Chapter 139 - 135 Ma Yilong’s New Car_1

On February 29th, SpaceX completed the manufacturing of the connectors for the Heavy Falcon, and the three Core Stage One engines used by CBC were also ready and being assembled at the factory.

On March 25th, the Heavy Falcon will conduct its first static fire test, and it’s expected to have its maiden flight in May or June.

By next February, it will carry the still-in-PPT-status "Gateway" Lunar Space Station to the Moon’s orbit.

Although the Gateway space station is designed to be one-sixth the size of the International Space Station and consists of multiple sections, its space is extremely cramped.

One is an International Habitation module (I-HAB); another is the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO), developed by Northrop Grumman.

The design can provide living conditions for four astronauts with a total volume... of 8 cubic meters, which is a space of 2x2x2 meters, to squeeze in 4 people!

This tiny contraption was to be divided into multiple sections, and one could only say NACA was being truly frugal; engineers even believed astronauts couldn’t stand upright in this so-called space station.

But this was none of Ma’s concern; he took a photo of the Heavy Falcon, awaiting assembly but already joined together, from above the assembly workshop and uploaded it to Twitter before he left, because the logistics company had just called him, informing him that his transoceanic cargo was about to arrive at the factory.

When he arrived at the Sky Fork factory with a few engineers, the workers were prying open the container doors, setting up planks, and then slowly drove the car down.

Ma approached him, "Are you the overseas dealer for Xin’an Company?"

"Oh? No, I’m the local dealer for Chevrolet, but Xin’an Company also signed an agreement with us. Their company is too far away in China; they entrusted us with after-sales service. You can call my number for any issue, or apply for services on the official website."

The man wasn’t very talkative, and after the car and documents were delivered, he left, leaving Ma and a group of engineers curiously staring at the XC4 sports car.

Ma examined the car key in his hand and immediately noticed that the back of the key had buttons, and the front was actually a small touchscreen, featuring remote start, air conditioning activation, anti-theft mode, and other functions.

Approaching the car door, he saw no handles, no, they were hidden.

When he brought the key close to the hidden handle, a narrow strip rotated inward, making a clicking noise to alert the owner that the handle had been deployed.

Moving the key away, the handle closed again.

"Induction chip, a small thing, right?"

Ma turned back and mentioned to the engineers, then pulled open the car door and sat down inside. There was an obvious place on the dashboard made just for placing the key, and as soon as he laid it down, various lights in the car immediately lit up.

He also gestured for an engineer to sit in the passenger seat.

In the middle of the car’s system, the 10-inch screen booted up, displaying a rounded prompt box indicating that this was the new owner tutorial.

The XC4’s transport mode had been deactivated by the dealer who just left, and now it was in proper working mode.

First, Ma set up his fingerprint, downloaded, and installed the remote vehicle status monitoring app on his phone. After completing the basic setup, Ma followed the prompts and said in as standard and serious English as possible:

"Xin, turn on the air conditioner,"

"(Trans) The air conditioner has been turned on; based on the local weather, the temperature is set to 26 degrees Celsius, fan speed: auto."

Weather? Ma realized something.

"(Trans) Are you connected to the internet?"

"(Trans) I am connected through the Meridian Intelligence Satellite Service Network, providing you with life and smart driving services."

"(Trans) Can you help me drive to a certain area?"

Ma Yilong asked the question that every car owner had on their mind, a repeat question +1.

"The XW151 smart driving system does not currently support full autonomous driving, but after setting your navigation route, you can engage drive mode, activate novice mode, and turn on the assistive obstacle avoidance and lane keeping features to reduce driving intensity," it was explained.

At that moment, the engineer sitting in the co-driver’s seat spoke up:

"The engineers at Xin’an Company are aware of the legal issues that come with autonomous driving, so they’ve broken it down into several functions and deliberately guide users to use them!"

Ma nodded, understanding that Xin’an Company wanted to use autonomous driving as a promotional tool without incurring the associated legal risks, hence their approach.

But did they have so much confidence in their smart driving system that they’d dare to intentionally guide users like this?

After pondering for a while, he opened the navigation app, set a location about 1 kilometer outside the factory by the roadside, followed Xiaoxin’s prompts to activate several assistive features, engaged the gear, then released the brake.

The XC4 immediately started moving, steering sharply to the left. Ma instinctively wanted to grab the wheel but restrained himself.

The co-driver’s engineer watched Ma’s feet closely, ready to dive down and hit the brakes if needed.

Then, amid the shouts of the two men and a crowd of engineers, the XC4 sports car smoothly took a wide turn onto the road, signaled right, entered the lane, and quickly accelerated to 40 mph before signaling right again 30 meters from the destination and pulling over to park.

The entire process was seamless, with only an "Navigation ended" alert sounding inside the car at the end, as the gear knob automatically shifted to P.

Ma hurriedly pulled the handbrake and stretched out his stiff legs and feet.

The smart driving was too hardcore; thankfully, there weren’t many cars near the factory, otherwise he’d never dare drive at such a speed himself.

The still shaken engineer, meanwhile, marveled at the car system, saying,

"Let’s have the Tesla team test this car out. The control system is written so aggressively, I have a feeling it might yield some unexpected results."

"Then let me try it first; if something goes wrong, we can engage in an international lawsuit," he said with a touch of astonishment and then continued to set navigation points, this time to a gas station on the highway.

The XC4 immediately started, accelerating to a comfortable 40 mph and cruising on the highway.

After several hundred meters, the car system automatically turned onto the freeway.

The traffic density suddenly increased from none to a fair amount, prompting Ma to tighten his lightly held grip on the steering wheel; after all, his life was important.

As it entered the freeway, the XC4 began to accelerate to the local speed limit of 80 mph and automatically signaled left to change into the middle lane.

The car system’s display showed three lanes, with radar detecting vehicles within 80 meters ahead and behind, marking them on the screen.

Ma carefully compared and found the system to be precisely accurate except for some incorrect vehicle type identification.

Drivers passing by noticed the exotic sports car with no exhaust pipes, taking photos with their phones, also capturing Ma’s profile as he looked ahead.

Since it was moving at the speed limit, the XC4 was a bit faster than most vehicles, continuously overtaking other cars and changing lanes. Ma didn’t understand this new logic and wondered how XW151 managed to achieve this without the necessary supporting infrastructure.

The journey of over ten kilometers didn’t take long, and the XC4 drove into the parking area of a motel next to the gas station, automatically coming to a stop and indicating safe arrival.

As it was near a parking spot, an automatic prompt appeared in the center of the car system, asking if it should park automatically.

Ma confirmed, and the XC4 drove a short distance diagonally forward to the right, then expertly backed into the spot, perfectly centered within the lines.