Fitch: Consumers are accelerating to turn to smart driving. Competition in China’s auto market will intensify in 2024.

Viewpoint Network News: Recently, Fitch said in its latest report that China’s traditional automobile manufacturers (mainly state-owned enterprises (SOEs)) are adopting the technologies of domestic technology giants and electric vehicle (EV) companies, which will increase the uncertainty of competition in the electric vehicle market in China in 2024 and beyond.

Fitch believes that the unexpectedly strong market demand for Huawei AITO electric SUV in the fourth quarter of 2023 indicates that consumers in China are accelerating their shift to intelligent driving. In the second half of 2023, several Chinese-funded electric vehicle companies and suppliers launched high-level intelligent driving navigation assistance systems in urban areas based on expressway solutions. It is expected that more car companies will enter the market in 2024.

Data show that in 2023, BYD led the domestic electric vehicle market in China with a market share of 35%, followed by Tesla China, GAC AION and Geely with market shares of 7.8%, 6.3% and 6.1% respectively.

At the beginning of 2024, due to the depressed consumer demand, electric vehicle manufacturers began a new round of price reduction. Previously, the automobile market in China experienced a year of fierce price competition, and the retail discount of internal combustion engine vehicles reached a new high at the end of 2023.

Fitch predicts that automakers will ease the pressure on profit margins by further reducing costs in 2024, especially after the price of lithium carbonate fell by more than 40% to about 100,000 yuan/ton at the end of 2023. Sharing investment in R&D in autonomous driving and asset-intensive ecosystem services (such as battery charging and switching stations) may also help to improve the profitability of electric vehicles and ease the intensity of capital expenditure.

In 2023, the domestic retail sales of electric vehicles in China increased by 37%, and the share of electric vehicles in the total delivery of retail vehicles further increased from 28% in 2022 to 36%. At the same time, although exports to Europe decreased in the fourth quarter of 2023 due to slow demand and high base, China’s electric vehicle exports still showed a strong surge of 73%.

Previously, Fitch said in a research report that under the background of economic uncertainty, the domestic demand for passenger cars in China will increase slightly to nearly 22 million in 2024. However, driven by the aggressive pricing of electric vehicle manufacturers and consumers’ increasing preference for electric vehicles, the market share of electric vehicles may further increase from about 35% in 2023 to 42%-45%.

This article comes from: Viewpoint. com

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China Automobile Association: Automobile production and sales are expected to hit a record high this year, exceeding the forecast target.

China Automobile Association expects that the China auto market will usher in a perfect ending in 2023.

On December 11th, according to the data of China Automobile Industry Association, in November this year, the production and sales of automobiles were 3.093 million and 2.97 million respectively, up 7% and 4.1% from the previous month and 29.4% and 27.4% from the same period last year. In November, the performance of the automobile market continued to improve, exceeding expectations. The automobile output reached a record high and the sales volume was close to 3 million.

From the perspective of the whole year, from January to November, the production and sales of automobiles were 27.111 million and 26.938 million, respectively, up by 10% and 10.8% year-on-year, and the growth rate was 2 and 1.7 percentage points higher than that in January-October.

According to the China Automobile Association, in November, the auto market continued to be hot. With the help of the "double 11" promotion and other consumer waves, the demand for car purchase was further released, and the market performance continued to improve and exceeded expectations. In the same month, the production and sales of automobiles increased year-on-year, passenger cars continued their good trend, commercial vehicles maintained rapid growth, and new energy vehicles and automobile exports led the growth of the industry.

The China Automobile Association believes that in the same month, the production and sales of automobiles increased year-on-year, and new energy vehicles and automobile exports played a strong supporting role. Specifically, in November, the domestic sales volume of automobiles was 2.488 million, up 5.2% from the previous month and 24.3% from the same period last year. Automobile exports reached 482,000 vehicles, down 1.1% month-on-month and up 46.3% year-on-year. From January to November, the domestic sales of automobiles reached 22.526 million, up 4.7% year-on-year; Automobile exports reached 4.412 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 58.4%.

