Using people as a mirror: Why does LeTV say it is the most suitable company to build cars?

Recently, LeEco has become the focus of the industry and media due to many negative news. It was thought that this series of negative news would allow LeEco, which was running blindly, to reflect on itself. However, judging from the remarks made by Jia Yueting, the founder, chairman and CEO of LeEco, at the China Business Leaders Annual Conference recently, he has not reflected on himself, but has become even more stubborn. The most typical manifestation is that he said that LeEco can not only build cars, but also will be the most suitable company in the world to build cars. So the question is, what is the basis for Jia Yueting to say that LeEco is the most suitable company in the world to build cars? What are LeEco's unique advantages in building cars?

In fact, looking at the future automobile industry, whether it is electric cars or automatic or even driverless cars, they are all a combination of traditional cars and modern technology. In other words, the threshold for getting involved in the automobile industry is much higher than before. In addition to being familiar with the industrial rules of these two fields, the biggest challenge is the organic integration of the two in many aspects such as technology and manufacturing. This is also the main reason why, until today, none of the manufacturers representing the traditional automobile industry and the technology companies representing the development direction of the future automobile industry can stand out in the so-called future automobile industry. Let's take Tesla, a representative of technology companies, as an example to see where the shortcomings of technology companies in car manufacturing are?

Tesla used to be one of the representatives of the electric vehicle industry or technology companies, but with fatal accidents caused by its autonomous driving system and too many product defects, the company is gradually destroying its good image in the minds of consumers.

A recent survey conducted by an authoritative American organization shows that Tesla has become one of the most unreliable car brands. For example, according to a reliability survey by the authoritative American magazine "Consumer Reports", Tesla ranks only 25th out of a total of 29 manufacturers. Many consumers reported that Tesla's newly launched Model X (an SUV) model has a series of functional failures, among which the side door failure has become its iconic defect. Consumer Reports surveyed some early users and found that the car had many problems, including door failures, uneven paint application, and problems with the air control system. A website called dailykanban.com disclosed that according to complaints from car owners, Tesla's Model S electric vehicles also have defects that may cause the suspension control arm to break, causing the driver to lose control of the car.

I wonder what people in the industry think of the above reports about Tesla cars? From words that often appear in the traditional automotive industry, such as door failure, suspension control arm fracture, uneven paint application, and air control system, we can see that Tesla has failed to meet the basic requirements of the traditional automotive industry in many aspects, and even seems to be shoddy (for example, a car worth hundreds of thousands of dollars can't even pass the simplest painting process). As for the suspension and air control systems, which reflect the foundation of the traditional automotive industry and demonstrate the innovative strength (affecting the performance, experience and safety of the car), Tesla's understanding and ability are even more imaginable. You know, although the structure of electric vehicles is much simpler than that of traditional gasoline vehicles, they still belong to the category of automobiles first, so the existence and design of the necessary infrastructure and systems are still indispensable. Even in this case, Tesla still shows its neglect and low strength.

In fact, the above experience of Tesla is exactly the typical shortcoming that technology companies face when entering the car manufacturing industry compared with traditional car manufacturers. In this regard, Kufner, a former executive of Google's robotics department (currently CTO of Toyota Research Institute), said: "The complexity of the car manufacturing process is not as simple as it is said. When IT companies enter this industry, they can truly experience the feeling of despair. However, before the fall, these technology giants who have been smooth sailing in the consumer market will never admit that they can't do it."

Perhaps it is because of the short board of automobile products that technology companies cannot overcome in the short term compared with traditional automobile manufacturers. In addition to Tesla, Apple has officially abandoned its own "Titan" plan to build cars. Although Google has been concentrating on research and development, it has not seen any breakthrough progress. So what about LeTV? Here we might as well extract some of Jia Yueting's understanding of the automobile industry.

Now, people still think that cars are just a means of transportation, but we think that cars are a transportation Internet ecosystem. When one day we make cars electric, smart, shared and Internet-enabled, they will overturn the entire auto industry. When cars and the Internet are about to merge, there will be companies that surpass Apple, and LeEco is most likely to be that company.

You will see many microcosms of LeTV's current business in future cars: today's LeTV TVs will become the display systems of future cars; today's LeTV phones will become the brains of future cars; today's EUI will become the nerve center of future cars; today's LeTV movies, sports, music, and Internet of Vehicles will become the entertainment service systems of future cars; today's LeTV cloud platform will become the artificial intelligence and autonomous driving platform for future cars; today's Yidao and Zeropai LeXiang will become future car sharing platforms.

