In the early stages of Xingyi TV, Wang Yi can also serve as CEO and decide how Xingyi TV operates and develops.

But in the future, there will be more and more businesses, and Wang Yi will not be able to take care of them all. He still has to train a professional CEO to be responsible for the development of Xingyi TV.

The same is true for other business units. The CEO and technical director are separated and each performs their own duties, complementing each other and developing healthily.

For example, regarding the construction progress and development of the Xingyi TV factory, Xu Mingyi had previously been in contact with Daocheng, and Wang Yi had no involvement at all.

As early as four months ago, Xu Mingyi calculated the estimated delivery time of the factory, recruited employees in advance, and conducted training.

Now that it has been officially delivered, those people have taken up their posts directly, which makes it a lot easier.

Wang Yi saw all this, and after examining it for a while, he found that Xu Mingyi was indeed a talent, so he made him the CEO of Xingyi TV.

Of course, the smooth development of Xingyi TV business is also related to Daocheng.

The island city already has Hisense TV, which is the largest TV industry base in China and a gathering place for TV-related practitioners.

Whether it is workshop workers or technicians, as well as TV suppliers, the industrial chain is very mature in the island city.

It can be said that the existence of Hisense has supported the TV industry cluster in the island city.

This is also the reason why Wang Yi placed Xingyi TV in the island city. By utilizing the existing industrial clusters, Xingyi TV can develop rapidly.

This is the industrial cluster effect.

If it were placed in Jeju, it would be over. There would be no television industry in Jeju, and the entire upstream and downstream industry chain would have to be built from scratch.

Similarly, the placement of Xingyi Smart Home Industrial Park in Daocheng was based on this consideration.

At present, the domestic electrical appliance industry is mainly concentrated in two major cities.

Beidao City, South Foshan!

The island city mainly sells large appliances such as refrigerators, TVs, and washing machines, with brands such as Haier, Hisense, and Aucma.

In Foshan, in addition to large appliances such as air conditioners and washing machines, there is also a small household appliance industry such as lighting. Not only Midea, but also Foshan Lighting, Galanz and other brands.

Developing corresponding industries in places where industrial clusters are mature will undoubtedly be much easier and the cost will be much lower.

On the contrary, if the cost is too high, the product will not be very competitive.

Just like new energy lidar, does Musk really think lidar is bad? Does Musk really think lidar is inferior to pure vision solutions?

of course not!

It was only because the cost of lidar in 2016 was too high that Tesla could not afford it, so it chose a cheap pure vision solution.

After many years, the cost of lidar has dropped sharply, but Tesla has gone too far in the purely visual field and has limited accumulation in the field of lidar. If it wants to switch to lidar, it will have to start from scratch, and it will be difficult to return!

If the cost of lidar is as cheap in 2016 as it will be five years later, Musk is afraid that the first-generation Tesla will have lidar as standard.

After all, purely visual solutions have many disadvantages, such as rainy days, foggy days, night and other harsh environments, which are all disasters for purely visual solutions.

LiDAR may cost more, but it is more secure.

Whether it is L4 or L2 autonomous driving, the most critical thing is safety!

Safety must be given top priority, and this alone determines that a purely visual solution is unreliable.

At the very least, it is a comprehensive solution of vision + lidar, or a full range of lidar.

Now that Xingyi TV has been successfully developed and will be mass-produced within a week, Wang Yi also has to prepare for the future.

Xingyi Automobile is the next big project and will take several years to prepare.

But many technologies have already begun to be developed.

At the end of April, Wang Yi set out to establish the Xingyi Automobile R&D department and began to recruit various talents to conduct comprehensive research and development from three-electric systems to complete vehicle solutions.

The driving solution of Xingyi Automobile is vision + lidar.

Of course, the initial stage can only be purely visual.

Without him, the current lidar is too expensive. Each one costs hundreds of thousands of yuan, which is more expensive than a car. It is simply unaffordable.

In the previous life, until 2016, a 16-line lidar cost 50,000 yuan, and a 64-line lidar cost 500,000 yuan.

The 16-line lidar has a detection range of only 100 meters, which is not enough. It needs at least 64 lines.

It's just that the 64-line lidar costs a whopping 500,000 yuan, and you have to queue up to buy it.

Model 3, which was launched in 2016, is priced at only 35,000 US dollars, which is more than 200,000 yuan. It is less expensive than half a 64-line lidar, so Tesla cannot afford it.

Even by 2019, the price of lidar will be 150,000-200,000.

However, in 2021, the price of lidar will reach 10,000 yuan.

In 2023, it dropped to three to four thousand.

More than a thousand in 2024...

When the price of lidar drops below 2,000, it will be fully popularized.

