Reborn in 2011, 985 missing from two copies

Chapter 377: New Energy Development and AI Empowerment
Unmanned food delivery vehicles and unmanned express delivery vehicles can only grab some good orders that do not require delivery to doors or homes.

However, those "troublesome orders" that need to be taken upstairs and delivered to homes still need the responsibility of riders and couriers.

But driverless taxis are different.

As the accuracy of maps continues to improve, all the orders that taxi drivers can run can be run by Luobo Kuaipao after several generations of development, and it has some advantages!
For example, driverless taxis will not take detours maliciously or refuse passengers. No matter how far or near you are, or how bad the weather is, they will pick you up after receiving the order.

Unlike some drivers who accept orders but decide not to take them because the distance is short and they cannot make money, forcing passengers to cancel the orders themselves or increase the fare.

Nor will they be like some drivers who accept a fixed-price order, act sarcastic all the way because they are dissatisfied about not making any money, do not turn on the air conditioner even on hot days, and annoy passengers.

There is no need to worry about encountering unscrupulous drivers and being in personal danger. After all, there is no driver and the price is cheaper.

Some people may worry that once Luobo Kuaipao defeats taxis and online ride-hailing services and monopolizes the industry, it will quickly raise prices and start reaping the rewards, and the prices may even be more expensive than taxis and online ride-hailing services!

Actually, there is no need to worry about this.

The driverless taxi industry cannot be monopolized and is a profitable business. If Baidu can make a profit on the first day, Huawei, BYD and other companies can make a profit on the fifteenth day.

By then, multiple brands of driverless taxis will be operating simultaneously on the market, all at low cost. It would be good enough if they don't engage in price wars to win customers. How could there be a crazy price increase?
It is conceivable that once driverless taxis become popular, the future of traditional taxis and online ride-hailing vehicles will be uncertain.

700 million taxi drivers are also facing the risk of unemployment.

But there is no way. The wheel of time is moving forward relentlessly and will crush everything ruthlessly. No one can stop the wheel with a mantis arm.

Like in the previous life, even if Baidu didn’t do the Carrot Run, other companies would do it.

Even if domestic companies do not make driverless taxis, foreign companies will.

This cannot be changed or prevented.

The ultimate beneficiaries are hundreds of millions of passengers, who can take taxis with better service and lower prices, which may even save them money compared to driving their own gasoline cars to work, after all, the cost of fuel and parking fees are not small.

The tragedy is that seven million taxi drivers will face collective unemployment!
And Gaode Taxi is on the verge of bankruptcy!
A common saying is that if you lose your job, the worst that can happen is you drive for Didi.

It is this sentence that has led to the over-saturation of the online ride-hailing industry.

Even without Carrot Run, online ride-hailing services are oversaturated, revenues are declining, and people are constantly joining!
The emergence of driverless taxis has dealt a critical blow to online ride-hailing services. Once they become popular, this retreat will be completely ended.

But a tree that is not moved will die, but a person who moves will live.

If you can’t make it in the online ride-hailing business anymore, you can try other industries. There is always a way out.

After all, there is still a shortage of people in many industries.

For example, in the construction industry, if you go to any construction site, the average age is over 45 years old, and many are migrant workers in their s or even s!
Not to mention being over the age limit...migrant workers don't even have a pension, nor is there any concept of retirement, so it's very normal for them to work until they are over 60.

Young people in their twenties and thirties would rather drive for Didi or deliver food than work on construction sites, leading to a labor shortage.

Once these migrant workers in their 50s and 60s retire and the young people stop working on the construction sites, it will be completely over.

After all, the city needs renovation and development now. It will also need renovation ten years from now, and even twenty years from now.

And all this requires migrant workers.

The emergence of driverless taxis has cut off the way of driving online ride-hailing vehicles. The emergence of driverless express and food delivery vehicles has reduced the demand for couriers and riders, and has also forced some young people to return to construction sites.

It's cruel, but there's nothing we can do about it.

You have to choose between working hard at a construction site and earning 8,000 yuan, or working overtime in the office and earning 4,000 yuan.

At present, Baidu is already deploying autonomous driving research and development.

More than ten years later, Baidu's Carrot Run developed rapidly and became increasingly popular, and Wang Yi's AutoNavi Taxi went bankrupt!
With the development of the times like this, Wang Yi is powerless to compete.

