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Chinese NEV maker sets sights on integrating automotive supply chain

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      China

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      Chinese NEV maker sets sights on integrating automotive supply chain

      2024-11-28 03:43 Last Updated At:18:57

      Chinese tech giant Xiaomi, widely known for its innovative smart phones and home appliances, is focusing on building up and integrating the supply chain in the automotive industry.

      Xiaomi entered the new energy vehicle (NEV) market in 2021, building its business to cover all essential automotive production processes like stamping, casting, body welding, painting, battery assembly, and final assembly.

      The company has been driving forward with a focus on developing a comprehensive supply chain to support its business.

      "Efficiency is the key word here. We look at the efficiency of our entire supply chain, from raw material procurement, to the processing of raw materials, logistics, to vehicle production and ultimately to our customer services. We look at the efficiencies of not only our very direct suppliers, but also then of our indirect suppliers - meaning the suppliers of our suppliers," said Kevin Chen, the company's head of supply chain operations.

      The company has also invested heavily in research and development, aiming to integrate artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity, and energy-efficient solutions into its vehicles. Industry experts believe this could set Xiaomi apart in the competitive NEV market.

      "We put a lot of efforts into building strategic partnerships with key suppliers, say battery technology or sensor development. So there are two ways we have these strategic partnerships. One way is that, we are a tech company at heart, so we invest very heavily into frontier technology research and development alongside with our partners. Another way we do that is we also believe that it is important to align our interests with those of our key suppliers. We have become one of the top investors in some of our key component suppliers," said Chen.

      These partnerships and innovations efforts are not just theoretical concepts. Xiaomi, in particular, has been putting these ideas into practice in multiple ways.

      "Xiaomi's strength lies in its ability to scale and innovate quickly. It applied its smartphone ecosystem model to the NEV industry, like the philosophy of building entire industrial chains and supplier partnerships. We can see significant disruption throughout the market," said Zhang Baohua, director of the company's vehicle manufacturing unit.

      Chinese NEV maker sets sights on integrating automotive supply chain

      Chinese NEV maker sets sights on integrating automotive supply chain

      Chinese NEV maker sets sights on integrating automotive supply chain

      Chinese NEV maker sets sights on integrating automotive supply chain

      Next Article

      China's humanoid robots evolve with technological, data breakthroughs

      2025-02-26 15:42 Last Updated At:16:07

      Advances in robotics algorithms and the accumulation of data have enabled China's humanoid robots to rapidly evolve, progressing from being able to quickly recover from falls to playing a crucial role in various practical applications.

      A recent algorithm developed by the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, in collaboration with institutions including Shanghai Jiao Tong University, allows humanoid robots to rise quickly and stably from various positions.

      "We are likely the first in the world to have developed an algorithm capable of standing up on generalizable terrain and arbitrary terrain. Previously, robots could only rise from fixed terrains in fixed postures with fixed procedure. Our technology, which advances through interaction, now allows them to stand up across various scenarios and terrains with various postures," said Peng Jiangmiao, a scientist at the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

      Imitating human movement is a vital path for robots to acquire skills. The laboratory has developed a new remote operation system for data collection, which includes exoskeletons for the upper limbs and pedals for the lower limbs, enabling robots to precisely replicate the operator's movements.

      "This system allows a single operator to control both the upper and lower limbs of the humanoid robot, improving the efficiency of data collection. In the future, it is hoped that this cockpit could be used in hazardous environments, such as fire or toxic gas areas, where operators can remotely control robots," said Ben Qingwei, a joint PhD student at the lab.

      Data is crucial for training large models. AgiBot, an innovative company dedicated to developing AI-powered robots, has a 2,000-square-meter data collection center, where 100 humanoid robots are currently undergoing a range of training exercises. The center has made over one million pieces of training data publicly available.

      "We've designed multiple large categories of scenarios, including home, retail and service, and industrial settings. The data collected from these varied scenarios will be gathered to train our robots' large models," said Yao Maoqing, executive president of Agibot's research development. Unlike typical language models, which can rely on the vast amounts of text data already available online, humanoid robots face a shortage of real-world data. For example, performing a simple task like pouring milk requires nearly 100 high-quality data points.

      "At the end of December last year, we released a dataset of one million robot trajectories to the public, hoping to advance progress in embodied intelligence in both academic and industrial fields. Going forward, we will continue to optimize costs, including the overall cost of robots, and improve the efficiency of data collection," Yao added.

      China's humanoid robots evolve with technological, data breakthroughs

      China's humanoid robots evolve with technological, data breakthroughs

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