The Product of Human

By Jiahe Hu

This article has 3177 words, and the content is as follows:

I. Human as a Product

Human is an exquisitely designed body that adapts perfectly to the earth’s environment. If we regard the human body as a product (especially an intelligent product combining hardware and software), we can see its superiority:

1. Design: Fully meets functionality and aesthetics, and supports a high degree of personalization.
2. Performance: Besides the sky, human can go anywhere with basic hardware support. The flexibility and degree of freedom of hardware architecture are extremely high, but there are significant differences in individual range, energy consumption, and speed due to different configurations.
3. Material selection: Hardware material selection takes into account durability, design, functionality, flexibility, hardness, performance, and maintainability. Configuration differences are reflected mainly in color.
4. Adaptability to scenarios and environments: The learning ability of underlying algorithms is strong, and it can mobilize many hardware updates.
5. Communication with the outside world (H2H, H2X, H=Human): Communication channels and signal transmission methods are diverse, and they can receive, process, and transmit complex information.
6. Thermal management: Constant temperature, comprehensive heat dissipation, and heat generation mechanisms exists, and the working temperature range is relatively large.
7. Energy recovery and emission system: Energy intake and discharge definitions are clear, and the gas, liquid, and solid pipelines and energy management software are extremely complex and precise, adapting to different energy standards.
8. Updating and growth capabilities: It has the necessary and sufficient perception and execution mechanisms. Hardware can grow, and the central computing module can support software and decision system upgrades throughout the lifecycle.

II. Car as a Product

In the era of intelligent electric vehicles, automotive product managers can be equated with creators, even more difficult than creators, from the perspective of architecture.

III. Why I Think “Automotive Product Managers (Excellent) = Creators”

The famous quote “If you’ve ever seen a human anatomy lesson, you’d believe in the existence of a creator” was said by a atheist, who is my wife, and I’m also an atheist. When she told me about the structural details of the human body, I had to admit that the Creator exists.

IV. Conclusion

In conclusion, Darwin is just a supporting role.9. Quality and Reliability: Ordinary quality issues and damages can be self-repaired. If the problem is severe, customer service must be contacted. The warranty period is long, accounting for nearly 2/3 of the product’s lifecycle.

10. Product Architecture and Modularization: There is a strong universality in the architectural design, and there is a lot of carryover that can be shared between products. Some parts also support the access of third-party substitute parts.

11. Product Lifecycle Expectancy: Clearly defined, depends on usage habits and maintenance methods.

12. Product Upgrades: Active upgrades, during which the product will be optimized automatically following market demand.

13. ……

It is truly the pinnacle of intelligent hardware products.

Therefore, the ability of the Creator is truly terrifying. First, the Creator has advanced knowledge in physics, mechanics, fluid mechanics, chemistry, biology, materials, machinery, electrochemistry, electrical appliances, and control, and the Creator is also a very powerful product manager, architect, and designer who understands demand, scenarios, and balance.

The so-called balance — humans are not the fastest runners, nor the strongest, nor do they have the strongest life force. Humans are very vulnerable to injury and death, but from our perspective, humans seem to be the axis of all things, the ultimate mammalian.

Of course, she (assuming the Creator is female, like Nüwa) has also experienced the failures of initial products and many iterations afterwards, such as monkeys and apes.

At the same time, she also endowed her creations with a soul.

She also created swimming fish and flying birds, flowers, grasses, trees, and all kinds of creatures free to compete in the frosty sky.

Darwin proposed the theory of evolution, which is nothing more than a summary of observable phenomena, he is a theorist with high achievements and important discoveries, but making humans is impossible for Darwin.

That is the only appearance of Darwin in this article.

Cars as Products

A friend from Tencent once told me: product managers were originally invented by cleaning companies to take on the role of ensuring the commercial success of a product. Later, the Internet popularized the concept of “product manager”, and the encounter between cars and the Internet was also due to the Internet’s influence on the automotive industry.

The biggest difference between cars and the Internet is hardware – smart EVs are a combination of hardware and software.

A few days ago, I posted a Weibo message:

The difficulty of hardware lies in the trade-off and balance. In simple terms, it is “if done well, it’s too expensive to buy; if made new, it won’t last long; if done wrong, it can’t be changed.”.In software development, the process of iteration and optimization, which can be done regardless of cost (mainly labor cost) through OTA and feedback, is different from other industries. From my limited understanding, the most important thing in software is to establish a closed loop of data. This entails an entirely different logic.

The longer the lifecycle of hardware, the more difficult it becomes, which also tests the vitality of product definition.

The greater the coverage of hardware scenarios, the more difficult it becomes, which also tests the balanced selection of product definition across different scenarios.

Automobiles are essentially products with the longest lifecycle and widest coverage of scenarios.

