For Chinese companies, the bet is that lower prices and more AI features will entice people to wear smart glasses all day, recording their lives with constant video and audio. If you drop the price to about $200, “people will start using them every day,” said Brian Chen, general manager of Apotronics’ innovation center. That change will raise obvious privacy and security concerns that Rokid and Appotronics acknowledge, but they see the potential benefit as worth the risk.
From Vacuum to Cars
Many of China’s biggest electric car companies, including Geely and Great Wall Motor, brought their cars to CES, but what stole the show were two models that almost no one had heard of before. Nebula Next and Kosmera both showcased luxury electric sports cars, which are not currently on the market. Both brands have ties to Dreme, China’s leading robotics company, but claim to operate independently of it. At CES, however, the Nebula Next and Kosmera booths are tied to Dreme in the conference directory.
Putting these complicated corporate relationships aside, the idea of a robot vacuum company investing in EVs is not as far-fetched as it sounds. If anything, it’s the latest example of how Chinese electronics companies are leveraging their existing manufacturing expertise to make cars. The founder of Roborock, another Chinese vacuum company, started an EV company in 2023. Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone and home device giant, is launching its first EV in 2024.
Dreame is not the first and won’t be the last Chinese company to cross over from electronics to EVs, said Lei Xing, an analyst of the autonomous vehicle market and former editor-in-chief of China Auto Review, who checked out the Kosmera models at CES with me. China’s complex supply chain, engineering talent, and organic production system make it easy for newcomers to capture construction vehicles, Xing explains, but only a few will succeed. Others could end up like Apple, whose long-running car project ended up collapsing. “Life and death will be a natural consequence,” said Xing.
The Robovans Are Coming
When I returned to China last year, I made sure to try Baidu’s robot service, which is roughly equivalent to Alphabet’s Waymo in the US. What surprised me in China, however, was how many private parcel delivery vehicles were roaming the same open roads next to my traffic light.
Neolix is a leading company in China that develops both hardware and software for robovans. It says the number of them planted in China is growing nearly tenfold each year and will reach about 10,000 by 2025. (By comparison, there are about 2,500 Waymo vehicles operating in the US.) Neolix says it represents more than 60 percent of the market and has no major global competitors, said company president Z’s You. Neolix brought three of its vehicles to CES, ranging in size from a mini-refrigerator to a golf cart: tiny, windowless boxes on very large wheels, with no driver inside.
Neolix is keen to expand internationally and already has pilot projects underway in the Middle East, East Asia, and Latin America. It is also targeting the American market. Zhao told me that he knows any self-driving company in the US will face heavy scrutiny on issues like safety and data security, but he hopes to work with local partners who can help navigate compliance requirements here. “As a technology company, working with one cloud service provider in any market is the most cost-effective way, but it won’t work. You have to talk to local regulators and learn which cloud providers are willing,” Zhao said.
Producing Viral Videos
When OpenAI launched Sora 2 last year, they were making a serious bet that generative AI could be not just a tool but a content type big enough to support an entire social media platform. That idea isn’t fully realized yet, but at CES I met two video AI companies that compete with OpenAI’s Sora.
Kling is the AI component of Kuaishou, the most popular Chinese short video platform. Kling’s app and website combined have more than 60 million registered users, most of whom the company says are based outside of China. About 100 people attended Kling’s panel event at CES with field power users. Jason Zada, the award-winning director behind Coca-Cola’s 2024 AI-powered holiday commercial, said he recently used Kling to create a YouTube video showing a cozy fireplace as Santa, turkeys, astronauts and snowmen do mysterious things. Zada said he created more than 600 clips with Kling and combined them to create the final 105-minute video. It costs about $2,500 in token credits.
