Racing games were just games, with weak connections to reality. The driving experiences between the two were vastly different, following what could be described as completely different rules.

Not to mention that many racing games had modification systems allowing players to customize vehicles according to their preferences. After modifications, all vehicle stats would be maxed out, further diminishing differences between vehicles.

This wasn’t the fault of racing games. After all, the ultimate goal of all racing games was to let players pursue the fastest possible speeds. Few games were like “Safe Driving,” which restricted in-game driving speeds to match reality exactly and didn’t allow players to collide with vehicles freely.

This was a fundamental difference in gameplay, not an issue of design or production quality.

But this indeed gave players completely different feelings while playing.

In summary, when playing “Safe Driving,” players’ perceptual sensitivity to a certain type of vehicle’s drivability and safety was far higher than in other racing games, and slightly higher than in other driving simulation games.

There was no help for it—this sensitivity was forced out by the strict game mechanics.

This feeling didn’t entirely come from “Safe Driving’s” game engine and rules; psychological factors also played a large role.

Since players experienced driving that more closely resembled real-life driving in “Safe Driving,” their attention to and willingness to discuss various models’ safety and handling naturally far exceeded that of other games.

Additionally, “Safe Driving’s” massive online popularity, its collaboration with IIAS, and the impact of the Passat collision had given several domestic car models unprecedented attention.

In fact, with the rapid development of domestic manufacturing, Chinese cars had developed at lightning speed.

Although there was still some gap in technological accumulation, foundation, and some cutting-edge technologies compared to world-class foreign brands, “domestic” was no longer synonymous with “shoddy” as before.

The gap should be acknowledged, but there was no need for excessive self-deprecation.

Moreover, how could one explain the repeated phenomenon of joint venture cars being downgraded in domestic markets?

Were the domestic companies partnering with foreign enterprises all corrupt?

Of course not.

At the root, these matters were decided by foreign companies who didn’t respect domestic consumers, treating them as second-class citizens or cash cows, failing to provide the proper attitude of service befitting customers. Instead, they displayed a strange arrogance and superiority.

This was a historical legacy issue. Because previously domestic industrial development was underdeveloped, coupled with some unscrupulous companies defrauding subsidies and neglecting quality, which damaged reputations, domestic consumers developed an inertial thinking that “foreign products are better quality, more advanced, and have higher status.”

It could only be said that this was a historical problem that should be corrected, but it couldn’t be accomplished overnight.

It required batch after batch of down-to-earth enterprises and one high-quality product after another to reverse this inertial thinking.

The mobile phone industry had gone through exactly this process, from the dominance of foreign brands to the rise of domestic brands.

Even though domestic phone brands competed fiercely in the internal market and tore into each other with gusto, it had to be acknowledged that the domestic mobile phone industry could now stand shoulder to shoulder with world-class foreign brands. In the foreseeable future, domestic brands would continue to progress until they completely surpassed their competitors.

The domestic automobile industry would inevitably go through the same process, and the arrival of the new energy era would accelerate this process, allowing some excellent domestic auto companies to overtake on curves.

Now, the most troubling problem for these excellent auto companies was reputation, promotion, and trust!

Cars, after all, were different from mobile phones—not just gadgets costing a few thousand yuan, but starting at two or three hundred thousand yuan, and directly affecting human life and safety.

For a phone costing a few thousand yuan, many people would buy a cool new product out of curiosity. As long as it didn’t explode, weak performance or a subpar system wasn’t a big problem—at most, they’d complain online and be done with it.

But few people would buy a car worth three or four hundred thousand yuan out of curiosity.

Poor people buying cars would certainly choose carefully, while rich people buying cars for fun typically bought well-known luxury brands.

For domestic new energy vehicles to attract customers, low price was the only viable path.

At this point, for those domestic auto companies confident in their products, how to prove to consumers that their products were problem-free and trustworthy became the biggest challenge.

Self-promotion?

People would say they prioritized marketing over quality, spending all their money on advertising—self-praise that wasn’t credible.

Have others review it?

People would say they bribed the reviewers, lacking credibility.

All consumer recognition of brands required long-term accumulation and couldn’t be established in just six months or a year.

If the auto company had previously experienced some negative publicity, that would be even worse.

Getting IIAS to conduct crash tests was one approach, but on one hand, few people besides car enthusiasts paid attention, and on the other hand, crash tests could only prove safety, nothing else.

This fundamentally failed to meet marketing and promotion requirements.

So the best path for these auto companies was to collaborate with brands that consumers trusted!

This was equivalent to using these excellent brands to endorse their quality. If consumers trusted a certain brand, they would naturally develop goodwill toward the collaborating vehicle models. They might not blindly support them, but at least they’d become interested, wanting to learn more or take a test drive—and that was enough.

