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Chinese Conglomerate LeEco Wants To Give Away Its 'Tesla Killer' Electric Supercar For Free (ndtv.com)
Rishi Alwani, reporting for Gadgets 360 (edited and condensed for clarity): At an event in Beijing this week, Chinese technology conglomerate LeEco showed off its LeSEE self-driving electric supercar. A slide noted that LeEco's car can reach 130mph which is a fair bit behind of the Tesla Model S' top speed range of 140 to 155 mph. Nonetheless, the company said the final product should beat Tesla in "all aspects of performance." The car sports a rounded design with a giant LED screen plastered on the front of the vehicle. If the car is being used for cab services, for instance, the screen can show if it's available for hire or not. There's an arched transparent roof and what seems to be generous cabin space. The interior sported a futuristic-looking steering wheel with a lit-up centre that quite possibly would replace the traditional dashboard and was complemented by a monitor next to it. It also had ridged backseats that may look uncomfortable but is actually memory foam - a polyurethane material used in mattresses that can mould to the shape of a passenger's body for maximum comfort.
Perhaps the most interesting component of its LeSEE concept has nothing to do with the technology, but rather the business models involved. For one, the company believes it has a huge role to play in LeShare - a time-sharing electric vehicle platform that's present in Beijing and Shanghai with plans to expand to five more cities in China. Electric vehicles and charging resources will be shared between LeShare and LeEco-backed Uber competitor Yidao. In addition to this, LeEco believes that the car will eventually be free, in line with the same business model it has for some of its other hardware, charging users for content, subscriptions or memberships.For a refresh, LeEco (LeTV) was founded in 2004, and has since become a major name in many technology-centric markets. It offers live-streaming, e-commerce, cloud, smartphones, TV set-top boxes, and smart TVs among many other products and services. The company has a market capitalisation of at least $12 billion.
Perhaps the most interesting component of its LeSEE concept has nothing to do with the technology, but rather the business models involved. For one, the company believes it has a huge role to play in LeShare - a time-sharing electric vehicle platform that's present in Beijing and Shanghai with plans to expand to five more cities in China. Electric vehicles and charging resources will be shared between LeShare and LeEco-backed Uber competitor Yidao. In addition to this, LeEco believes that the car will eventually be free, in line with the same business model it has for some of its other hardware, charging users for content, subscriptions or memberships.For a refresh, LeEco (LeTV) was founded in 2004, and has since become a major name in many technology-centric markets. It offers live-streaming, e-commerce, cloud, smartphones, TV set-top boxes, and smart TVs among many other products and services. The company has a market capitalisation of at least $12 billion.
than round-eyes car
"...charging users for content, subscriptions or memberships."
That's not free at all... in fact, that's how you make something cost infinitely more than it would if you just bought it outright. I'm sick of my wallet being tapped and I hope to hell the rest of the world doesn't start pulling this shit on cars.
I was assured that we can 3D print cars now, right?
The screens on everything concept winds up looking dated? Honestly I can't tell if that's supposed to be a future car from now or the 80's. The back seat looks painfully uncomfortable.
HAH. Wrong thread.
Can I sue a the PUC university for applying tardigrade (oops, wrong clipboard..) - I mean, for applying electgroconvulsive therapy into me WITHOUT my agreement? BECAUSE AS FAR I KNOW MYSELF, I CANTAKE DECISIONS VERY WELL. And calling You motherfucker is easy, because You all belong to this molested design.
Now I understand why that huge pile of shit lost his position on the "brain institute" (LOL man... Just the name is enough to give me the creeps)
ALSO, I can find several people in this mess. I rock, dude.
(this explains why its no easy to build spacecraft to me, I wanna get the fuck off from this entire planet, if I don't find a ethic human being)
[]'s,
Anonymous "El Diablo" Coward.
Tesla has made all of its patents free for anyone to use so I don't think they would have any problem with the Chinese copying the car.
Tesla does not view other electric car companies as competitors. It wants lots of people making electric cars. It views ICE cars as the competition.
Hopefully they will do a good job and make lots of cars.
(My personal view is the same as Edison...Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration... they have a lot of work to do.)
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
Perhaps he's implying that one of these could be parked outside an abortion clinic and, I don't know, the LiPO shot at with a BB gun...
You might want to learn English if you are going to attempt to use it.
What are they saying that in 10 years people will need satelite navigation, and will not now how to drive from point A to point B without computer telling them directions.