But right now, it's unrealistic, very unrealistic.

Wang Yi sighed, unless he develops it himself and then produces it on a large scale.

The reason why the price of lidar in previous generations has been unable to come down is not because the cost is really high, but because Velodyne has a unique brain circuit.

Lidar, like chips, has a scale effect.

To mass-produce 1,000 64-line laser radars, the diluted cost will be 200,000 per unit, and the selling price will be 500,000 per unit.

For mass production of 100,000 64-line laser radars, the diluted cost is only a few thousand yuan, and the selling price can be reduced to 10,000 yuan!

It's just a scale effect.

But Velodyne has a unique brain circuit. With so many customers queuing up to place orders, they not only do not increase production capacity, but also expand scale and seize the market.

On the contrary, we still produce slowly, sell slowly, and sell it at a high price.

In the previous life, from 2007 to 2019, a full 12 years, the total sales volume of Velodyne's lidar was only 30,000 units, but the revenue was as high as 500 million US dollars, and the average price of each unit was more than 100,000 yuan.

It wasn't until Hesai Technology, Sagitar and other domestic lidar companies broke out, turning the tables and driving down the price of lidar, that it gradually began to gain popularity.

However, in the previous life, Hesai Technology built a team in the United States in 2013, returned to China to found Hesai Technology in 2014, and only developed a 32-line laser radar in 2016.

Now that it has not been established and has no output, it is all in vain.

Wang Yi couldn't wait any longer and had no choice but to do it himself.

It just so happens that lidar is not only used in electric vehicles, but also in sweeping robots.

Of course, the lidar of sweeping robots is much lower-level and cheaper.

After all, a sweeping robot only costs a few thousand yuan, and it is unrealistic to equip it with a high-end laser radar that costs tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands.

In 2010, Neato launched the Neato XV-11, which was equipped with lidar, thus opening a new era of popularization of sweeping robots.

The lidar carried by Neato XV-11 was stripped of all unused structures and frantically emasculated, and the final cost was reduced to 200 RMB.

Similarly, if Xingyi Technology wants to develop a sweeping robot, it also needs to develop lidar.

First, I will make a low-end lidar to practice for the Xingyi sweeping robot. At the same time, I will run into the team and accumulate experience, and then I will make a high-end automotive lidar.

Undoubtedly just right.

Thinking of this, Wang Yi approached Jian Ziyan: "Ziyan, immediately recruit lidar research and development experts and experts, no matter the cost or funds. Set up the Xingyi Lidar Division to develop our own lidar!"

"What?" Jian Ziyan was startled.

Since becoming the steward of Xingyi Technology, Jian Ziyan has been learning to recharge every day.

Everyone has a good understanding of cutting-edge technologies in the field of science and technology, and naturally knows how deep the water of lidar is.

"Chairman, lidar technology is a high-end new technology. There are very few companies with core technology, and none in China. But for autonomous driving, it is a necessary foundation. It is appropriate for us to join now, but it is not easy to recruit people.

There are very few talents in related majors in China." Jian Ziyan sighed.

In 2012, lidar was indeed an emerging industry with very few talents.

But Wang Yi waved his hand: "It's easy to say, if you can't recruit at home, then go to the United States to recruit, go to the European Union. Go to MIT, Imperial College, Harvard, Stanford! As long as you have the strength, no matter how much money you spend,

You can dig them all back for me. In this emerging field, there are very few big names in the industry who are well-established in the field. I have to recruit the right Ph.D.s from Ivy League schools. There are also top domestic academics who have gone to the United States to study abroad. Anyone who can be poached will be hired by me.

Dig it back!"

Wang Yike remembered that the three founders of laser radar giant Hesai Technology in the previous life were the three top students who studied abroad in the United States.

In fact, there are two types of returnees from elite schools.

The first category is liberal arts, ordinary undergraduate schools. Through grades and other methods, you can get an offer from an Ivy League school and study majors such as business administration, art, philosophy, etc.

Most of them are water masters, also known as water turtles. Most of them have no ability, and their gold content is not as good as the top two in China, or even as good as one.

This kind of people come back with a gold plate, have a background in their family, and have arranged a path to directly enter some good units.

But if you have no background and no path, it will be difficult to find a job, and it may not even be as useful as a domestic undergraduate degree.

The other type is those who have a master's degree or doctorate in science and engineering. Their undergraduate degree is from a top school in the country, and then they go to an Ivy League school to study for a master's or doctoral degree, and their research is also in the most advanced fields.

This category is very powerful. If you are already a top student and have learned the most cutting-edge technologies, your future will be bright. It is only a matter of time before you become a calf or a master.

This is the case for the three founders of Hesai Technology.
To be continued...