Chapter 324 British Civil Servants

Politics is nothing more than jumping from one pit to another.

As a former die-hard supporter of the Donald Trump Party, Musk began to have the idea of ​​defecting in 20, and officially put it into action in 24, even risking his life and property.

Yet he was never considered one of the family, and his interests were never important.

Once the new energy vehicles from the East China University of Technology are allowed to enter the West China society, regardless of whether the East China University of Technology's auto companies can adapt to the American market, this expectation alone is enough to cut Tesla's market value in half.

Musk held another shareholder conference call, claiming that his company is an artificial intelligence company, not a new energy vehicle company. Given that Dongda's L4 is already on the road, why should investors continue to support Tesla with real money?
The new HBM model is a completely new architecture and also requires the use of new chip technology from Dongda. Can Tesla really defeat Dongda’s car companies in this competition?
In the past, after Japanese car companies entered the American market, they occupied more than 40% of the market share, and GM and Ford could not maintain their base at all.

This time the attacking party is Dongda. The people on Wall Street who experienced the neon boom in the 1980s have not died yet. This group of people even holds a large part of the actual power. Everyone will subconsciously abandon Tesla.

Tesla's current market value can still be supported, relying entirely on its status as a new energy vehicle company, which has monopolized the entire American automobile market.

Even if Volkswagen's new energy vehicles want to enter the American market, they will be subject to additional tariffs. In addition, they must be new energy vehicles produced in Germany, not Volkswagen produced by Dongda.

Now they are letting Dongda in directly, how can Tesla survive?
Dongda Electric Vehicle will give you $2, how can I sell my $3.5 Tesla? Can we talk about Musk's value?

The number of American consumers willing to pay for this kind of value is not even as large as that of the University of the East.

"This is a good idea. Just as states like New Jersey, Hawaii, and Massachusetts are clamoring to introduce new energy vehicles from Dongda, this is also a way for us to reduce tariffs and increase support.

We can also ask Dongda to build a factory in America to bring us jobs, which is also in line with what we have been promoting.”

"This is a great opportunity for Dongda to develop its automotive industry, with the world's largest automotive consumer market like America."

The bureaucrats in the White House were discussing the issue enthusiastically.

It seems that everyone thinks that this small favor is enough to satisfy the University of Tokyo.

When Terry threw the White House's chips to the relevant parties of the University of the East, the other party's expression was very interesting: "I don't think America has any sincerity.

I think we should talk to other countries first.”

This will not satisfy the appetite of the University of Tokyo at all, because it is essentially still cutting the flesh of its allies.

Considering the level of power grid infrastructure, the American automobile market has limited acceptance of new energy vehicles.

Even if it is open to Dongda, it can only take up two Tesla market shares at most. Considering the hellish task of building a factory in North America, Dongda feels that it will not make any profit at all.

I even feel that America has made a profit.

Doesn't this mean that I am helping you train your industrial workers? What if you play a trick on me and Fuyao Glass is subject to joint law enforcement and its factory is taken away?
The University of Tokyo did not even need an internal collective discussion and directly rejected such negotiation conditions.

In comparison, the EU was much more sincere and directly placed an unprecedented large order.

In the past, Todai’s infrastructure projects exported to the EU were limited to non-core countries such as Serbia, Portugal, Norway and Croatia.

This time, the EU signed a framework agreement on infrastructure with the University of East London as a whole, but England insisted on squeezing into the agreement through a supplementary agreement.

why?
Because the HS2 project is really over. This notorious England Line 2 highway project is an unmitigated disaster.

The HS2 plan runs through London and north-central England. It is a 540-kilometer high-speed railway line with a speed of up to 320 kilometers per hour. Once completed, it will be one of the fastest trains in Europe.

总预算从309亿到360亿英镑一路上涨到2020年的980亿英镑，后续更是甚至估计要花1700亿英镑。

Similarly, the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway built by Dongda in Indonesia cost US$142 billion for 70 kilometers. Not to mention the figure of 1700 billion, even if it was only 309 billion, it would still be an exaggerated number.