As far as new energy vehicles are concerned, the domestic sales volume in November was 929,000, up 11.7% from the previous month and 33.9% from the same period last year. The export of new energy vehicles was 97,000 vehicles, a decrease of 21.8% from the previous month and a year-on-year increase of 1.6%. From January to November, the domestic sales volume of new energy vehicles was 7.212 million, a year-on-year increase of 31.7%; New energy vehicles exported 1.091 million vehicles, up 83.5% year-on-year.

In view of December, the China Automobile Association expects that with the continuous emergence of policy effects, auto shows and promotional activities in various places will continue to exert their strength, and in addition, enterprises will finish their sprint in the last month. It is expected that the auto market will continue to improve in December, reappearing the phenomenon of "tail-jumping" at the end of the year.According to the judgment of China Automobile Association, automobile production and sales are expected to hit a record high throughout the year, exceeding the expected annual forecast target.

In December, 2022, China Automobile Association predicted that the total automobile sales in China in 2023 would be 27.6 million, up 3% year-on-year. Among them, the sales volume of passenger cars was 23.8 million, the sales volume of commercial vehicles was 3.8 million and the sales volume of new energy vehicles was 9 million.

If you want to play badminton well, look at these 16 methods.

First, for amateur badminton lovers, if they want to improve their skills in a short time, some practical methods can be adopted. Here we recommend a 16-rule rule to you.

  1, strive to hit the ball in front of the upper body, don’t let the ball fall to the height below the neck, otherwise the return ball will have no attack.

  2. Hold your hands and clap your hands as relaxed as possible so as to maximize the strength of your wrist.

  3. In singles, you should return to the center position immediately after each stroke. When defending doubles, you should return to the position parallel to your partner, while when attacking doubles, you should keep the position before and after your partner. When serving doubles, you should immediately block the net forward after serving a short ball to prevent your opponent from hitting a short ball back.

  4, in singles, unless spiking, never hit the ball in the opponent’s midfield, try to play two corners.

  5. When making a powerful forehand or backhand stroke, the body should turn to the hitting side in order to stand firm.

  6. The singles serve should be as high and far as possible, the doubles serve should be short, the flight route of the ball should be close to the upper edge of the net, and the serve should be changeable.

  7. Try to confuse each other with fake actions as much as possible within the scope permitted by the rules, but don’t reveal your intentions in advance.

  8. When playing a high ball, it is necessary to accurately judge the flying direction of the ball, and the ball should be played as high as possible and close to the opponent’s bottom line.

  9. When hanging the ball in front of the net, the route of the ball should be short and as close as possible to the net.

  10. Spike should be as far away from the opponent as possible or directly hit the opponent’s grip or shoulder.

  11. When you are at a loss or need a short respite, you can hit a high ball and then return to the center of the field.

  12. For beginners, the backhand end line is usually its weak area, and attention should be paid to hitting its weakness.

  13. When hitting the high ball back in the frontcourt, you should try to use spike, which is an important scoring method, but don’t hit the high and short ball at the baseline, which usually gives the opponent a chance to kill the ball.

  14. Many athletes have their own unique style of play, so they should be good at judging the landing point of the ball and get into the appropriate position in time, but don’t expose their movements too early.

  15. When you receive the service in doubles, you should lift the racket to force the opponent to serve low. If the opponent’s service is too high, you should immediately go forward and kill.

  16. If you are scoring, don’t change your style of play. If you are losing, you should immediately adjust your manners. If your continuous attack doesn’t work, you can hit a high ball and then find a fighter to attack again.

Second, the six key decisions to win in singles

1. Forcing backhand

  As far as all athletes are concerned, the backhand stroke in the backcourt is always more or less weaker than the forehand stroke, which is relatively less offensive and the ball path is relatively simple (due to the limitation of physiological anatomy). Some athletes can’t hit the ball to the opponent’s end line with backhand in the backcourt, so they should attack the opponent’s backhand without relaxation.

(1) adjust the position of the other party

  Make the opponent’s backhand area open, and then hit the ball to the backhand area, forcing the opponent to use the backhand to hit the ball.

(2) For opponents with poor backhand.