Included will be
* compulsory service fee (includes air pressure monitoring, electrolyte level check and top-up, anti-rust protection, seat protection from dirt)
* satellite navigation
* free calls
* hardware insurance
* Compulsory automatic emergency/911 service ( already a law in EU from 2018)
* Streaming music service
* all for a package of $399 per month (that is with the $4000 documentation and setup fees)
Just like current teenagers cannot imagine life without iphones, in ten years there will be a number of people who will never open the hood, will not check the air pressure themselves.
I almost forgot. You will be convinced to replace the car to a better model every two years.
I will take one. Hopefully astalavista.bocks.esskay will have a crack for it ;)
Copied from Tesla? Tesla took, not probably, but certainly many elements of ICE cars, so what!!!
What's this fixation with IP? oh we had an idea!! patent a live of it forever...
As long as USA and allies forget to manufacture and sell goodies, the market will be eaten by those that manufacture and build those goodies at better price, isn't that capitalism? wasn't USA capitalist?? this must be their american dream.
They probably copied part of their design from Tesla, after all, Tesla opened all their patents, it would be silly not to use them.
But what make you say that they just made a Tesla copycat.
In fact, the thing about Tesla is not revolutionary technology but how they made something people want to buy. Before Tesla, EV were all about fuel economy, ecology, urban areas and mid-range smaller cars, cars for responsible adults. Tesla said "fuck that" and made a big, expensive toy that can also be used as a vehicle. Talk to anyone who has tried the model S and they will tell you they felt like kids playing.
They leveraged the advantages of electric engines such as low maintenance and high torque, the auto-pilot is just a straightforward extension of existing line and distance keeping systems. They addressed the range problem by using more expensive batteries (their position on the high-end allowed it) and building high power charging stations. In the end, they just took existing technologies and made them into a nice, fun package, a bit like Apple.
LeEco borrowed the concept but it says nothing about the details. For example, from the article, its autopilot looks more like what GeoHot is doing rather than Tesla.
The only problem I see is that certain aspects of the design were probably copied wholesale from Tesla. This is bad when you essentially get to steal aspects of a design that cost a fortune to develop and then deploy a copy for a fraction the cost.
You have to start wondering what's wrong with humanity when the idea that the lives of more (instead of fewer) people could get improved gets called "a problem".
Ezekiel 23:20
it will blow up in our faces? like everything else from china.
I have a self driving car. I drive it myself. I have driven so many millions of miles, that my arms and legs drive it automatically. I don't even remember turning the steering wheel or operating the gas peddle, break. or clutch, or turn signal when I went out twice today. It was all automatic. Why, I can even carry on a conversation with others in the car while driving it automatically. My self driving car is a 1995 GMC Sonoma pickup.
I wondered how far I had to read before the now standard meme "but China copies everything" would be invoked. Gives me a laugh everytime.
The only problem I see is that certain aspects of the design were probably copied wholesale from Tesla. This is bad when you essentially get to steal aspects of a design that cost a fortune to develop and then deploy a copy for a fraction the cost. As long as they pay Tesla some compensation for their technology, this would be fine. .
From Tesla: https://www.teslamotors.com/en...
We believe that Tesla, other companies making electric cars, and the world would all benefit from a common, rapidly-evolving technology platform.
Technology leadership is not defined by patents, which history has repeatedly shown to be small protection indeed against a determined competitor, but rather by the ability of a company to attract and motivate the world’s most talented engineers. We believe that applying the open source philosophy to our patents will strengthen rather than diminish Tesla’s position in this regard.
I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. - Scott Adams
If it took 1 billion dollars to invent and then refine an idea to fruition, and then others can steal the idea for free, the issue is where does that billion come from? If engineering and R&D firms are not paid for their effort, they will cease to invent anything new.
The communist Chinese government will love such a system, the "system" owns the cars and the individual pays for each use of them, so that the people have zero chance of protecting their privacy while using the vehicles. It is a public transport system and therefore does not actually compare with or compete against with Telsa in many markets. That makes it less of a business model and more of a political model.
Are you daft? Elon was a multibillionaire before Tesla Motors. A billion is no big deal to him.
Also you cherry pick your replies. You said nothing to the guy pointing out Telsa Motor's patents are free for anyone to use. And instead keep trying to act like something has been lost by some Chinese company copying Tesla. But, that is Tesla's plan. They literally want to be copied.
"standard meme "but China copies everything" would be invoked"
It's been true for a long time.
"Gives me a laugh everytime"
I still laugh at lots of things that now get SJW panties uncomfortably bunched up. Doesn't mean they weren't or aren't still true.
Also, it seems that lots of things that China makes & exports contains substances that are banned in other countries, notably lead. :-D
So perhaps this new EV will cut costs by initially using lead-acid batteries .