Not to mention that England has no money now, even if England had money, they would not be able to afford it at the price of 1700 billion.

After going around in circles, even if it meant selling their souls to the University of Tokyo and saying that they were part of Europe and came to sign the infrastructure framework agreement, they still had to force this project on the University of Tokyo.

"We're back to square one. What's the point of this?" Tom Fordy complained as he watched the Transport Secretary excitedly rush out of the office with a document.

The new Indian intern next to him asked curiously, "Origin? What origin?"

Tom is a veteran who has worked in England's transport sector for more than 309 years. He said, "Archie, do you know where the original budget of billion pounds for this project came from?"

Archie was very sensitive to this number. This was the earliest budget for HS2. Although he was an intern and didn't know much about these gossips, he was still clear about these basic common sense after being here for a while: "The budget was made by the English Railway Company."

Tom shook his head: “It’s Dongda.

We signed a memorandum of understanding with the University of East London to strengthen infrastructure cooperation in 2011. At that time, our Prime Minister was still Cameron, and he hoped to give HS2 to the University of East London to build.

The opening ceremony for the first phase of HS2 was held in Shudu, Tongji University. The entire budget was calculated for us by Tongji University.

At that time, I also participated in the discussion with the University of East London. They even thought that 250 billion pounds would be enough. The then Transport Secretary desperately urged the University of East London to add more, and only then was it increased to the framework of 309 billion to 330 billion.

Later, Cameron left, but Boris still wanted to let the University of East London do it. Even until 2020, Boris thought so. Unfortunately, England had to give up cooperation with the University of East London later.

Our honeymoon period with East University is over and HS2 is forced to do it on its own.

The entire budget has also expanded from more than 980 billion to billion, but I didn’t expect that in the end, we would have to ask Dongda to do it.”

Tom did not feel any remorse at all. This is a typical British civil servant. I will do whatever you ask me to do. The country's loss is not my loss.

Aqi was stunned. "That works too."

“It’s the norm in England and you have to get used to it.

We are much more motivated to prevent something from happening than to allow something to happen," Tom joked.

Archie asked, "Like what?"

Tom said: "For example, England has not developed any artificial intelligence industry at all, but our parliament is already worried about the threat that artificial intelligence poses to human society and is about to introduce laws to regulate artificial intelligence. We are always doing these things, while the University of East China is cultivating artificial intelligence companies."

Archie murmured, "Why do I feel that England is not as good as India?"

"Why else can someone of Indian descent become the Prime Minister of England, but someone of English descent cannot become the Prime Minister of India?" Tom hit the nail on the head.

The bargaining chip offered by Europe is that infrastructure projects will no longer impose restrictions on Dongda companies. Dongda companies will compete fairly with other European local companies for all infrastructure projects. This is no different from handing all infrastructure orders to Dongda.

At the same time, the communications and consumer electronics markets will be opened to Dongda.

In the past, mobile phones equipped with purely domestic chips from Dongda could not enter the European market, but now they can.

In the past, communication equipment such as switches could not enter the European market, but now they can.

Then lower the tariff barriers set for Dongda photovoltaic modules.

These conditions are almost the best treaty that the EU can offer. It is only because its influence has gradually declined in recent years that some of the shackles on the EU have been removed, otherwise these treaties would not have been signed at all.

If we ignore political correctness, this is a win-win situation. For the University of Tokyo, it has gained a new market to export its excess domestic productivity. For Europe, it is also an excellent opportunity to use money to purchase high-quality services.

Precisely because it is a win-win situation, England has jumped on this train even if it has to flatter its face. British civil servants are civil servants, and they still have a keen sense of smell.

"Yuanguang, none of us expected Europe to compromise so quickly this time. We thought it would be a long tug-of-war like the America, but it turned out to be a quick and decisive negotiation." It was almost the Lunar New Year, and Chen Yuanguang was really not used to it when Lao Zhao suddenly jumped from the news program into reality.