  People with poor backhand in the backcourt often use overhead hitting, sideways hitting and sideways bowing to make up for the lack of backhand. Because the backhand area is hit overhead and sideways, the body center of gravity and body position should be biased to the sideline of the left field, so you can repeatedly attack the opponent’s backhand area to keep his body away from the center. In this way, there is a large gap in the forehand area, which is originally the advantage of the other side, and it has become the target of attack. When the opponent hits a half-court lob, the choice of the smash point should be: if the opponent moves slowly, the smash point should be until he just left. Because it is very difficult to stop immediately and then turn around to catch the ball in the fast movement. When forcing the opponent to hit the ball with a backhand in the backcourt, he should take the initiative to move forward and seal the front of the net. When the opponent hangs the ball in front of the net with a backhand in the backcourt, he can quickly come forward to kill or rub and hook, creating an active opportunity for the next shot.

2. Flat high ball presses the bottom line

  Hit the two corners of the opponent’s backcourt with a fast and accurate flat ball, try to reduce the flying arc of the ball as much as possible on the premise that the opponent can’t intercept it, and press the opponent to the bottom line. When the opponent returns the half-court high ball, he can smash the attack. When using the flat high ball to press the baseline, the tactical effect of the flat high ball can be increased if it is combined with chopping and killing. Under normal circumstances, the more the landing point of the flat ball and the landing point of the kill and hoist are pulled apart, the better the effect will be.

3, pull, hanging combination to kill the ball

  This tactic is to hit the ball to the four corners of the opponent’s court accurately, so that the opponent will run back and forth on the court every time he hits the ball. When using this tactic, different methods of pulling and hanging should be adopted for opponents with different characteristics. For those who have slow backward footwork, they can play more front and back fields; For those who run blindly and fly all over the field, you can use the double ball and fake action; For those with poor flexibility, you should make more diagonal lines and try to make the other side turn around as much as possible; Those with poor backhand in the backcourt still attack backhand by pulling away; Those who are not good at physical strength can use more slapping and hanging to consume their physical strength, and then overcome it. If you can skillfully use the techniques of flat ball, split hanging and rubbing, pushing and hooking in front of the net, you can quickly pull away the opponent and wait for an opportunity to smash, then this tactic can get better results.

4. Hanging and killing the Internet  

  First, in the backcourt, the ball should be pressed down with light kill, point kill and split kill combined with hanging ball, and the landing point should be chosen on both sides of the field to make the opponent passively return the ball. When the opponent returns the ball in front of the net, he quickly goes online to create a half-court smash opportunity by rubbing the ball against the net, or crossing the diagonal, or pushing it quickly; If the opponent picks a high ball in front of the net, he can kill the ball directly on him in the process of retreating.

5. Transition ball

  First of all, it should be clear that the transition ball is to get rid of passivity and actively create conditions for the counterattack of the next shot. How to change passivity into initiative is an important part of the competition. When you are passive, do it: first, buy time to adjust yourself and control the center of gravity of your body. It is a common means to hit a high ball from the baseline in front of the net or in the backcourt. When you are in the state of running and chasing the ball, or when your body’s center of gravity is out of control, you can play a high-distance ball to gain time, restore your body’s center of gravity and adjust your situation. Secondly, use the change of the ball path to disrupt the opponent’s offensive steps. When catching a kill ball or a lob, you should return the ball to a place far away from the opponent, so as to destroy the continuous rapid attack of the opponent’s lob and lob. If the opponent hangs and kills the ball and blindly goes online, but his own goal is better, he can return the ball to the opponent’s bottom line.

6, defensive counterattack

  This tactic is to deal with opponents who attack blindly and have poor physical strength. At the beginning of the game, first lure the opponent to attack with a high ball, and when the opponent only cares about attacking and neglects his own defense, he can attack suddenly. Or attack when the opponent’s physical strength drops and the speed slows down. This tactic of starting to stick to it, taking advantage of it, waiting for it, and making a preemptive strike sometimes works well.

Third, the midfield batting technique-practice

Midcourt batting techniques can be roughly divided into: blocking the net before the ball, picking the high ball, drawing the ball and hitting the ball quickly.

