223: Carrot Run needs your skills

Ferdinand quickly had several malicious thoughts flash through his mind.

But he immediately dismissed them.

Such a thing carried too much risk; if it were exposed, the impact would be too great.

Moreover, when he thought of Fenglei, a company with a Chinese background, he felt a little uneasy.

Thinking of this, Ferdinand was already so angry he felt numb.

They had spent a great deal of effort launching a massive public opinion offensive, only for it to turn into an assist for Fenglei.

This made him feel incredibly stifled.

Meanwhile, at Fenglei Headquarters.

“Mr. Ren, I’m Chairman Wang Tao, the head of Radish Run. I have a big business deal to discuss with your company. I wonder if you have time to meet recently…?”

Besides contacts from several well-known foreign new energy companies, Ren Yi also received invitations from a large number of other companies.

Ren Yi saw that it was none other than “Radish Run.”

This was a taxi company with high visibility both domestically and internationally.

Soon, the other party’s call came in, and Ren Yi answered it casually.

The other party’s tone suppressed an undisguised excitement.

Clearly, the technology currently mastered by Fenglei was of immense help to the autonomous taxi industry.

But Ren Yi didn’t have time to go to the meeting now, so he got straight to the point and asked:

“I am Ren Yi. Your company can directly state what project you need to cooperate on. We can communicate by phone beforehand, and it won’t be too late to arrange a meeting once we confirm our intention to cooperate.”

Chairman Wang Tao nodded, his heart ablaze.

As the largest taxi company on the market, when he saw Fenglei release this ADS Intelligent Driving System, he knew that the taxi industry was definitely going to change.

Whoever could get in touch with Fenglei early and share the autonomous driving technology would be the absolute hegemon of the taxi industry in the future.

“It’s like this: your company’s ADS Intelligent Driving System shined brightly at the international auto show, and our Radish Run specializes in taxis.”

“So, we want to cooperate deeply with your Fenglei to develop an autonomous taxi system. At that time, all taxis will not need drivers and can pick up and drop off passengers themselves, completely dominating the entire domestic taxi market,” Chairman Wang Tao said.

He believed he was fully capable of persuading Ren Yi. Currently, Radish Run held the largest passenger resources nationwide.

And this project, Baidu Group had also done before, and both parties had even cooperated deeply.

However, because the field of autonomous driving was too difficult, they ultimately invested hundreds of millions of yuan but failed to make any significant progress.

But the technology announced by Fenglei gave them hope.

Once Radish Run’s vehicles were equipped with this technology, they could truly achieve autonomous driving.

At that time, the profits generated by the entire domestic taxi market could easily double their company’s market value several times over.

“From what you’re saying, you want our Fenglei to develop a system for automatically picking up and dropping off passengers?” Ren Yi immediately understood Chairman Wang Tao’s meaning.

“It’s a deep cooperation between our two companies, preferably integrating with our APP to achieve true autonomous taxis,” Chairman Wang Tao said excitedly.

After listening, Ren Yi directly refused:

“Sorry, I’m afraid our Fenglei can’t do that…”

To be honest, this wish was definitely a huge profit for capital.

With just one system, all drivers could be completely replaced.

With the capabilities of the ADS Intelligent Driving System, there were no technical problems whatsoever.

But the difficulty did not lie here.

“Mr. Ren, what do you mean? You’re not joking with me, are you?”

“Who in the automotive industry doesn’t know Fenglei’s strength now? You’ve reached such a level in the Zhi Jia System field, and you say you can’t do it? Then who can?”

Chairman Wang Tao was immediately taken aback. He felt that Fenglei was deliberately making excuses, trying to push down the price.

He had seen all the online demonstration videos; they could definitely achieve the level of autonomous driving.

Moreover, Chairman Wang Tao was certain that no other company besides Fenglei could reach such a level.

Ren Yi reiterated his thoughts:

“Mr. Wang, since you are in the taxi business, you should have some understanding of road traffic regulations and the current L3 level autonomous driving regulations, right?”

“Your company’s goal is to completely replace all human drivers using autonomous driving technology and monopolize the domestic taxi market.”

“This is an excellent idea, as it allows for maximizing profits with extremely low operating costs.”

Chairman Wang Tao paused:

“Yes, does Mr. Ren see any problem with that?”

Ren Yi continued:

“However, the current road traffic law for L3 level autonomous driving stipulates that a person must still supervise the vehicle during driving to prevent a few unexpected situations that could cause personal and vehicle damage.”

“So, even if our Fenglei develops such a Zhi Jia System, your vehicles would still require a licensed driver to supervise them; otherwise, they wouldn’t be allowed on the road.”

Indeed, the ADS Intelligent Driving System was already very powerful, but it still couldn’t achieve 100% autonomous driving.

There would still be a very small number of situations that could lead to system judgment errors, so manual intervention was necessary.

For example, natural disasters like snowstorms, earthquakes, large-scale sudden road damage, and chain car accidents not caused by one's own party. In such situations, if an autonomous driving vehicle is involved, it would certainly be difficult to resolve without human intervention and would create more obstacles on the road.

At this, even Chairman Wang Tao frowned.

Each car would still need a driver?

In that case, what was the difference between installing the ADS Intelligent Driving System and doing something pointless?

They wouldn’t just have to pay for the Zhi Jia System; they’d also have to pay additional labor costs. Wouldn’t they lose even more then?

Ren Yi then added:

“However… currently, there are national regulations for pilot autonomous driving vehicles on designated roads. Within prescribed routes inside cities, a certain range of autonomous driving operations can be achieved.”

“If you are willing to cooperate, Fenglei must be the primary partner.”

“And multiple service points must be set up along urban road sections, with safety officers on duty, so that in case of an emergency, they can promptly arrive on site to handle it.”

Currently, the ADS Intelligent Driving System cannot yet achieve nationwide or even global autonomous driving capabilities.

However, urban road sections pose less pressure and fully comply with national laws and regulations.

After listening to Ren Yi, Chairman Wang Tao fell into deep thought.

Although it couldn't completely eliminate human labor, it still saved a lot of labor costs.

This point still made his heart pound.

However, he quickly thought of the profit distribution issue.

“How much profit does your Fenglei want?”

Ren Yi smiled and said:

“Excluding software and equipment maintenance costs, our Fenglei wants fifty percent of the profit. Additionally, there’s another requirement: safety officers must be recruited from the professional driver community.”

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