The Fool's Apple

On April 1st, many jokes break hearts, as they signify the essence of April Fool's Day. For Xiaomi, which became a rising star in car manufacturing within three years, Apple's decision to abandon its decade-long, low-profile research and development seems unwise. Is it that foreigners lack a certain sensibility, or do we possess an excess? In a restless environment that has become dull, what truly captures everyone's attention is who leads the way, who is the most powerful, and who is considered a big shot.

When we assume that anything visible to the naked eye can be replicated, our intelligence is impacted. It's like asking a college student to watch dissection videos daily, practice on frogs for three years, and then perform a tumor removal surgery on you in front of the screen. What else would you have to say, especially when there's no second chance? The student would suddenly realize that every step of the surgery—from anesthesia, incision, tissue separation, nerve and vessel isolation, locating the lesion, determining the margins and excision range, ligating vessels, removal, eradicating surrounding tissue, placing drains, suturing, to wound care—is different from what they learned and carries risks. Major bleeding, misjudging margins, and incomplete removal leading to recurrence and metastasis are matters of life and death. So, lying on the operating table, would you dare entrust your life to such a group of students discussing a makeshift surgery?

Thousands of Apple engineers toiled for over a decade only to realize that the "trivial" task of car manufacturing could cost lives if not done properly, and they decisively gave up. Is this foolishness, or is it a reverence for life? Wise men may differ. Huawei, too, shifted from planning to manufacture cars to developing driving systems, empowering established car companies, and focusing on work they enjoy and excel at. Both Apple and Huawei soberly recognize that nearly two centuries of car manufacturing experience cannot be easily replicated.

The difficulty of original car design is hard to quantify, but some imitations cannot achieve robust quality simply by assembling parts. It's not just about whether the shell and electronic devices are cool, how many selling points there are, or if the price is competitive. At its core, the primary element of driving is safety and reliability.

The first batch of Xiaomi cars will soon hit the streets, and I predict that while the quality won't be poor, minor issues will persist. Whether a recall happens will depend on the prevalence and severity of the quality issues.

Axiong's Essay