1, blocking the net before the ball technology

  1) Forehand block straight net ball technology

This technique is mostly used to catch the ball from the other side. Before catching the ball, use the footwork of catching and killing the ball to move to the sideline of the right field, with the body leaning to the right, the arm extending to the right, the forearm rotating outwards and the wrist abduction. When hitting the ball, the forearm rotates slightly and turns the wrist to drive the racket to push the ball from the bottom right to the front, and block the ball to the front of the straight net. When hitting the ball, the forearm can be rotated from the outside to the inside to drive the racket to cut and block the straight net from the right to the front. After hitting the ball, turn left to face the net, then step forward with your right foot, and the racket turns left with your body and closes in front of you.

  2) The forehand block is the same as the technical preparation posture of the diagonal net.

When hitting the ball with a swing, the forearm is slightly rotated inward while the elbow joint is flexed, and the wrist is extended from the back to the right side of the adduction flashing bat holder. Before hitting the ball on the right side, the wrist and fingers control the angle of the racket face to make the ball fall in front of the diagonal net.

  3) backhand blocking the ball in front of the straight net

The forehand is also used to catch and kill the ball. First, use the footwork of catching and killing the ball to move to the sideline of the left field, turn left and lean forward, with the right shoulder facing the net, bend the right elbow, abduct the wrist, and lead the racket to the front of the left shoulder. When hitting the ball, with the impulse of the opponent’s incoming ball, the front arm drives the racket from the upper left to the left, and the top force of the thumb is used to swing the ball lightly to stop the ball back to the front of the straight net. After hitting the ball, the body turns right to face the net, and the racket moves in front of the body.

  4) The backhand hook is used to kick the ball in front of the diagonal net

The backhand hook is used to catch the kill ball diagonally. When hitting the ball, the wrist flicks the lower left side of the ball holder from abduction to backward extension, making the ball fall in front of the diagonal net.

2, the lob technique

  1) The forehand catches and picks the straight backcourt golf ball

  When the opponent kills the right line ball, his right foot takes a big step to the right. Move the racket sideways with footwork, swing the right arm slightly to the right and then slightly outward, with the wrist extended to the maximum, so that the racket swings back quickly, followed by a slight outward swing when the right forearm swings forward rapidly, and the wrist extends from the back to the straight wrist. At this time, the elbow plays the role of "fulcrum", and the racket face accurately hits the ball at the middle and lower parts of the bat tray, making the ball fly in a straight and high direction. After hitting the ball, the forearm is rotated inward, the racket is waved to the front of the body, and the racket is recovered to the front.

  2) Backcourt lob with backhand catch.

Before hitting the ball, the forearm is pronated, the wrist is abduction, and the racquet is brought to the left. When hitting the ball, the upper arm is supported, the forearm swings rapidly to the right front, the wrist flashes from abduction to backward extension, the racket is gripped tightly, and with the jacking force of the thumb, the ball is swung at full speed to make it fly in a straight line. If you swing diagonally, the ball flies diagonally.

3. Ball-drawing technique

  1) Forehand flat draw

Stand with your feet equal and slightly wider than your shoulders, and take a small step to the right with your right foot. At the same time, your upper body leans slightly to the right, and your right arm swings up to the right. With the racket lifted up, your elbow joint keeps a certain angle. Before hitting the ball, your elbow joint swings forward, your forearm is slightly rotated back, and your wrist is slightly abduction and extension, leading to the back of your body.

When hitting the ball, the forearm rotates inward, the wrist is straight and flashing, the fingers grasp the handle, and the racket sweeps the ball from right back to right front at high speed. After hitting the ball, the racket will swing to the left, and the left foot will follow further to the left, ready to meet the second ball.

  2) backhand flat draw

The right foot crosses in front of the left side, the center of gravity is on the left foot, and the backhand grip of the right hand is in front of the left side. Before hitting the ball, the elbow is slightly raised, the forearm is pronated, the wrist is abduction, and the racquet is taken to the left. When hitting the ball, driven by the right turn of the hip, the forearm rotates outward, the wrist flashes from abduction to straightness, and the bottom of the ball holder is swung. After hitting the ball, the racket is retracted to the right side with the back movement of the body.