Breaking the ice with that first step would make everything easier going forward.

So it wasn’t surprising at all that these auto companies wanted to collaborate with Tenda.

On one hand, Tenda was currently the most trusted brand among domestic players and consumers—perhaps without equal.

In the Sloth Apartments project, Tenda’s cooperation with various furniture manufacturers and the supervision and spot-check mechanisms they established had already proven that Tenda’s collaborations and linkages with other enterprises were responsible and trustworthy.

Tenda’s success across multiple fields further made many people believe in Tenda without question, with no issues of “forced crossover.”

On the other hand, “Safe Driving” had a unique advantage: providing players with a relatively crude but infinitely low-cost test-drive platform.

There were definitely differences between games and reality. Cars that handled well in the game might not handle as well in reality, and the game couldn’t showcase elements like comfort or interior quality.

But vehicles that handled poorly in the game would likely handle poorly in reality too…

After driving a car extensively in the game, players would naturally develop a fondness for it. Perhaps when purchasing a car in reality, they would give it more consideration.

There was no need to worry about the game causing too much misconception—consumers would definitely test drive at dealerships before deciding to buy.

“More consideration” was exactly the effect these auto companies were trying to achieve through painstaking efforts and enormous expenditure.

In short, many auto companies had realized that if their quality was solid, why not collaborate with “Safe Driving”? It would be a win-win!

So, many companies that had previously refused due to excessive vehicle damage in the game were now extending olive branches again. Even some companies Ye Zhizhou hadn’t approached before expressed willingness to collaborate.

Pei Qian was utterly dumbfounded.

This was too much!

He originally hadn’t planned for “Safe Driving” to have many real vehicle brand licenses, because everyone knew that the more real vehicle brand licenses a racing game had, the more popular it would inevitably become!

Although licensing fees would cost money, what were those fees compared to the game’s income? They could be earned back quickly.

No, this was absolutely unacceptable!

If “Safe Driving” had more and more real brand licenses, the game would become increasingly popular, and profits would definitely increase!

Pei Qian’s expression turned serious: “They didn’t want to license before but now they can? There’s no such good fortune!”

“We’re changing the rules! Not only will we not pay a cent in licensing fees, but the auto companies must pay us platform fees instead!”

“We’ll charge according to the previously discussed licensing fees, except instead of us paying them, they’ll pay us.”

“Additionally, auto companies must provide us with sample vehicles for crash tests, structural disassembly, and research. What if future IIAS crash tests aren’t accurate? Or if the data isn’t comprehensive enough?”

“Moreover, we’ll also spend money buying cars from the market for testing, to prevent them from sending us doctored sample vehicles.”

“Besides this, we refuse to accept any suggestions or interference. If auto companies are dissatisfied with their vehicles’ performance and safety in the game, they’ll just have to swallow it! We won’t refund them even if they’re dissatisfied!”

“If they can accept all our conditions, fine. If not, then we’ll go our separate ways.”

Pei Qian’s attitude was extremely firm.

He figured that with such strict conditions, surely no more foolish auto companies would come seeking collaboration, right?

In truth, after saying all this, he was tactfully trying to discourage these auto companies: Just focus on selling cars and making money, and stop setting your sights on me.

I’m already in a complete mess, and you’re coming to add to my troubles—is that appropriate? It’s not.

Let’s just each go our own way; it’s better for both of us.

Ye Zhizhou was stunned: “Ah, this…”

Indeed, previously Tenda had been rejected when negotiating licenses, but now that the other party had taken the initiative to approach them, Tenda was refusing and even demanding money in return. From any angle, this looked somewhat like a child throwing a tantrum…

Moreover, this wasn’t simply raising the price—they had even raised some demands that outsiders might find unreasonable.

As a Tenda employee, Ye Zhizhou had unconditional trust in his company and Mr. Pei, but how other companies would view this matter was harder to say.

He didn’t feel comfortable saying it directly, but Mr. Pei’s statement seemed almost like making outrageous demands!

But as befitting a Tenda manager, he quickly began correcting his perspective.

“Mr. Pei definitely isn’t someone who acts on impulse, nor someone who only cares about immediate benefits at the expense of long-term interests.”

“This means Mr. Pei’s demands certainly have deeper meaning, requiring careful analysis to reach a conclusion…”

Ye Zhizhou couldn’t immediately grasp this deeper meaning, but he nodded right away: “Alright, Mr. Pei, we’ll do it that way.”

Pei Qian nodded, very satisfied with the current level of obedience and execution from Tenda’s managers.

“Good, let’s leave it at that for now.”

Seeing the warehouse situation, Pei Qian felt disinterested.

Coming all this way just to see that safe driving simulators were selling well?

How unlucky!

Pei Qian gave Ye Zhizhou a few more instructions, then turned and left.