No matter how well AutoNavi Taxi performs, it cannot withstand Baidu's driverless taxis that operate 24 hours a day.

There is only one solution, and that is for Xingyi Technology to step in and develop AI driverless algorithms on its own and become the "Carrot Runner" itself!
You must plan early and start planning now.

The main task of Xingyi's AI algorithm department is to develop unmanned driving and large AI models.

A few years later, the accuracy of Amap will be improved to a terrifying level, and Wang Yi will also launch driverless cars, but he will not directly destroy the jobs of online car-hailing and taxi companies.

After all, Gaode Taxi is also its own business, and Wang Yi will not directly let the online taxi drivers who have worked for Gaode for many years become unemployed.

On the contrary, Wang Yi will take out the first batch of online-hailing cars and sell them to senior car owners of AutoNavi, so that they can have income and security for the rest of their lives.

At that time, Gaode will take half of the money earned by driverless taxis every day, and the other half will be given to the drivers.

Maybe the commission will be less than before when the car was driven every day, but at least they can get the money without driving every day, which is also a good thing.

With this income while sleeping, online ride-hailing drivers can retire early or do other jobs more securely and will not be unemployed instantly.

Of course, this offer is only available to Gaode drivers with more than five years of service, and it does not apply to new drivers like Wang Yi.

Otherwise, there will inevitably be a large number of people who originally did not want to drive online ride-hailing cars who temporarily join Gaode drivers in order to earn this "passive income".

That would be a mess.

What Wang Yi did was just to seek benefits for old employees so that they would not be collectively unemployed and left without support in their old age. It was not charity.

In addition, before that, a five-year contract will be signed with old employees. The content of the contract is that the drivers need to help Xingyi Technology train the large model of autonomous driving and draw accurate map data!

Autonomous driving is accomplished by algorithms, but this algorithm is not something that can be created in one go. Instead, it is a large model that is trained and upgraded over many years!
For example, will Baidu’s Carrot Run really only be operational in 2024?

No, as early as 2020, Luobokuaipao started operations in some areas such as the capital and Changsha.

As early as 2017, Baidu launched Apollo, the world's first open autonomous driving platform.

As early as 2013, Baidu began the research and development of autonomous driving!
Although Baidu's autonomous driving and LuoBoKuaipao had a low presence in the past few years, they are very powerful. In the field of L4 autonomous driving, they are the world's top companies and are far ahead.

Huawei, Tesla, Xiaopeng and other companies all have L2 conditional autonomous driving, which is also called assisted driving.

Of course, this does not mean that Baidu is better than Huawei and Tesla. It can only be said that they are two different tracks.

What Baidu is directly doing is L4 autonomous driving. The advantage is that it is truly unmanned driving, not a half-baked assisted driving, but the disadvantage is equally obvious. It can only operate in a high-precision map area. Once it goes out of this range, it will be blinded instantly.

The L2 autonomous driving of Huawei, Tesla and other companies is assisted driving and cannot be done without people. It cannot be truly unmanned like Carrot Run. However, with the powerful combination of software and hardware, it can adapt to more road conditions and is not restricted by maps.

Even driving on unmapped roads in the countryside can be assisted.

It is impossible to say which one is stronger or weaker, or which one has taken a wrong path. We can only say that they are on different tracks and are targeting different groups.

Baidu's L4 autonomous driving can be driven without a driver, but it is inseparable from accurate maps. It is destined to be suitable for B-side commercial use and to operate autonomous driverless taxis in limited areas.

The L2 assisted driving of Huawei and Tesla can adapt to all road conditions and is not restricted by maps, but it is inseparable from people and is more suitable for assisted driving for C-end consumers.

What is similar is that both Baidu and Huawei started to develop driverless cars in 2012-2013.

That’s right, this industry requires ten years of hard work!
Similarly, Xingyi Technology also needs to plan and prepare in advance.

Wang Yi acquired Xiaoi Robot and established the Xingyi AI algorithm department to prepare for this purpose.

We are currently investing huge amounts of money to start developing AI algorithms and driverless algorithms.

As for the direction? L2 assisted driving or L4 autonomous driving?