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
Subs work in a lot of contexts. For instance, it makes far more sense for me to sub for Google Music at $8/mo than to buy the occasional album - I get access to a significantly wider collection and it costs me less to do so. Same goes for Netflix, especially when you share that with a few family members.
Cars... Well, it could work. A significant proportion of cars currently on the road are rentals, and aren't those just time-limited subscriptions? I don't know whether it'd be economically viable for the company, whatever they might say (the Chinese sure appear to love blowing a lot of hot air and make wild claims during announcements), but if the pricing is in line with renting a car, it could find buyers, especially if there's no lease per se.
The totalitarian* Chinese government . . .
ftfy
They haven't been communist since the Cultural Revolution.
Tesla wants to sell multiple metric fucktons of batteries. Development on their cars pales in comparison to the capital investment of their battery factory. If the other companies who copy their designs realize that building high quality batteries in significant quantity is ludicrous expensive, they'll just buy Tesla batteries. Win for Tesla.
Except that under the subscription model you own nothing. When you buy the CD, movie, etc, you own an infinitesimally smaller piece of the music library for your $12, With the subsciption model, you only have access as long as you keep paying that $12, and if they change their agreement with the artists/record companies, you access to your favorite artist might be removed next month. When you buy a DVD or CD, you own that forever.
In French, everything that you can ride, is female, so it should be LaEco.
Thousands of people have built working electric drive cars. The idea is had each of them learned from the others, then the cost to develop a better version is not a billion or even millions more, but thousands. Musk spent millions developing manufacturing, and the processes and methods likely more than on the car it's self. If the improvements of all can be shared, he stands to better compete with conventional autos, his real goal.
what if the government made you put a label on your car so their computers could tell who you were and where you went?!! oh wait, they do.
so what's the problem? your privacy concern is ridiculous, no one gives a shit where you drive
You might own nothing, but you have access to (nearly) everything. That's why people are jumping on board music streaming. Instead of owning let's say 100 albums, for less money than buying them you can get constant access to a large fraction of the world's music - tens of thousands of albums at least. People have discovered it's better not to be locked into a "collection", when for the cost of one album per month they can have it all at their fingertips.
The meme is China copies every thing but does a bad job. Straight off the bat they lied about outperforming Tesla vehicles in every way. Tesla released a compact SUV and the metrics for that a very different to the metrics for a sedan. So they underperformed significantly because no compact SUV (keep in mind that is becoming the leading model format globally).
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Buying a car costs you an infinite sum as well. Because a car doesn't last forever, you will always be replacing it every n years. And since you're multiplying a fixed monthly fee by an infinite amount of time to claim an infinite cost, likewise paying $x to buy a new car every n years for an infinite amount of time will have infinite cost.
The subscription model does not have to be bad. There are certain advantages to it. Fixed recurring costs are what's allowed it to succeed in the ISP market - it makes both the ISP's and customer's finances more predictable. You don't have to save up money for a down payment. You can get a wider selection and/or get to switch choices more frequently - why Netflix is successful vs having to buy every DVD or Blu-ray you watch.
Your assertion is a large part of what's keeping people away from EVs. 95% of people's car use is for daily commuting which is easily within range of most existing EVs. The long trips which cover the other 5% could easily be accomplished by renting a ICE car just for those infrequent trips. But because people think it's "free" to use a car they've bought, while renting a car costs money, they refuse to do this.
People need to understand that although subscribing to or renting a car costs you $x each month, so does buying a car. Just take the purchase price, subtract the final sale price, add the interest your down payment would've earned if you'd kept it, and divide by the number of months you will own the car. That's your monthly cost for owning a car.
FTA: "One day the car will be free. The Le See is a D-class car.
Déclassé?
That's truth in advertising.
Each image in the article, except for the last one with a mock-up, is poorly done CG.
The tell-signs are so numerous that I have no interest in naming them. Those with even minimal knowledge of CG can tell. Please share your image-interpretations.
Oh, BTW, at the very end of the fluff Advertorial, you find the following (in the unreadable Arial Italics type-face):
"Disclosure: LeEco paid for the correspondent's flights and accommodation to attend its Beijing launch event."
(My personal view is the same as Edison...Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration... they have a lot of work to do.)
All good, except for your last sentence.
The 99% perspiration was by other people, aimed in random directions – like monkeys at typewriters. The '1% inspiration' was Edison's disdain of academic research, from which he stole actual ideas with abandon.
