How Was Smart Driving in 2023?
Let’s hype up Musk again.
As I mentioned before, China’s new energy vehicle sector has publicly acknowledged being about two years behind Tesla. Based on this article, the gap essentially comes down to computing power infrastructure and chip design methodology. Domestic players predominantly rely on 2D algorithms from the past decade, whereas Tesla employs a large-model AI approach aligned with the underlying technical architecture of ChatGPT.
Autonomous Driving Enters the City: A Land-Based “Moonshot Race”
According to this article, to survive, domestic manufacturers have basically abandoned L4 and pivoted to L2 to reduce costs. But everyone knows that fully autonomous driving—L4 and L5—is the future. L2 is little more than a step up from switching from manual to automatic transmission; it’s essentially just a tool to alleviate driving fatigue. Meanwhile, Tesla’s smart driving方案 in China remains a阉割版 (likely to protect domestic enterprises). But combined with the above discussion, when true autonomous driving arrives, foreign solutions will likely dominate the Chinese market the same way ChatGPT overshadowed China’s AI—especially since Tesla continues to invest heavily in L4.
The Price War Avalanche: Life and Death in the Smart Driving Supply Chain
I’ve said it before: Tesla is essentially running a public-utility initiative. Price cuts are forcing the world to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to electricity. Data released at Tesla’s shareholder meeting shows that just 0.2% of global land area will be used for solar and wind installations to scale up battery production, reducing dependence on scarce resources and cutting carbon emissions. The long-term value of the vehicle hinges on chips and software updates, making it increasingly similar to smartphones today. As long as the chip is powerful enough, better system and software updates will continuously enhance the autonomous driving experience. Moreover, Tesla’s FSD (Full Self-Driving) system can be migrated to other platforms, such as humanoid robots.
Overall, globally speaking, at least Tesla is still persisting with L4.
Baidu’s萝卜快跑 (Apollo Go) is the world’s largest robotaxi operator, basically achieving full driverless operations, with quarterly orders reaching 660,000.