Only children make choices, Wang Yi wants both.

That’s right, Wang Yi is doing both L2 assisted driving and L4 autonomous driving.

There is no other way. Xingyi Technology will develop new energy in the future, and assisted driving is essential, so it has to be done.

Similarly, Xingyi Technology owns AutoNavi Taxi. If it does not develop L4 autonomous driving, once Baidu's autonomous driving is implemented, the streets will be full of Radish Drive driverless taxis, and AutoNavi Taxi will completely collapse and go bankrupt!
Millions of its online ride-hailing drivers will be unemployed.

In order to give these people some way out, Wang Yi had to do L4 autonomous driving!

After all, Baidu's "carrot-running" strategy leaves no room for survival, while Wang Yi's L4 autonomous driving can be sold to AutoNavi's veteran drivers, giving them a stable income!
It can let Gaode Taxi compete with Baidu's Carrot Run!

Therefore, Wang Yi has to do both L2 and L4.

The advantage is that Wang Yi has AutoNavi Navigation and AutoNavi Taxi, and has advantages in database and unmanned driving algorithm training that Huawei and Baidu do not have.

The simplest thing is that in order to train driverless algorithms, Baidu and Huawei need a lot of cars to run around every day, collect data, train algorithms, and update them generation after generation.

It's not just algorithm updates, but also equipment updates.

The case of Xingyi Technology is much simpler. Millions of AutoNavi taxi drivers are running all over the country, and they are simply millions of walking mapping cars!

It is fully capable of achieving the most accurate and fastest real-time update of maps.

With the support of Amap's precise maps, there is no pressure whether it is L2, L3 or L4.

As for making cars?

You have to do it yourself!

In the past, even Huawei encountered setbacks and was cheated everywhere when cooperating with third parties, until it finally joined hands with the bankrupt Xiaokang Automobile and gained success.

Wang Yi didn't want to suffer this humiliation, so he personally started to build the car for the Xingyi brand.

And the qualifications for car manufacturing have become a big problem!
There are two qualifications for new energy vehicle manufacturing, one is the major qualification from the National Development and Reform Commission, and the other is the minor qualification from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Both of these qualifications are difficult to obtain.

For example, the qualifications of the National Development and Reform Commission require financing capabilities, R&D capabilities, production capabilities, quality assurance and service capabilities, as well as forward R&D capabilities, relevant invention patents, and mastery of the design, development, testing, and monitoring capabilities of vehicle control systems, power battery systems, vehicle integration, and vehicle lightweighting.

In addition, the factory must be built within two years and the vehicles must be sold within three years.

However, from 2015 to 2017, the government relaxed the qualification conditions and issued 15 new force qualifications. But after 2017, the conditions were tightened rapidly. If you want to build a car in the future, just like OTT licenses, you can only spend money to acquire them.

Wang Yi plans to start planning as soon as possible, invest huge sums of money, and try to build a team and reserve technical patents within two years.

The qualifications were obtained and the factory was built within three years, and the car was put on sale within four years, which meant that around 2016, Xingyi Automobile was listed.

The timing is just right.

After all, the initial cost of batteries for new energy cannot be reduced, technological breakthroughs cannot be made, and the battery life is short, so it doesn’t make much sense to start early.

In the past, new energy went through three stages of development.

The first stage, before 2017, was the exploration period of new energy, mainly focusing on converting oil to electricity, micro cars, and cheating on subsidies.

The second stage, from 2018 to 2020 is a period of industry reshuffle and clearance. As subsidies decreased, micro-cars suffered a critical blow, pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles began to develop, Tesla was introduced, and the catfish effect began.

The third stage, after 2021, is the competition and explosion period. Domestic new energy vehicles are experiencing a big explosion, with all-round improvement in technology, quality and experience, and they are madly swallowing up the gasoline vehicle market.

As for the fourth stage, it will inevitably be a shift from electric to oil. The range of electric and hybrid vehicles will be greatly improved, the cost will be greatly reduced, and the market share will surpass that of oil vehicles and replace oil vehicles.

The most interesting thing is that around 2016, the government provided a large amount of subsidies for new energy and strongly supported the development of new energy.

As a result, a number of companies did not cherish the opportunity, but instead produced shoddy products and defrauded subsidies.

