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Huawei Says Chery's Luxeed S7 Delays Will be Resolved in April

FILE PHOTO: People visit the Huawei stand at the 2024 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain February 27, 2024. REUTERS/Albert Gea/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: People visit the Huawei stand at the 2024 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain February 27, 2024. REUTERS/Albert Gea/File Photo
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Huawei Says Chery's Luxeed S7 Delays Will be Resolved in April

FILE PHOTO: People visit the Huawei stand at the 2024 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain February 27, 2024. REUTERS/Albert Gea/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: People visit the Huawei stand at the 2024 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain February 27, 2024. REUTERS/Albert Gea/File Photo

Huawei said that a shortage of semiconductors and factory relocation issues that had delayed production and deliveries of its Luxeed S7 sedan should be resolved from next month, local media outlet Cailianshe reported on Saturday.
It quoted Huawei managing director and chairman of its smart car solutions, Richard Yu, who was speaking about the issues surrounding Chery's Luxeed S7 sedan at an annual forum organized by the EV100 think tank.
Reuters reported in January that Chinese automaker Chery and another Huawei partner, Changan Auto, had lodged complaints with Huawei over how production issues with a computing unit the tech giant manufactured had caused delays to deliveries of their flagship model.
The Luxeed S7 sedan - the first model for Chery's Luxeed EV brand - had orders of about 20,000 as of Nov. 28. Luxeed said in January that buyers could be reimbursed by up to 10,000 yuan if they were unable to pick up the car as promised. The S7 is priced from 249,800 yuan ($34,716.62).
The brand was only launched in November and had been much hyped by Huawei with Yu previously claiming the S7 would beat Tesla's luxury Model S in performance and at a price lower than the Model 3.
Yu also told the EV100 forum that its autos business unit would likely turn a profit from April after losing billions of yuan in the past year, due to strong sales of mid to high-end models built by its partners.
Huawei launched its smart car unit in 2019 with the aim that it could become the equivalent of German automotive supplier Bosch of the intelligent electric vehicle (EV) era and supply software and components to partners.
But it is the only money-losing unit among Huawei's main six and brought in only one billion yuan revenue in the first half of 2023, a fraction of the company's 310.9 billion yuan total.
Last year, Huawei announced that it would spin the unit off into a new company which will receive the unit's core technologies and resources and take investment from partners such as automaker Changan.

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Big Tech on a Quest for Ideal AI Device

Former Apple design chief Jony Ive (L) has joined forces with OpenAI to make a device ideal for engaging with generative artificial intelligence. Matt Winkelmeyer / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
Former Apple design chief Jony Ive (L) has joined forces with OpenAI to make a device ideal for engaging with generative artificial intelligence. Matt Winkelmeyer / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
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Big Tech on a Quest for Ideal AI Device

Former Apple design chief Jony Ive (L) has joined forces with OpenAI to make a device ideal for engaging with generative artificial intelligence. Matt Winkelmeyer / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
Former Apple design chief Jony Ive (L) has joined forces with OpenAI to make a device ideal for engaging with generative artificial intelligence. Matt Winkelmeyer / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI has enlisted the legendary designer behind the iPhone to create an irresistible gadget for using generative artificial intelligence (AI).

The ability to engage digital assistants as easily as speaking with friends is being built into eyewear, speakers, computers and smartphones, but some argue that the Age of AI calls for a transformational new gizmo.

"The products that we're using to deliver and connect us to unimaginable technology are decades old," former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive said when his alliance with OpenAI was announced.

"It's just common sense to at least think, surely there's something beyond these legacy products."

Sharing no details, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said that a prototype Ive shared with him "is the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen."

According to several US media outlets, the device won't have a screen, nor will it be worn like a watch or broach.

Kyle Li, a professor at The New School, said that since AI is not yet integrated into people's lives, there is room for a new product tailored to its use.

The type of device won't be as important as whether the AI innovators like OpenAI make "pro-human" choices when building the software that will power them, said Rob Howard of consulting firm Innovating with AI

Learning from flops

The industry is well aware of the spectacular failure of the AI Pin, a square gadget worn like a badge packed with AI features but gone from the market less than a year after its debut in 2024 due to a dearth of buyers.

The AI Pin marketed by startup Humane to incredible buzz was priced at $699.

Now, Meta and OpenAI are making "big bets" on AI-infused hardware, according to CCS Insight analyst Ben Wood.

OpenAI made a multi-billion-dollar deal to bring Ive's startup into the fold.

Google announced early this year it is working on mixed-reality glasses with AI smarts, while Amazon continues to ramp up Alexa digital assistant capabilities in its Echo speakers and displays.

Apple is being cautious embracing generative AI, slowly integrating it into iPhones even as rivals race ahead with the technology. Plans to soup up its Siri chatbot with generative AI have been indefinitely delayed.

The quest for creating an AI interface that people love "is something Apple should have jumped on a long time ago," said Futurum research director Olivier Blanchard.

Time to talk

Blanchard envisions some kind of hub that lets users tap into AI, most likely by speaking to it and without being connected to the internet.

"You can't push it all out in the cloud," Blanchard said, citing concerns about reliability, security, cost, and harm to the environment due to energy demand.

"There is not enough energy in the world to do this, so we need to find local solutions," he added.

Howard expects a fierce battle over what will be the must-have personal device for AI, since the number of things someone is willing to wear is limited and "people can feel overwhelmed."

A new piece of hardware devoted to AI isn't the obvious solution, but OpenAI has the funding and the talent to deliver, according to Julien Codorniou, a partner at venture capital firm 20VC and a former Facebook executive.

OpenAI recently hired former Facebook executive and Instacart chief Fidji Simo as head of applications, and her job will be to help answer the hardware question.

Voice is expected by many to be a primary way people command AI.

Google chief Sundar Pichai has long expressed a vision of "ambient computing" in which technology blends invisibly into the world, waiting to be called upon.

"There's no longer any reason to type or touch if you can speak instead," Blanchard said.

"Generative AI wants to be increasingly human" so spoken dialogues with the technology "make sense," he added.

However, smartphones are too embedded in people's lives to be snubbed any time soon, said Wood.