yang said this, Rao Yongxiang couldn't help but said: "Mr. Cao, the OTA function is now mainly used on smartphones, and even traditional feature phones do not support it."

"For the automotive industry, there has been no OTA in the past hundreds of years. No OEM would think about supporting consumers to perform OTA upgrades regularly after selling their products to consumers."

"The changes here are not just as simple as software updates, but also have higher requirements on hardware."

"For example, the memory on DISPLAY may be sufficient at this stage, but if future system upgrade needs need to be considered, then the memory may need to be expanded."

"The same goes for the computing power of the chip. We need to reserve space for subsequent development in advance."

"As a result, our parts costs will rise to a higher level."

Rao Yongxiang can be regarded as a traditional automobile industry person.

He was obviously a little hard to accept the bold plans proposed by Cao Yang.

According to this approach, wouldn’t cars be the same as mobile phones?

But how can a car be like a mobile phone?

The security requirements are completely different.

"Mr. Cao, Mr. Rao, I think the OTA function is very important, but whether this function can exert its power depends on what we plan to upgrade OTA."

"If you just upgrade the vehicle system, it will be a bit more than worth the gain."

"If all parts such as the control system of the entire vehicle can be upgraded, then I'm afraid it will take a long time."

"What we have to do now is to clarify what needs to be done in the near future."

Zeng Tingting knew that it was meaningless to continue arguing like this.

It's better to get directly to the topic and discuss whether these things can be done and whether they can be done well.

“The navigation just mentioned is very important, but even more important is autonomous driving.” “The intelligent network center is also working hard on the vehicle-machine system and autonomous driving functions.”

"As long as this aspect is done well, other technological aspects can be gradually improved."

Cao Yang knows very well that Tesla in later generations has enjoyed the most delicious cake in the electric vehicle market by relying on its own vehicle system and excellent performance in autonomous driving.

When other car companies produce electric vehicles, they generally suffer a huge loss.

Even with a loss of blood, the car still cannot be sold.

Everyone can't wait to pile all the configurations on their own models to let consumers know that their models are very competitive.

However, a plan like this is rolled over and over again, making it difficult for everyone to survive.

It doesn't look like Tesla, it feels like a naked car.

The entire interior design is very simple (crude), and even the processing of parts is very average, generally inferior to that of joint venture car companies.

As for various rich and colorful functions, most of Tesla’s models do not have them!

It’s not that others can’t design it, nor that they can’t find auto parts giants to cooperate with.

But that’s not their selling point.

There are almost no configurations, so the parts are made as simple as possible to reduce costs.

Then maintain a relatively high profit margin.

This kind of plan is obviously impossible for China's independent brands to play.

For example, Spring City Motors and Zephyr Motors, how much can we expect from them.

Often the higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment.

It's better not to think about anything.

"If we want to develop these things on a large scale, I feel that the manpower at the intelligent network center may not be enough."

"They are developing quite a few products now, and in the future they will be installed in cars for consumers to experience firsthand."

“Consumers have the most say whether the system is easy to use or not.”

As soon as Rao Yongxiang finished speaking, Cao Yang said: "The intelligent network center can be increased to 3000 people, and will be further expanded to a design team of more than 5000 people in the next three years."

Rao Yongxiang will definitely not miss this good opportunity to ask his boss for help.

It was rare for Cao Yang to take the initiative to ask, otherwise he wouldn't know what was going on.

"You don't need to worry about spending money. In the end, the money will be recovered from the wool."

With Cao Yang's words, it is natural for everyone to stop worrying about whether to invest in the development of new robot technology.

Cao Yangke is planning to further rapidly increase the number of employees in the group in the future, especially the number of R&D personnel.

He wants to build Nanshan Group into a technology-based company, making it a benchmark for Chinese enterprises and the target for everyone to benchmark against.

……

"Mr. Li, I heard a piece of news recently, which I find a bit strange."

Geely Automobile has naturally been paying close attention to the activities of the Nanshan Group. There are even dedicated people within the company doing this.

At present, the automobile industry is in a stage of rapid development, and everyone wants to become a marketer.

Otherwise, it will really be a shopping bargain at the price, which is really not easy.

"Is there anything weird these days?"

Peng Lin thought about it and felt that since it had already been said for this reason, he might as well make it clear.

However, people don’t have that much time to deal with the data.

"The photo studio that originally bought our Beauty Leopard sports car is said to have purchased a Jaguar F-TYPE sports car."

"And some photo studios have launched a new business, which is to use a fleet of sports cars to pick up brides."

"This approach will definitely attract a wave of attention."

Obviously it is very convenient for people in photo studios to buy sports cars to take wedding photos and so on.

But for these photo studios, those are not consumables and can be reused.

But when collecting money from customers, the cost is calculated based on the fastest depreciation amortization time.

"Although Jaguar is an established company, its influence in the country has not been very high."

"This time we have successfully opened up the sports car market, and the situation behind it will be more interesting."

"But the wedding car idea does have some feasibility."

"It's just that these options are not necessarily the most suitable for us."

Li Su didn't lose his temper because of the recent poor sales of Beauty Leopard. From 2003 to now, Beauty Leopard has long been uncompetitive.

So many of their things will definitely be replaced by then.

Some people may even be replaced.

"The top priority is to make the cost of our sports cars as low as possible. Then we can rely on low prices to seize a market. If the following car companies want to compete with us, the pressure will be completely different."

Li Su is not a person who hesitates.

We have already decided to enter the semiconductor industry, and even joint venture fabs have begun to be built.

There is no turning back in this case.

"Mr. Li, I understand. I will go to the purchasing department to discuss it later and see what the next step is."

"Zhongtye dares to offer such a low price. I think there is still room for reduction in the cost of Beauty Leopard."

He is the head of the sales department, so Peng Lin doesn't particularly care whether his words will dig holes for the purchasing department.

In the workplace, if everything depends on considering other people's ideas, then your life will definitely be difficult.

A job like that will end up being very frustrating.

People still need some subjective initiative.

Otherwise, it will be muddled.

"Then let's talk about it first, and make an appointment for a special report next week!"

Peng Lin:......

(End of this chapter)