How can the product be called a new energy vehicle? It is clearly a Lao Tou Le!
This forced the authorities to introduce Tesla as a catfish to clean up the market.

This time, Wang Yi is ready to take action in advance. When competitors are cheating on subsidies, Xingyi Technology will be the catfish and directly use its excellent new energy to crush the competitors who are cheating on subsidies.

Xingyi Technology directly built a factory in Shanghai and developed on a large scale.

In this way, there is no need to introduce Tesla.

By then, Xingyi Technology will have taken over part of Tesla’s domestic market!

In 2016, L2 level assisted driving opened up the future of Xingyi Automobile.

A few years later, we will use L4 highly autonomous driving to compete with Baidu's Carrot Run and provide a way out for AutoNavi drivers and AutoNavi Taxi.

Wang Yi doesn't want Gaode Taxi to be defeated by Baidu's Carrot Run!
The entire research and development process of autonomous driving will take at least ten years, or even more.

In the past, Baidu has been conducting research and development for more than ten years, but Level 4 highly automated driving has only been carried out in limited areas.

Similarly, Huawei and Tesla have been working on assisted driving for more than ten years, but have not reached the L3 level.

If it really reaches L5 level of fully autonomous driving, the kind that doesn't even need a steering wheel, Wang Yi feels that fifteen years may not be enough, and it may even take twenty years.

That is, around 2030, there is hope that fully autonomous driving will be achieved.

At that time, cars did not have steering wheels, and the driver and co-driver seats were made into bunk sofas.

You don't need a driver's license. Just tell the car your destination after getting in and it will drive you there automatically.

And the prerequisite is that Wang Yi starts planning from now on!

To this end, on the second day after returning to Xingyi Technology from iFLYTEK, Wang Yi immediately convened the senior management of Xingyi Technology and the AI ​​algorithm department.

Even the head of the Xiaoi Robot Department arrived in the capital early for the meeting.

Wang Yi looked around at everyone and said, "The first thing is about AI and technology sharing. Xiao-i Robotics and iFlytek are good at natural language processing and speech recognition and speech synthesis, respectively. I have reached an agreement with iFlytek CEO Liu that both parties will share core technologies, speech and semantic databases, and make progress together!"

"The second thing is about AI and business division. After sharing voice, semantic technology and database, the AI ​​algorithms and technologies of Xiao-i Robotics and iFlytek will improve rapidly, but there may also be business conflicts."

"For this reason, I have negotiated with iFLYTEK. Both sides have divided their fields and tried to dig deep into their respective areas and sweep away other competitors. There is no need to fight among ourselves."

"In the future, Xiaoi Robot will focus on toB business, focusing on AI smart customer service, smart city, smart finance, and smart medical care, and deeply cultivating B-side business. At the same time, we will also develop Xiaoai speakers for C-side."

"Iflytek will focus on toC business, such as translation machine, iFlytek input method, iFlytek hearing and other C-end businesses, as well as AI education for B-end."

After saying that, Wang Yi looked at the leader of the Little I Robot, who quickly said:

"Okay, Chairman. Sharing technology and databases will increase our strength, and business division will help us avoid business conflicts. I fully accept this."

Wang Yi nodded: "Very good, for the follow-up matters, you arrange for the technical team to contact and integrate with iFlytek. Use iFlytek's speech recognition technology and speech synthesis technology to complete the dialect recognition of Xiao Ai Speaker as soon as possible!"

Right now Xiao Ai’s dialect recognition is very poor, which is giving Wang Yi a headache. He can only use iFlytek’s technology and dialect database to solve the problem.

"Yes!"

Wang Yi continued: "The third thing is that I have received accurate information that Baidu and Huawei are going to set up autonomous driving R&D departments and start deploying autonomous driving R&D, and even plan the R&D of overall solutions for new energy vehicles."

In the past, Huawei started its plan in 2012, and Baidu started its plan in 2013.

Although they have been reborn, there is no doubt that the two major companies will continue to advance this major strategy.

So Wang Yi pointed it out directly.

Upon hearing this, everyone's expression changed drastically.

No one would have thought that Huawei and Baidu would already start developing driverless cars.