4, quick play technology

  1) Fast forehand play

Feet apart, right foot slightly in front, left foot in back, knees in a semi-squat position, hold the racket in front, lift the racket, lift it over the top of your head, and lead it to the lower right side behind your head, so the grip is loose. When it is judged that the incoming ball is above the head, the body moves forward slightly, and at the same time, the left foot takes a small step forward, and the right foot is slightly straightened into a left lunge, and the hitting point is selected in front of the right shoulder. Lift the upper arm forward and upward, bend the elbow, swing the forearm with external rotation later, and pat it behind the head. When hitting the ball, the forearm is forward, and the wrist is extended from backward to forward, and the back of the bat tray is flashed, so that the ball flies straight and quickly to the vicinity of the opponent’s midfield area. After hitting the ball, the racket moves forward to the left with the front cover and the right foot, and stands slightly behind the center line. The racket is raised from the lower left back to the upper front, ready to meet the next incoming ball.

  2) backhand fast play

Stand in the left field with your feet parallel, with your center of gravity on your right foot, and lift your racket in front of the right side. When it is judged that the ball is in the left field, the right forearm swings to the left, the body turns to the right shoulder to the net slightly to the left, and the left foot also takes a small step to the left. The forearm is rotated internally, and the wrist abduction is taken behind the left side. When hitting the ball, the forearm is rotated outward, the wrist is straight and flashing, and the fingers suddenly grasp the handle, and the front cover holds the back of the ball, so that the ball flies straight forward. After hitting the ball, the racket is raised from the lower right to the upper front to prepare for the next shot.

Fourth, the response of singles attack tactics

1, serve and attack tactics of strain.

Serving and attacking is an important scoring method in the game, and serving can be based on the opponent’s position. In order to gain the initiative of the first few shots, we should use different service methods according to the habit of hitting the ball back, counterattack ability, playing characteristics, spirit and psychological state. Through the use of this tactic, the whole strategic deployment of the other side is disrupted, causing the other side to be caught off guard. Especially at the critical moment, different effects can be achieved by using the tactics of serving and attacking; We can use it to open the deadlock and strive for initiative when we are deadlocked. When leading, you can use it to pursue victory and beat your opponent at one go; When you are behind, you can use it to make the final struggle, turn the tide and turn defeat into victory.

  (1) Pre-attack tactics

Serve the ball in the frontcourt, serve the ball in the No.1 area, serve the ball in the area between No.1 and No.2 area, and serve the chasing ball.

The main purpose of serving the ball in the frontcourt is to restrict the opponent from attacking immediately, and the other purpose is to pass the accuracy. Consciously judge the opponent’s return ball path, so as to organize and launch a quick and powerful attack, achieve direct score or get a second attack opportunity. Under normal circumstances, the ball in the forecourt area should be served mainly between the No.1 and No.2 areas and the chasing ball, which is safer and will not cause mistakes.

 (2) Serve the high ball and take the attack tactics.

There are three kinds of flat lobs: No.3 zone, No.4 zone and between No.3 and No.4 zones.

The difference between the tactics of serving a high ball and the tactics of attacking in the front court is that the attacking in the front court can directly seize the fighter plane to attack, while the attacking in the front court can only get the opportunity to attack by defending the middle.

  The purpose of leveling the high ball: first, to cooperate with the ball attack in the forecourt; The second is to let the opponent attack blindly or within the scope of our judgment, so that the server can quickly turn from defense to attack; The third is to cause the other party to make a direct mistake because of losing control.

  (3) The flat shot is mainly the flat shot in Zone 3.

The purpose of flat shooting tactics is: first, to sneak attack, if the opponent’s reaction is slow, or the position is off the sideline, and the gap in Zone 3 is large, the success rate of sneaking into Zone 3 may be high; The second is to force the other side to play flat and fast; The third is to force the opponent to the backcourt and cause the gap in the front area of the net.

