- cross-posted to:
- worldnews@lemmy.ml
- world@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- worldnews@lemmy.ml
- world@lemmy.world
Robotics has catapulted Beijing into a dominant position in many industries
“It’s the most humbling thing I’ve ever seen,” said Ford’s chief executive about his recent trip to China.
“Their cost and the quality of their vehicles is far superior to what I see in the West,” Farley warned in July.
Andrew Forrest, the Australian billionaire behind mining giant Fortescue – which is investing massively in green energy – says his trips to China convinced him to abandon his company’s attempts to manufacture electric vehicle powertrains in-house.
Other executives describe vast, “dark factories” where robots do so much of the work alone that there is no need to even leave the lights on for humans.
“We visited a dark factory producing some astronomical number of mobile phones,” recalls Greg Jackson, the boss of British energy supplier Octopus.
In Britain, Shenzhen-based BYD multiplied its September sales by a factor of 10 this year – overtaking far more established brands such as Mini, Renault and Land Rover.
Saw an investigative video about Shenzen, almost 10-years ago I think? Yeah. I was terrified. They have their shit together, have no concept of IP, steal whatever and compete amongst each other to innovate faster and better.
If you have a clever idea in electronics, and you got the education/experience, you can wander down to the market and buy almost any parts you wish, no matter how weird, right off the shelf. These guys were talking about building working prototypes within 24-hours.
Meanwhile, in America, we lost Radio Shack and Fry’s (which was only in big cities) and have to wait weeks to get a pack of LEDs off eBay. Imagine a mega mall where you can get any electronic widget you like, cheap.
Their culture, government, people, all were totally alien to my American senses, but it was clear they were fucking smart and moving fast. Looks like there are lots of new videos to check out, get me updated.