Wang Yi continued: "The R&D of new energy vehicles is a three-year process, and we are now starting to lay out the plan. The Human Resources Department quickly recruited R&D experts and talents in the field of new energy vehicles to build the Xingyi Automobile Research Center, conduct R&D of the three-electric system and vehicle solutions, and accumulate patents."

“We will have a hybrid solution within two years, obtain new energy qualifications and build a factory within three years, and launch the Xingyi car within four years!”

"Yes!" Everyone responded one after another.

I understood Wang Yi's determination.

When making mobile phones, there was no four-year plan, but when making cars, there was a four-year plan.

There is no other reason. What Wang Yi wants to do is not to assemble cars, but to develop the three-electric system by himself, including electric motors, power batteries, and electronic control systems!
Wang Yi continued: "The research and development of driverless cars is a much longer process."

"We will first carry out L2 assisted driving, and once the accuracy of Amap is improved, we will simultaneously advance the research and development of L4 autonomous driving."

"In the future, with hundreds of millions of users of AutoNavi Maps and millions of car owners using AutoNavi Taxi, providing data every day, our autonomous driving database will be updated the fastest, most timely, and most complete. As long as the algorithm keeps up, we can become the first company to produce L2, L3, and L4 autonomous driving systems!"

"Xingyi Automobile, as the most important strategic core of Xingyi Technology in the future, I will personally take charge. Only success is allowed, not failure!"

"Yes!" Everyone responded one after another.

At present, Xingyi mobile phones have reached the first echelon, and so has the Xingyi tablet.

It makes sense to launch Xingyi Automobile at this time and make arrangements in advance.

After all, a car is much more complicated than a mobile phone. If it is assembled, it can be made in two to three years.

But developing the three-electric system independently is very difficult, and it will take at least four or five years.

But someone has to do it.

Huawei did it in its previous life, and this time, Xingyi Technology can do it as well!
"Xingyi Automobile R&D Center should recruit people and set up as soon as possible. As for the unmanned driving algorithm, we should also select elite backbones and put it on the agenda as soon as possible!"

Wang Yi instructed one by one.

After the meeting, Jian Ziyan was asked to stay again: "Ziyan, you should recruit talents vigorously from now on. Not only domestic ones, but also overseas ones such as Tesla and Bosch. All those who can be recruited should be recruited."

Why has Xingyi Semiconductor been able to develop so rapidly and overtake Huawei HiSilicon Semiconductor?

The reason is very simple. HiSilicon recruited its own people, started from scratch, and made mistakes bit by bit through trial and error.

Xingyi Semiconductor directly recruited the big names and teams from the semiconductor giant Texas Instruments. Standing on the shoulders of the giant Texas Instruments, it naturally developed faster and more rapidly.

The same is true for the development of automobiles.

After investing in BYD, Wang Yi was embarrassed to poach people from BYD, so he directly poached people from Tesla and Bosch.

There is no doubt that Tesla, like BYD, is a giant in new energy vehicles.

Of course, the so-called Tesla public technology patents have enabled the rapid development of domestic new energy, or even that domestic new energy cannot be produced without Tesla's public patents, are all nonsense.

In fact, Tesla only disclosed more than 2014 patents in 200, while BYD had already produced hybrid electric vehicles as early as 2003.

In this way, BYD is the originator of new energy.

In addition, the patents disclosed by Tesla are of little value to domestic cars. Most of them are mortgaged patents and have extremely strict requirements.

To put it bluntly, if you want to use it, you have to obey Tesla's various restrictions. In the end, it would be better to do it yourself.

More importantly, even a fool would not make the truly core patents public.

For example, BYD’s DMI technology cannot be made public!
Therefore, the only valuable thing is to poach some of Tesla's R&D personnel.

As for Bosch, not to mention, it is a top automotive supplier.

Although Bosch does not manufacture cars itself, all major brands cannot do without Bosch's products.

Recruiting people from these two directions will undoubtedly be the most effective.

"Chairman, don't worry, I'll take care of this." Jian Ziyan agreed: "By the way, JD.com's CEO Liu will come to visit you tomorrow."

"Yes, there is also the JD.com matter!" Wang Yi remembered this.

New energy is being planned now and will not be available on the market until four or five years later.

The current Xingyi Smart Home is progressing rapidly.

(End of this chapter)