In a complex system like automobiles, every design and definition is crucial, from something as small as a fuse to something as large as vehicle dimensions. Therefore, whole vehicle product managers, like creators, require boundless knowledge and experience in applying that knowledge (and the more one knows, the more he or she does not know, requiring training through trial and error), as well as a deep understanding of users, needs, and scenarios (which is difficult to train).

As Zhiang Xiaoge said on his Weibo, insight, essence, and trade-off are increasingly difficult.

The best result is to achieve a balance of explosion in cost, safety, and weight under many constraints.

Like with the product of “human,” we can think of many classic automobile explosions, which are not the fastest, the most handsome, or the cheapest, but sell the most.

It is this complex system that makes me feel like a whole vehicle product manager is like a creator! It’s challenging, but also exciting.

Why do I think “whole vehicle product manager (excellent) = creator”?

This has to do with the architecture.

An excellent whole vehicle product manager’s brain is filled with the product line, the entire market, SUV+MPV + sedan + pickup, and a price range of 50,000 to 1 million.

Therefore, their thinking must originate from a single product and spill over into a single product. What they want to do and have to do must be an architecture.

Undoubtedly, traditional gasoline cars have developed for over a century, and today’s architecture work is more geared towards universality and cost reduction. However, for smart electric cars, with only a few electric motors, a few batteries, several charging sites, a few chips, and a few radars, all of which are still in the early exploration stage, the purpose of electric vehicle architecture work is to define the frame, internal structure, and organ layout of future vehicles.

There are only two types of human architectures: male and female, each with their advantages and disadvantages.

For cars, there are already many shapes of architecture, such as bearing/non-bearing, SUV/MPV, sedan/sports car, pickup/truck, which vary greatly from one another, and it is unclear which is better and which is not.

In the age of electrified vehicles, what will be the most common whole-vehicle architecture? Will it be unified like humans on a few architectures? These are still a question mark.

At least we know that the integrated intelligent product of software and hardware, such as mobile phones, has gone through such a process — they look almost the same. After intense competition and a basic solidification of market share, the mobile phone industry has come to a new cycle of exploration, such as the foldable dual-screen.

Cars are too slow, but Chinese OEMs have already set a new standard for speed (even 30 months of R&D cycles are too long…).

However, Tesla is still the one who has created Model3 and Cybertruck.

Conclusion: For Those Who Want to Be Creators

We must learn and practice with both hands, and develop practical skills.

I remember going to the workshop with foreign classmates back then, and their manual skills and understanding of practical problems made me feel inferior — even though they might not pass the exam.

Thinking about the “5+5” policy that made everyone panic recently, it seems quite appropriate.

The best way to practice is to have had the opportunity to dismantle televisions and computers as a child. If you didn’t have the opportunity then, it’s not too late to do it now. Anyway, you have to come from practice to practice. If you don’t have the money to dismantle cars, find opportunities and people to do it for free.

For example, I have a friend who is a big name but has no connection with cars in his occupation. He has knowledge and skills higher than most people in the industry, based on his interests and wits.

It is even rarer to have a car guy like @ 侯社长 @ OnlyCar Ang Leica Trucks @ The body engineer who wants to get a PhD.

Friends who read to the end will find that I don’t actually know how to become a “creator” — because I am also exploring. I only wrote this paragraph to encourage everyone.

So here are three things that are especially suitable for encouragement:

1. Both men and women are afraid to enter the wrong industry. The automotive industry is now a rising track, and the product is the most comprehensive function (reverse: if you can’t do it, you might not be anything);

2. Great changes that occur once in a hundred years, especially in the automotive industry, which is custom-made for the times and creates heroes;

3. Product architecture faces reconstruction, as I said in the previous paragraph.

Hope to meet more young people who share the same interests and goals, whether it is to form a discussion group, a learning group, or an industry assembly, it will surely be a joy.

Suddenly found that there are already two quotes from “Qinyuan Chun, Changsha” in the whole article, so let’s recite a poem, which is also quite appropriate:

Independent and cold autumn, the Xiangjiang River flows north, and the Orange Island head.# Translation:

Red peaks towered high, forests painted brilliant hues;
Jade-green waters shimmered deep, boats vied in a restless cruise.

Eagles soared high above, fish swam shallow below,
All kinds of beings striving free below a crisp sky aglow.

Full of yearning for the vastness, I ask the world so wide,
Who will determine the rise and fall and power divide?

Bringing along hundred friends to travel far and wide,
I recall those bygone years, rich with lofty pride.

Just like those schoolyard youths in their prime,
Full of youthful vitality and scholarly drive;

Pointing to mountains and rivers, uplifting the written word,
Though once dwelling in dung, now all can be lords.

Do you still remember, in the stream, how we boldly struck the tide,
How the waves halted the flying boat with their wild, tumultuous ride?

…

After completing this piece, I realized why my previous writing was too lengthy: I was too focused on deducing and proving my point. That won’t be my main purpose anymore.

I will continue to learn, practice, and write records. I hope to receive encouragement from everyone. Thank you.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.