A year ago, Wang Chuanfu bluntly stated that "autonomous driving is all bullshit"; a year later, BYD's intelligent driving team has grown to over 4,000 people, with an average monthly sales revenue of 250,000 yuan, and monthly salary payments alone reaching up to 1 billion yuan. There seems to be a contradiction between what was said and done? Actually, it just demonstrates Wang Chuanfu's wisdom.

1. Is autonomous driving just bullshit?

In March last year, at BYD's financial report exchange meeting, Wang Chuanfu, who is usually known for his low-key and reserved demeanor, suddenly changed his style. He not only talked extensively about new energy vehicles but also expressed his views on autonomous driving in straightforward language, causing waves. In Wang Chuanfu's view, autonomous driving was initially coerced by capital, so no one pointed out its shortcomings. He even said directly, "Autonomous driving is all bullshit, just a fake and gimmicky thing, it's all deception, it's just like the Emperor's New Clothes."

Once the news came out, the industry was abuzz. Some netizens said that Wang Chuanfu was opposing intelligent driving. Actually, this was intentional provocation by people with ulterior motives, using tactics to deliberately misconstrue the concepts of "autonomous driving" and "intelligent driving." Wang Chuanfu was not optimistic about autonomous driving, but he has never opposed intelligent driving, and instead places great importance on it. This is a very practical view. Wang Chuanfu has a clear understanding of intelligent driving, he has said, "The big revolution in the automotive industry, the first half is electrification, and the second half is intelligence."

2. Average monthly salary of 250,000 yuan!

On January 16th of this year, at BYD's Dream Day event, Wang Chuanfu personally stated that the company's intelligent driving team had expanded to 4,000 people. Recently, Zhao Changjiang, the general manager of BYD's Tengshi Sales Division, revealed in a live broadcast with well-known car reviewer Wu Pei that BYD's intelligent driving department has over 4,000 employees, and the monthly salary payments amount to 1 billion yuan. In other words, the average monthly salary of BYD's intelligent driving department employees is as high as 250,000 yuan. With such high compensation, it's easy to imagine how many industry experts have been recruited. Obviously, BYD is going all out in the field of intelligent driving.

Some believe that the 1.0 era of intelligent driving belongs to hardware-driven, the 2.0 era is software-driven, and now it has entered the 3.0 era driven by data. At this stage, the BEV large model algorithm can continuously train and enhance the intelligent driving large model through data such as time, multi-view, and space. The larger the amount of data, the stronger the intelligent driving performance. BYD has the highest global sales of new energy vehicles and undoubtedly collects a larger amount of data than other automakers. Therefore, the BEV large model algorithm is considered a good opportunity for BYD to overtake competitors. And the premise of all this is that BYD has a sufficiently excellent intelligent driving team.

3. Wang Chuanfu is taking drastic measures!

A team of 4,000 people and still expanding; an average monthly salary of up to 250,000 yuan, with a total monthly salary of 1 billion yuan... Obviously, Wang Chuanfu is leading BYD to take drastic measures in the field of intelligence. It is necessary to take drastic measures because, in the era of intelligence, any automaker is afraid of falling behind. In the increasingly fierce competition, falling behind means being eliminated. Without significant investment in funds and talent, it is impossible to achieve success in intelligent driving. With significant investment in funds and talent, BYD has achieved a large number of industry-leading results in intelligent driving.

In the second half of last year, many automakers were actively applying for L3-level autonomous driving road test licenses. It is worth mentioning that when multiple automakers successively announced at the end of the year that they had obtained road test licenses, BYD announced in December that it had already obtained a road test license in Shenzhen back in July. In early June this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the first batch of "smart internet car access and on-road pilot" lists, with most of the nine automakers on the list having state-owned enterprise backgrounds, and only two private enterprises, including BYD. Recently, BYD has released a new intelligent driving feature, allowing city navigation without maps at night in urban villages, demonstrating the strong strength of the first tier.

To be honest, BYD is far ahead in terms of new energy vehicle sales, and no automaker globally can match it. However, in the field of intelligence, BYD has not yet achieved such a significant leading edge. New energy vehicles are still in rapid development and gaining momentum, and no automaker can afford to be complacent. Wang Chuanfu is a very strategic entrepreneur who clearly understands the key directions of the industry in the future. Therefore, he is leading BYD to fully develop in the field of intelligence, aiming to remain at the forefront of the industry in the second half.