Edison was an asshole, a shotgun researcher who had his R&D staff try everything imaginable. For example, to improve lightbulb filaments. He rewarded the one to have been randomly assigned a particular 'candidate filament material', and then rewarded them with a little extra money. . . and re-assignment to a project that would kill them (such as his 'x-ray R&D').
Gee, thanks boss!
Plus, he electrocuted an elephant in his AC/DC fight with Tesla. He 'invented' the "Electric Chair" as a form of capital punishment in a marketing attempt to defeat the superior AC electric technology. And, to repeat, he electrocuted a fucking elephant as a publicity stunt.
In fact, the thing about Tesla is not revolutionary technology but how they made something people want to buy. Before Tesla, EV were all about fuel economy, ecology, urban areas and mid-range smaller cars, cars for responsible adults. Tesla said "fuck that" and made a big, expensive toy that can also be used as a vehicle.
Um, Tesla has been open from its inception (a decade ago?) that their first model would be top-end, the second model would be high-end, and the third model would be mid-high range.
That is exactly how it has played out – as promised. How many mega-corps can you name that keep promises on such a long-range time scale?
If you want a tiny car, buy a SMART. They have been available in vending machines since 1999 (at least in Germany). BMW has recently followed this up with a similarly tiny hybrid in recent years.
it doesn't even exist yet, they have a body concept and some 3D renderings. if it worked, there would be pictures and videos of it.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
It's the difference between a paid membership card for a library and creating your own library bit by bit. The membership fee gets you instant access to a vast collection of content immediately while your collction will always start out small and requires more effort to expand and maintain. It's up to personal preference, really.
Except that the electrocution of the elephant was unrelated to Edison, or Tesla, or the war of currents.
Check wikipedia :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topsy_%28elephant%29
But Edison was still an asshole, even without killing elephants.
Straight off the bat they lied about outperforming Tesla vehicles in every way.
The only problem is Tesla lied about its performance in every way.
Top Gear Jeremy Clarkson got only ~50mile range from the Tesla Roadster (Tesla claimed almost 250mile range). Sure he was thrashing it around, but how else do you drive a self proclaimed sports car.
Model S (P85) only got slightly more than 100mile range (Tesla claimed 300miles) from more reputable sources that I've seen.
Why the most talked params are speed and acceleration? It doesn't matter in cars like this. Doesn't matter if 140 or 150. For me is important time of charging and how many km I can get on one charge, price and safety.
They stole that from Steve Jobs ;)
If it took 1 billion dollars to invent and then refine an idea to fruition, and then others can steal the idea for free, the issue is where does that billion come from?
Usually from the even bigger economic savings for all of humanity. This actually scales with the size of the human population on Earth. The more people there are, the less it makes sense to lock things up. The advantages of everyone suddenly being more efficient are worth it.
Ezekiel 23:20
Except that the electrocution of the elephant was unrelated to Edison, or Tesla, or the war of currents.
Check wikipedia :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
But Edison was still an asshole, even without killing elephants.
Whoa! Thanks for the correction.
This is how we pick the nits of 'uncorrected claims of knowledge' (AKA bullshit or mistakes) from our collective consciousness.
And yes, I wholeheartedly agree, again, that Edison was an utter and complete asshole.
I still regret, decades later, that my 8-year-old self believed the propaganda, and thought of him as an idol. It was a private sentiment, but regardless, I am now going to throw up into my own mouth just a little.
Basically everyone who has responded to my comment, yourself included, is ignorant of the very concept of investment or finance.
Look, I agree, if the GOVERNMENT - an entity that gets to collect taxes from everyone and thus benefits from efficiency improvements that all it's citizens benefit from - were funding electric car research, they could afford to give it away for free and not be concerned about copycats.
However, national governments have historically been shit for innovation. Their stuff costs far too much, takes too long, and is nowhere near as good as what is possible.
So if a private organization invests money to invent something - which is NOT free. I'm not talking about patenting the bloody spork or the concept of swapping 2 variables, an electric car is a massive project that costs billions and requires many separate complex systems. That money came from people seeking a return.
If they can't get a return - because of lack of legal protection from theft - they will stop investing. If the U.S. government doesn't enforce the laws, tech funding dries up. There would never be any MORE corporate investment in research, and as mentioned, the government sucks.
In such a world, we all lose. Technology is the only thing that differentiates us from squabbling apes.
With that said, I agree the current model is suboptimal. The worse excesses are when private companies get to patent government funded research, getting all the benefits but taking none of the risks. However, in the case of a Chinese firm ripping off a design, the U.S. government doesn't have to let them sell their product and does have the power to punish China as a nation. If the government fails to do so, they are no different than local cops letting someone rob you and then openly selling the stolen goods at a store nearby.