Latest news with #AlessandroDiviggiano
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Xiaomi's Tesla Y rival YU7 hits showrooms in Beijing
By Qiaoyi Li and Alessandro Diviggiano BEIJING (Reuters) -Xiaomi rolled out its new sports utility vehicle in Beijing on Thursday, as the firm best known for smartphones and consumer electronics gears up to further challenge Tesla in the world's largest auto market. Xiaomi launched the YU7 at 13 of its Beijing showrooms and will start taking orders for the vehicle in July. It is keen to repeat the success of the sporty SU7 sedan, which launched last year and has outsold Tesla's Model 3 on a monthly basis since December. Analysts have said the YU7 could pose a major threat to Tesla's best-selling Model Y but its launch comes at a time when Xiaomi, a relative newcomer to China's highly-competitive EV market, has seen new EV orders fall after a series of controversies. Chinese authorities have been investigating a fatal highway crash at the end of March involving an SU7 in driving-assistance mode and Xiaomi has apologised for "not clear enough" marketing after customer complaints of false advertising. Liu Jiaxing, a 34-year-old tech worker, was among the first visitors to Xiaomi's flagship showroom in Beijing Oriental Plaza on Thursday morning, eager to catch a glimpse of the emerald green YU7. Liu said he was fond of the styling and colour as well as the fact that Xiaomi vehicles connect with the firm's personal gadgets and smart home products, which he felt pointed to how local brands understood Chinese consumers better than their foreign counterparts. "I used to be more prone to U.S., German and French car marques, but the fast progress of China's EV sector prompts me to focus more on the products rather than brands," he said. Another visitor was Tom van Dillen, managing partner at German management consultancy Greenkern in Beijing, who said he was not a fan of some of the YU7's intelligent features, which he described as "unnecessary", but said the YU7 was a formidable challenger to the Model Y. He cited a "physical ecosystem advantage in the showroom where there is a dedicated area with accessories that only fit into Xiaomi cars" and their competitive price. Xiaomi has said that it will only announce the YU7's pricing in July. HSBC Qianhai estimated in a note last week that the new SUV will be priced between 230,000 yuan and 330,000 yuan ($31,989-$45,898) and that Xiaomi could ship 100,000 YU7 units this year and 249,000 units in 2026. The Model Y is priced from 263,500 yuan in China. ($1 = 7.1899 Chinese yuan renminbi)
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
China pits humanoid robots against humans in half-marathon
By Eduardo Baptista and Alessandro Diviggiano BEIJING (Reuters) -Twenty-one humanoid robots joined thousands of runners at the Yizhuang half-marathon in Beijing on Saturday, the first time these machines have raced alongside humans over a 21-km (13-mile) course. The robots from Chinese manufacturers such as DroidVP and Noetix Robotics came in all shapes and sizes, some shorter than 120 cm (3.9 ft), others as tall as 1.8 m (5.9 ft). One company boasted that its robot looked almost human, with feminine features and the ability to wink and smile. Some firms tested their robots for weeks before the race. Beijing officials have described the event as more akin to a race car competition, given the need for engineering and navigation teams. "The robots are running very well, very stable ... I feel I'm witnessing the evolution of robots and AI,' said spectator He Sishu, who works in artificial intelligence. The robots were accompanied by human trainers, some of whom had to physically support the machines during the race. A few of the robots wore running shoes, with one donning boxing gloves and another wearing a red headband with the words "Bound to Win" in Chinese. The winning robot was Tiangong Ultra, from the Beijing Innovation Center of Human Robotics, with a time of 2 hours and 40 minutes. The men's winner of the race had a time of 1 hour and 2 minutes. The centre is 43% owned by two state-owned enterprises, while tech giant Xiaomi's robotics arm and leading Chinese humanoid robot firm UBTech have equal share in the rest. Tang Jian, chief technology officer for the robotics centre, said Tiangong Ultra's performance was aided by long legs and an algorithm allowing it to imitate how humans run a marathon. "I don't want to boast but I think no other robotics firms in the West have matched Tiangong's sporting achievements," Tang said, adding that the robot switched batteries just three times during the race. SOME ROBOTS STRUGGLE Some robots, like Tiangong Ultra, completed the race, while