Dreame’s dream of a rocket-powered car is dead

追觅的火箭动力汽车梦碎

The vaporware car was obviously vaporware. 这辆“空气车”（Vaporware）显然名副其实。

Dreame, the Chinese vacuum company that aspires to be a global technology giant, is reportedly shutting down its automotive project after funding from the government dried up. 据报道，立志成为全球科技巨头的中国吸尘器厂商追觅（Dreame）在政府资金断供后，已关闭其汽车项目。

According to CarNewsChina, the company’s automotive division called “Project Starry Sky” once employed over 1,000 people, but now only a handful legal and HR staffers remain, charged with winding down the operation. In a statement, Dreame said it “recently adjusted certain operations that were in the exploratory phase,” and that going forward, it would focus on four key business areas: “smart home, outdoor/garden, smart mobility, and embodied AI.” (A spokesperson for the company didn’t respond to a request for comment.) 据 CarNewsChina 报道，该公司名为“星空计划”（Project Starry Sky）的汽车部门曾拥有超过 1000 名员工，但现在仅剩下少数负责清算工作的法务和人力资源人员。追觅在一份声明中表示，公司“近期对处于探索阶段的部分业务进行了调整”，未来将聚焦于“智能家居、户外/园艺、智能出行和具身智能”四大核心业务领域。（该公司发言人未回应置评请求。）

The news comes after China’s government issued new rules aimed at tightening oversight of the $3.4 trillion private fund industry, singling out Dreame in the process. After becoming one of the world’s largest manufacturer of vacuums, the company quickly moved into a variety of new businesses, spawning nearly a thousand affiliated ventures related to smartphones, robotics, and cars. But much of that expansion was funded by China’s government — and the government is now starting to take a closer look at how Dreame spends that money, according to CNBC. 在此消息传出之前，中国政府发布了旨在加强对 3.4 万亿美元私募股权行业监管的新规，并特别点名了追觅。在成为全球最大的吸尘器制造商之一后，该公司迅速进军多个新领域，衍生出近千家涉及智能手机、机器人和汽车的关联企业。据 CNBC 报道，这些扩张大部分由中国政府提供资金，而政府目前正开始严查追觅的资金使用情况。

Dreame wowed audiences at a San Francisco expo earlier this year with “Nebula Next 01 Jet Edition,” a sleek looking concept car equipped with a pair of rocket engines that theoretically can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 0.9 seconds. The vehicle was allegedly equipped with a sulfide-based solid-state battery with a record-breaking energy density exceeding 450 Wh/kg and a purported range of over 550 km (341.7 miles). The company claimed its boosters would deliver 100 kilo-Newtons of force. 今年早些时候，追觅在旧金山的一场博览会上展示了“Nebula Next 01 Jet Edition”，令观众惊叹不已。这是一款外观时尚的概念车，配备了一对火箭发动机，理论上可以在 0.9 秒内从 0 加速到 60 英里/小时。据称，该车搭载了能量密度超过 450 Wh/kg 的硫化物固态电池，续航里程号称超过 550 公里（341.7 英里）。该公司还声称其助推器可提供 100 千牛的推力。

But the concept raised a lot of questions, including some basic ones about how Dreame could make a car accelerate so quickly without breaking the laws of physics. Apparently Dreame didn’t have any answers to these questions, as the car itself was fully vaporware. Former employees told China Economy that the concept that was shown off in San Francisco lacked an actual chassis and was driven via remote control. (Concept cars are rarely “real” cars, in the technical sense — but even this is a little shocking in its level of deception.) 但这一概念引发了诸多质疑，包括一些关于追觅如何在不违反物理定律的情况下实现如此快速加速的基本问题。显然，追觅无法回答这些问题，因为这辆车本身完全就是“空气车”。前员工向《中国经济》透露，在旧金山展示的概念车甚至没有底盘，而是通过遥控驾驶的。（从技术层面讲，概念车很少是“真正”的汽车，但这种欺骗程度依然令人震惊。）

The news that Dreame’s vaporware car was totally vaporware will come as little shock to those familiar with the showy, boastful promises of companies that have never actually built a car suddenly deciding to build a car. Faraday Future, another Chinese companies with ambitions to build all manner of electric, autonomous vehicles, ran into this exact problem nearly a decade ago. And it also faced accusations of operating self-driving cars for public demos via offstage remote control. 对于那些熟悉某些从未造过车的公司突然宣布造车时所作出的浮夸承诺的人来说，追觅的“空气车”最终被证实是“空气”这一消息并不令人意外。另一家雄心勃勃要制造各类电动自动驾驶汽车的中国公司法拉第未来（Faraday Future），在近十年前就遇到了同样的问题。该公司也曾被指控在公开演示中通过后台遥控来操作自动驾驶汽车。