 2. The response of the tactics of receiving serve and attacking.

  Receiving and attacking tactics is the easiest to score in receiving and serving tactics. One of the most threatening tactics. However, the premise is that the quality of the opponent’s service is not good. If the landing point is not in place when serving the high ball; Too high when the ball crosses the net in the forecourt; The speed of flat shot is not fast and the angle is not good; Poor rhythm, landing point and radian when serving a flat high ball will create opportunities for receiving and attacking.

  Without this prerequisite, blindly rushing to attack will have a poor effect and a low success rate. In addition, there must be positive. Bold sense of rushing to attack. In order to get the success (score) of the attack tactics, we must also combine our own technical characteristics and physical conditions with each other’s technical characteristics. Physical condition and psychological quality. For example, when the opponent serves a flat high ball from the right court and the landing point is not good, which has caused us an excellent opportunity to launch a rush attack, we should use our best skills, seize the opponent’s weakness, and make a decisive and bold rush attack.

  The completion of the attack tactics mostly depends on the organization of two or three beats to attack the ball path. Therefore, once the attack is launched, it is necessary to speed up, expand the control surface, seize each other’s weaknesses or customary routes and attack to the end, and complete the attack tactics in one go.

Badminton tribe’s only official WeChat WeChat official account: Badminton Huiyou ID: (yqhy 365)

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Five self-driving companies fell in half a year, and the American technology circle ushered in a "change"?

Globally, the United States has been in the leading position in artificial intelligence technology and application for a long time, and the development of driverless driving originated in Europe and America earlier. However, judging from the development of self-driving enterprises in the United States in recent years, layoffs and resignations have occurred frequently, and even more self-driving enterprises have gone bankrupt.

According to the new strategic low-speed driverless industry research institute, in the past six months, many companies in the American driverless industry have announced a large number of layoffs and filed for bankruptcy, including Ibeo, the originator of lidar, and Embark Trucks, a self-driving truck company.

Embark Trucks: from valuation of 5 billion to near bankruptcy only16 months

Embark was founded in 2016 and headquartered in San Francisco. It was co-founded by Alex Rodrigues and Brandon Moak. It is understood that Embark’s initial plan is to build a self-driving shuttle bus for university campuses. Soon after, the team began to turn to self-driving trucks applied to highways.

The market for self-driving trucks has broad prospects, and Embark has quickly gained the favor of venture capitalists. During the period from 2016 to 2019, Embark raised funds including: 2 million USD seed round financing led by Maven Ventures, 15 million USD Series A financing led by DCVC, 30 million USD Series B financing led by Sequoia Capital and 70 million USD Series C financing led by Tiger Global.

In 2021, Embark began to seek listing. In the transaction report, Embark said that they plan to realize the operation of self-driving trucks in the southern industrial zone of the United States from 2024. In November 2021, Embark successfully went public with a market value of about 5 billion US dollars and raised about 614 million US dollars.

However, this 7-year-old enterprise has never really started its business, let alone generate revenue or make profits. According to foreign media reports, Embark has announced the end of its operations and laid off most of its employees.

Locomation: nearly 70% of employees have been laid off, and the product has not been put into commercial operation so far.

Locomation originated from the National Robotics Engineering Center of Carnegie Mellon University and was founded by five co-founders in 2018. Locomation is developing the formation driving technology of heavy trucks-ARC Autonomous Relay Convoy. This technology allows a pilot truck with a safe driver to lead a second truck, in which the driver can rest or do other work.

In February this year, Locomation failed to raise additional investment capital, which led to layoffs. It was once rumored by the outside world as bankruptcy. In this regard, Locomation denied the media reports about the closure, but admitted that it did fire most non-engineering personnel. It is not clear how many of the 122 employees estimated by Locomation are facing dismissal. It is reported that there are 80 employees, most of whom left on February 24th.

?etin Meri?li, co-founder and CEO of Locomation, said that the company will not close down, but it has indeed reduced most non-engineering personnel in the face of economic headwinds.

For the development of the company, Finch Fulton, vice president of policy and strategy of Locomation, said that the company had recruited many smart employees, practiced strategic solutions and had some customers, but now the result was that it could not raise funds and the products could not be put into commercial operation, so it was necessary to make this decision.

