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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.
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. As long as the US government and it's allies level trade sanctions against China if they don't respect American IP at all, this would be fine.
The current situation is only a problem because neither is true. China copies shamelessly and then isn't punished for it. So the cut rate competing product gets sold in America for a cheaper cost, and then the innovators - the firm that developed the tech - go out of business or can't justify future R&D projects.
Anyways, anyone can cram in bigger batteries, bigger motor drivers, and bigger motors. Doesn't make it a good idea - the Tesla performance is already overkill for ordinary driving conditions on real world roads. Future electric cars will probably have less performance.
And "free" is just clickbait. Obviously this car will be leased, which you can already do with every other battery electric vehicle sold today.
Studying Sharia Law doesn't give Jihadis the practical knowledge necessary to carry out an operation, the same way that "graduating" from Liberty "University" doesn't give a christian fundie the practical knowledge necessary to blow up an abortion clinic.
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.
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.
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 ;)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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 ;)