(Pictures are from Baidu, delete if infringement)
article ▍ Chen Bo
Last night, At the 2022 Lei Jun annual speech, Lei Jun summarized and analyzed the "understandings of crossing the trough of life" and " Xiaomi Entrepreneurship Thoughts", and at the same time he also revealed Xiaomi's new progress in car manufacturing.
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There are two highlights in this press conference. The first highlight is the release of a new generation of folding screen mobile phone MIX Fold 2. In recent years, the overall sales of the mobile phone market have shown a significant decline. The mobile phone manufacturers such as oppo, vivo, Huawei and Honor have not had a good time. After Honor was separated from Huawei, it looked relatively higher due to Huawei's previous sales foundation, but the overall trend of the mobile phone market has declined, just to see who has declined less. The only part that performed well in
is the high-end machine field, the focus is on the folding machines of Huawei and Samsung . These two models have good sales in the past two years and can also get a share of the mobile phone market. However, Xiaomi's folding machine's market sales share has just entered the top five because the thickness of the current folding screen phone is equivalent to two ordinary phones, and the thickness problem has a great impact on the sense of use. The key model of this press conference, the MIX Fold 2, is a big move that Lei Jun has been holding back for a long time. The expansion thickness of this phone is only 5.4mm, the folding thickness is 11.2mm, and the weight is only 262g, which is a major improvement in folding screen mobile phones. The most core design of the folding machine is the hinge. The hinge is easy to be damaged during use. The durability of the hinge, the flatness of the screen and whether the battery life is strong enough are all key elements to evaluate whether the folding mobile phone is easy to use. After all, the screen is twice as big, and the requirements for power consumption need to be greatly improved. It is difficult to achieve both thin body and low power consumption and long battery life. As for the final effect, we have to look at the sales of Xiaomi's MIX Fold 2 after its launch.
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The second highlight is that Lei Jun showed the progress of Xiaomi Auto. Lei Jun said that it has been 500 days since officially announced that he has entered the electric vehicle industry, and car manufacturing is progressing in an orderly manner, progressing smoothly, even exceeding expectations. After all, mobile phones are already a sunset industry. Whether Xiaomi can develop well in the future depends mainly on whether there are breakthroughs in the automotive industry. Lei Jun said: "Xiaomi has a deeper understanding of the automobile industry. We must have a sense of awe when making cars. Cars are very complicated and we must not be in a hurry."
From this press conference, we can clearly see Xiaomi's subsequent development positioning in car manufacturing. Xiaomi takes autonomous driving as the first breakthrough direction for smart electric vehicles, adopts full-stack self-developed algorithms, and fully develops autonomous driving technology. Lei Jun said that Xiaomi’s first phase of autonomous driving technology plans to carry out tests nationwide one after another, with the goal of entering the industry’s first camp by 2024.
New energy vehicles have two core technologies, one is "three electrics" and the other is intelligent driving, or a smart cockpit in a broad sense. "Three electrics" are batteries, motors, and electronic controls. For this part of the technology, Xiaomi cannot catch up with it, whether it is the earliest Tesla or the domestic BYD . It is almost unlikely that Xiaomi will enter the first camp of the industry within two years. There is a big difference between the technology track and the software track that Xiaomi is good at. Xiaomi hopes to make a difference in the new energy market and can only choose another core technology to attack, that is, intelligent driving. This part of the technology corresponds to the software technology that Xiaomi is good at.
Although Lei Jun said that Xiaomi invested 3.3 billion R&D expenses in the first phase of the autonomous driving project, the team size has exceeded 500 people, and it will enter the first camp of the industry in 2024. But in my opinion, Xiaomi's current configuration is still very far from Lei Jun's goal.You should know that Huawei's R&D team has at least 5,000 people, and the self-driving team of Baidu has hundreds of people alone. So according to Xiaomi's investment and configuration, it is still very challenging to enter the first echelon in 2024. I suggest that Lei Jun should increase investment in self-driving projects.
Lei Jun chose the track right. If Xiaomi Auto wants to have a place in the market in the future, it must have its own highlights. It is unlikely that the "three-electric" technology will be technically possible. I guess I will also find OEM factories to do it in the manufacturing of the entire vehicle. What can be developed by myself are nothing more than smart cockpits and AI. Smart cockpits are more about product design. For example, the famous new energy brand Ideal. Although the ideal "three-electric" technology is not strong, it has achieved a comprehensive victory in the design of smart cockpits. Xiaomi has been pursuing user experience, and I believe the design of the smart cockpit will not be bad. Intelligent driving may be a unique skill that Xiaomi cars can break through.
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Finally, Lei Jun also demonstrated Xiaomi's strength in artificial intelligence through the humanoid bionic robot CyberOne. Tesla has also shown artificial intelligence robots at the press conference before, but many people questioned that robots were played by real people. What Lei Jun showed this time is obviously real artificial intelligence. Xiaomi's self-developed full-body control algorithm , coordinates movement of 21 joint freedom, and can also perform horse stance movements. Although it looks a little clumsy, it is still very distinctive. At the press conference last year, Lei Jun "showed" the robot dog Tiedan . This time, "showed" the human-shaped Tiedan, showing Xiaomi's achievements and determination in the field of artificial intelligence.
We interpreted the press conference of Lei Jun in two sessions. Today I interpreted some of Lei Jun’s displays on the product. In the next article, I will explain the history of Lei Jun’s struggle to you.