Quanergy: Apply for bankruptcy liquidation and seek maximum value.

Founded in 2012, Quanergy is one of the first companies to develop LiDAR devices for automotive applications. Quanergy’s mission is to create intelligent LIDAR solutions with powerful functions and reasonable prices for Internet of Things applications to improve people’s experience and safety.

In December, 2022, Quanergy announced that the company started the orderly sale procedure of its business. In order to promote the sale and maximize the value, the Company applied for protection to the United States Delaware District Bankruptcy Court ("Bankruptcy Court") in accordance with Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Law ("Bankruptcy Law"), and intended to sell its business in accordance with Article 363 of the Bankruptcy Law.

Before submitting the bankruptcy protection case, the board of directors and management evaluated a series of strategic options to maximize the value of all stakeholders. The company also reduced operating expenses and settled a major patent lawsuit with Velodyne. Now with the protection provided by Bankruptcy Law, the company intends to expand its marketing efforts of potential buyers interested in specific business sectors or assets, and continue to seek continuous sales of business.

The company is expected to continue to operate in the process of bankruptcy protection and seek to complete the rapid sales process with the approval of the bankruptcy court. In order to help fund and protect its operation, Quanergy intends to use the available cash on hand and normal operating cash flow to fund the operation and normal costs after the application.

Argo AI: layoffs are closed, and investors "start a new stove" to receive.

In October 2022, Ford officially issued a statement: Argo AI, an autonomous driving company jointly invested by Ford and Volkswagen, will be closed and dissolved, and employees and some parts will be accepted by Ford Motor Company and Volkswagen Company respectively.

Argo AI, an autonomous driving technology company from Google’s unmanned vehicle team, was founded in 2016. A year later, it was acquired by Ford for $1 billion and introduced Volkswagen investment in 2019. Argo AI, backed by two mountains, can be said to be a star unicorn in the field of autonomous driving.

The valuation was as high as $7 billion, and the accumulated gold was $2.6 billion. The team size was as high as 2,000. However, it is such a potential L4 autonomous driving technology company that layoffs and bankruptcies are reported, and after the dissolution, Argo AI’s employees and technology may be taken over by Ford and Volkswagen.

So far, Ford has indeed done this. Just last week, Ford Motor announced that it would set up Latitude AI, a wholly-owned subsidiary, and recruited hundreds of employees for the new company from Argo AI, which it had previously invested in.

According to Ford’s statement, Latitude, located in Pittsburgh, the former home of Argo, will focus on developing an autonomous driving system for millions of cars with hands-free, eyes-off-the-road. Ford said that Latitude will focus on the automatic technology to assist human drivers in the short term, and will not completely replace human drivers with autonomous driving technology.

Velodyne: completely quit after merging with Ouster.

In 2016, Velodyne Lidar Division was separated from Velodyne Acoustics Company and became an independent company. In order to get the goods first, Ford and Baidu jointly invested $150 million in Velodyne Lidar Company. Since then, Velodyne has successively signed contracts with companies such as Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai Mobius and Boston Dynamics.

In the laser radar industry, Velodyne has always been in the leading position as the first laser radar in the world, and considers itself as "the only laser radar enterprise that can mass-produce wire harnesses." As more and more enterprises poured into the laser radar track, the products became more and more involved, and Velodyne began to decline.

Especially in terms of price. Velodyne mainly sells 64-line, 32-line and 16-line lidar, and the official prices are $80,000, $40,000 and $8,000 respectively. Because Velodyne chose the agency mode in the sales mode, the buyer also needs to pay taxes and agents’ service fees. As a result, the final price of a Velodyne64 line lidar was nearly 700,000 yuan. Other companies can provide more cost-effective products.

In February this year, Velodyne said that it had successfully completed the "merger of equals" with the lidar manufacturer OUSTer, which took effect on February 10th. The company will keep the name of Ouster and continue to trade under the company’s stock code "Oust". This also means that Velodyne has launched the historical stage.

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Although autonomous driving start-ups have fallen in the past six months, the exploration of autonomous driving in the United States is still overweight. According to foreign media reports, the American Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association released a policy framework on March 1, outlining the key priorities of federal autonomous vehicle legislation and supervision.