The above is only a partial description of Jia Yueting's understanding of LeTV Auto or the automotive industry. In fact, the whole article does not describe what we have described before, that is, how to first build a truly qualified car that all non-traditional automakers are facing. In other words, compared with the above-mentioned technology companies, what is the advantage of LeTV, which is also a non-traditional automaker, in first building a qualified car? As the saying goes, if the skin is gone, the hair will fall off. If a basically qualified car cannot be built, how can the so-called ecosystem survive? From the user's perspective, what people first buy is a car with a reasonable design, basic safety and reliability, not an ecosystem.

If the above is that LeEco, as a non-traditional automobile company, faces the same shortcomings as technology companies in car manufacturing and has not shown its own advantages in solving these shortcomings, then as a technology company, does it have modern technological advantages in the future automobile industry compared to traditional automobile manufacturers (that is, compared to current technology companies such as Tesla, Apple and Google)? Here we also extract part of Jia Yueting's description.

Our challenge and opportunity lies in the fact that in order to create a product that can completely replace traditional cars and promote the rapid migration of user habits, we must start from the most basic technology and make comprehensive arrangements, and demand the ultimate in innovation: for example, high-density and high-safety battery pack technology and battery management solutions, motor systems that significantly exceed engine performance and energy utilization efficiency, electronic control systems that efficiently utilize electrical energy, artificial intelligence and unmanned driving systems including vehicle-to-vehicle interconnection and in-vehicle interaction, electric vehicle network communication solutions, Internet of Vehicles technology and application systems, and so on.

I wonder what the industry thinks of Jia Yueting's technology related to the advantages of technology companies? AI, battery pack management, driverless driving, just looking at these terms, our first impression is that none of them has anything to do with LeTV. In terms of battery pack management, Tesla should be the recognized leader in the industry; AI belongs to Google, and as for driverless systems, although Tesla and Google have related products, such as Tesla's Autopilot, they have not yet achieved true driverless driving. On the contrary, due to frequent accidents, Musk, who has always been fearless, dares not call the Autopilot system an autonomous driving system, and Google says that it will take at least 20 to 30 years for driverless driving to be truly realized. So how can LeTV, which has no accumulation in the above fields and is only an Internet company that makes videos, achieve it so quickly? If even a single technology has not been achieved, how can we talk about further progress, which is also the most challenging integration?

What makes us think that Jia Yueting does not understand the future of the automotive industry (such as electric and driverless cars) is that he actually uses the fact that his soon-to-be-released electric car will accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in seconds, which is a strong argument for the competitiveness of his car. What we want to say here is that, first of all, it is not feasible for electric cars to compete with traditional gasoline cars in terms of acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h. The natural power properties of electric cars determine that their acceleration is inferior to that of traditional gasoline cars.

If we must compare acceleration, maybe the industry (including Jia Yueting) still remembers the Tesla Model S P85D electric car's "Insane mode" that can accelerate from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour in 3.1-3.3 seconds? In September this year, more than 100 Norwegian users took Tesla to court, claiming that its Model S electric car had false advertising, that is, the Tesla Model S P85D electric car they bought did not meet the advertised power and speed standards, and therefore demanded compensation from Tesla. Recently, Tesla reached an out-of-court settlement with 126 Norwegian consumers. Tesla has agreed to pay each car owner 65,000 Norwegian kroner (about US$7,700), which is about 50% of the plaintiff's claim. In addition, Tesla also provided car owners with alternative settlement plans, including car upgrades.

It cannot be ignored that Porsche has publicly claimed that Tesla's "Ludicrous Mode" is a marketing gimmick to attract attention and is just a "face-saving project" because two such operations will cause the battery to overheat and damage the battery. So what kind of negative effects will the acceleration performance of LeTV cars that Jia Yueting boasted about bring? More importantly, for electric cars and future driverless cars, acceleration performance is not the main demand. Didn't Jia Yueting understand this?

In summary, while the industry is still worried that Jia Yueting's biggest shortcoming in car manufacturing is funding, in fact, his biggest challenge is that he has no unique core advantages compared with traditional car manufacturers and technology companies, which just proves the saying that "money is not everything". Unfortunately, LeTV also has the problem of "no money is absolutely impossible" (lack of money) in car manufacturing. With these two factors combined, is Jia Yueting's LeTV "making cars" or continuing to "dream"? What is the basis for his claim that LeTV is the most suitable company for car manufacturing?

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.