others struggled from the beginning. One robot fell at the starting line and lay flat for a few minutes before getting up and taking off. One crashed into a railing after running a few metres, causing its human operator to fall over. Although humanoid robots have made appearances at marathons in China over the past year, this is the first time they have raced alongside humans. China is hoping that investment in frontier industries like robotics can help create new engines of economic growth. Some analysts, though, question whether having robots enter marathons is a reliable indicator of their industrial potential. Alan Fern, professor of computer science, artificial intelligence and robotics at Oregon State University, said contrary to claims from Beijing officials that such a race requires "AI breakthroughs", the software enabling humanoid robots to run was developed and demonstrated more than five years ago. "Chinese companies have really focused on showing off walking, running, dancing, and other feats of agility. "Generally, these are interesting demonstrations, but they don't demonstrate much regarding the utility of useful work or any type of basic intelligence," Fern said. Tang, the robotic centre's CTO, said: "A focus going forward for us will be industrial applications for humanoid robots so they can truly enter factories, business scenarios, and finally households."
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DeepSeek's global success received by Chinese with pride and glee
By Eduardo Baptista and Alessandro Diviggiano BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese bloggers, state media and local citizens have welcomed DeepSeek's global success with pride and glee, with some saying the homegrown AI startup's meteoric rise is a sign China is beating back Washington's attempts to contain the country's tech industry. DeepSeek last week launched a free AI assistant that it says uses less data at a fraction of the cost of incumbent services. By Monday, it had overtaken U.S. rival ChatGPT in downloads from Apple's App Store, triggering a global selloff in tech shares. The Chinese company's apparent ability to match OpenAI's capabilities at a much lower cost has posed questions over the sustainability of the business models and profit margins of U.S. AI giants such as Nvidia and Microsoft. In China, it has raised hopes that the country can successfully resist Washington's export controls targeting access to cutting-edge semiconductors. "This also symbolises U.S. containment, persecution, and sanctions against China in the field of advanced technology has completely failed," military affairs commentator Chen Xi wrote on his WeChat account on Wednesday. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that DeepSeek's technology should act as a spur for American companies and it was good that Chinese firms had come up with a cheaper, faster method of artificial intelligence. The provincial government's media office in Zhejiang, where DeepSeek is based, published a lengthy essay on Wednesday that quickly went viral and was read more than 100,000 times. "The moon overseas is not actually more round, whatever others can do, we can also do it and even do it better," the essay said, while criticising online voices that were both overly triumphant and overly pessimistic about China's technological development. "We need to leave the narrow prism of triumphalism," the department argued. Still, the sentiment around DeepSeek echoes public reaction to Huawei's 2023 surprise release of its high-end Mate 60 Pro smartphone during a visit by then U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who led the Biden Administration's efforts to restrict Chinese access to high-end AI chips. At the time, the state-backed Global Times said that Huawei's ability to produce a high-end smartphone despite years of targeted U.S. sanctions showed Washington had failed in its "extreme crackdown" on China. Chen Jianuo, a 38-year-old employee at a sustainable development magazine in Beijing, said she felt proud of DeepSeek's popularity overseas after noticing it was a trending topic on Chinese social media platform Weibo. "China has made great progress in the development of artificial intelligence, and I hope that the technological development of our country will get better and better," she said. Leo Li, a 24-year-old student, said that he was happy a Chinese company could be on a par with the likes of Meta and OpenAI and that he would consider using DeepSeek's AI tools. "I feel quite proud of it, because as a Chinese citizen, we have this (AI) research and development that has become a global sensation," he said. Sign in to access your portfolio