The framework proposed by the association includes several suggestions to the US Congress and the Department of Transportation to guide the federal government to take corresponding actions and promote the deployment and commercialization of self-driving cars in the United States.

Jeff Farrah, executive director of the association, said: "Self-driving cars are being tested and operated in various States in the United States, taking passengers and goods where they need to go. The United States is currently the leader in autonomous driving technology, but other countries are also making rapid progress. " Members of the association include Aurora, Cruise, Ford, Volkswagen, Waymo and Zoox.

With the continuous promotion of China’s position in the global political arena, China’s scientific research achievements in the field of autonomous driving have attracted worldwide attention. In 2023, China and the United States will have a new round of science and technology competition, and the industry will wait and see.

The next venture outlet direction

According to the current trend and the future development direction of technology, I think the next venture outlet may be:

1. Artificial intelligence: With the continuous development of big data and cloud computing technology, artificial intelligence will gradually become the mainstream technology, and more startups will focus on the research and application of artificial intelligence in the future.

Personally, I think that the future entrepreneurial outlet will be the specific application of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence has made remarkable achievements and has been widely used in various fields, such as health care, finance, retail, manufacturing and so on. In the future, with the continuous improvement of technology, artificial intelligence will further penetrate into our daily life and various industries, such as smart homes and smart cities. Therefore, enterprises that will devote themselves to the development and application of artificial intelligence will become the next venture outlet. The application of AI technology will also bring more opportunities and challenges.

2. Virtual Reality: Virtual Reality Technology As a developer of artificial intelligence, I think the next venture outlet will be the specific application of artificial intelligence. Although artificial intelligence technology has been very hot in the past few years, its application field still has a lot of room for expansion. Especially in the era when the Internet of Things and cloud computing are booming, artificial intelligence is widely used in various fields such as operation and management systems, and its application scenarios are becoming more specific and diversified.

For example, in the field of intelligent manufacturing and industrial control, artificial intelligence can help enterprises optimize production processes, improve production efficiency and quality, and reduce costs. In the financial field, artificial intelligence can be applied to risk control, fraud detection, investment decision-making and other aspects, and can achieve high-precision and efficient data analysis. In addition, artificial intelligence also has a wide application prospect in medical care, education, transportation and other fields.

There is no doubt that artificial intelligence is the future development trend and new venture outlet. With the advancement and maturity of technology, more and more artificial intelligence startups will emerge in the future. Technology is developing rapidly, and more startups will pay attention to the development and application of virtual reality technology in the future, such as games, education, medical care and other fields.

Application of blockchain technology In today’s digital age, the application of blockchain technology is more and more extensive, which can be used in finance, logistics, medical care and other fields. It has the characteristics of decentralization, high security and high credibility. More enterprises will use and explore it in the future, so the application of blockchain technology is one of the next entrepreneurial outlets.

3. Blockchain: Blockchain is a decentralized technology, which can be applied to various fields, such as finance and supply chain management. In the future, more startups will pay attention to the application of blockchain.

From a technical point of view, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and blockchain all have great potential and market space, but from the current market situation, blockchain is still in its early stage, its application is not extensive enough, and more technical optimization and exploration of application scenarios are needed; The application scene of virtual reality is relatively narrow and the audience is relatively limited; Artificial intelligence has been widely used, but it still needs further development and improvement.

Therefore, I personally think that the next venture outlet may be the development and application of Internet of Things technology. With the rapid development of Internet of Things technology, more and more devices and facilities will have the ability of data collection and transmission, which will give birth to a large number of data analysis and application requirements. At the same time, the Internet of Things will also give birth to a large number of emerging formats, such as smart home, smart city, smart medical care, etc., all of which have great market and commercial value. Therefore, the next few years will be the golden age of Internet of Things entrepreneurship, and various innovative applications based on Internet of Things technology will appear like mushrooms after rain, becoming the next entrepreneurial outlet.

In short, the future entrepreneurial enthusiasm is not limited to the above three areas. With the continuous progress of technology, we can foresee more new entrepreneurial opportunities.