Why a Chinese Robot Vacuum Company Spun Off Two EV Brands
For Chinese companies, the bet is that lower prices and more AI features will persuade people to wear smart glasses all day, recording their lives through constant video and audio. If you lower the price to around $200, “people will start to use them every day,” says Brian Chen, general manager of Appotronics’ innovation center. That shift would raise obvious privacy and security concerns that both Rokid and Appotronics have acknowledged, but they see the potential payoff as worth the risk. From Vacuums to Cars Several major Chinese electric vehicle companies, including Geely and Great Wall Motor, brought their cars to CES, but what stole the show were two brands that almost no one had heard of before. Nebula Next and Kosmera both showed off sleek, luxurious electric sports car prototypes, neither of which are available on the market yet. Both brands have connections to Dreame, a leading Chinese robot vacuum company, but they claim to operate independently from it. At CES, however, the Nebula Next and Kosmera booths were tied to Dreame in the …