"I think it hasn't been signed yet." said Chen Yuanguang.

Lao Zhao said: "We have almost finished discussing the details of the framework agreement, and we are just waiting for a time to sign it.

Everyone realizes that a big one is coming, and Europe wants to bet on both sides. War-weariness is particularly serious throughout Europe.

They also hope to bring Dongda to their side in this way.”

Chen Yuanguang wondered, "I'm afraid this won't be easy."

"Their logic is that we hand over the infrastructure to Dongda, which is a business worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Dongda has hundreds of billions of dollars of business in Europe, and whether from a moral or practical perspective, it will contribute to Europe's security.

However, this part of the business is not something that American can do, as the cost for them to do it themselves is extremely high.

In the past, we were not allowed to do it because of political correctness considerations. Now we are allowed to do it because of the same political correctness considerations.

It all depends on how the situation develops.”

Chen Yuanguang has a feeling that technology itself is important, but technology is more of an inducement. When your strength accumulates to a certain level, some of the original balance will be broken, and the situation will naturally tilt towards you.

Just like the Memorandum of Understanding on Infrastructure Cooperation signed with England in 2011. We didn't have the strength at the time, and even if we signed it by taking advantage of friendly relations, there was no way to implement it. But today, even if you don't have an agreement, England has to implement it just for fun.

Similarly, a hundred years ago, England came to China to build railways, and a hundred years later, China went to England to build high-speed railways. History is a cycle.

"Yuan Guang, I hope to learn from private channels what impact HBM will have on ordinary people?" Lao Zhao asked.

Because not only are there large-scale protests in America, there are also a large number of voices on the Chinese Internet who believe that artificial intelligence should be regulated.

This is another collective expression of opinion following the past incident of driverless taxis.

Chen Yuanguang heard Lao Zhao say that private things are generally not private at all, and this will definitely become an important reference for future directions.

He knew he had to consider it carefully: "HBM is very important. If we extend the timeline to 20 years, it can replace most high-end positions.

Because it is essentially an overall upgrade of the manufacturing industry, standardized work can be done directly with traditional industrial robots, while non-standardized work can be done by HBM robots.

The smaller part can also be completed remotely by industrial VR and top technical workers.

It will take about twenty years for the manufacturing industry to be completely unmanned.

But the service industry does not need to worry about being replaced by HBM because it is not cost-effective.

Factories can take advantage of economies of scale and use their overall advantages to spread costs.

But the service industry can't do that.

Take the most basic example of a food delivery person. The cost of drone food delivery is definitely lower than that of HBM robots. Is drone food delivery popular? No.

The most basic ones cannot be done, and other service industries cannot do it even more.

Or if we want to become a highly directive, strongly distributed society where everything is reorganized into a highly standardized society, then there is no need for HBM, we can do it directly with existing technology.

In short, I think what the public is worried about now is essentially a stress response, a stress response of human society to artificial intelligence.”

After Chen Yuanguang finished speaking, Lao Zhao fell into deep thought, because what Chen Yuanguang mentioned later was exactly what some people advocated.

Since you are already paying 600/300 every month, why don’t you just take care of your food, clothing, housing and transportation?
Dongda will run the street canteen, and everyone will deposit money into their cards. If it works, Dongda will set up a driverless taxi company, and you will also be deposited money into the same account. Food and transportation are solved, and clothing and housing are almost the same.

Instead of giving out money, we provide a basic welfare package that covers individuals’ food, clothing, housing and transportation.

Similar views have emerged recently, and the biggest obstacle is still lack of money.

But this time, Europe has shown up, and America seems to have to compromise. Compared with giving money, the cost of doing this will not be much higher, so whether or not to take this path has become the focus of internal discussion in Yanjing.

Of course, there are still internal considerations of interests. The entire University of Tokyo will be provided with food, clothing, housing and transportation, and how many jobs and profits can be created.

(End of this chapter)