The Magician’s Memorial - Chapter 213



Only Krnovel

213. Unilateral benefit (2)

There were many reasons for choosing Tesla as a running mate.

Because it was a company that had already proven the potential of electric vehicles before its regression.

And it was also because I already owned 50% of Tesla’s shares.

Tesla and Taewoo Motors.

The structure was such that no matter who won, I would gain a unilateral advantage.

The electric vehicle market was so large that no one company could monopolize it, so simultaneous growth was possible.

How far has Tesla progressed?

I called a team leader to get more information.

[What’s going on? Why are you calling me at this hour?]

“I called because I wanted to know how things were going with Tesla.”

[CEO Musk met with electric car experts we had previously recruited and created an electric car company. As per the contract, SAVE Investment Company received a 50% stake, and I saw with my own eyes that full-scale research and development had begun.]

I forced things to go according to history.

The first person to create the Tesla company was not Musk, but two developers.

I had recruited them for a long time, and invested development costs to accelerate electric vehicle research.

But they alone were not enough.

For Tesla to succeed, it needed Musk to take center stage.

I made arrangements for them to meet under the pretense of coincidence. Only then could things proceed according to history.

“Don’t spare your money and invest. This is a company where you can make dozens of times more.”

[To be honest, I think I eat it too raw. Couldn’t we make an electric car just by using the batteries that we have spent an astronomical amount of money researching and developing over a long period of time?]

“Batteries are important, but other technologies are also quite important.”

[All right. We will invest more than they want.]

“Relax your voice. We will never lose anything.”

Tesla was created according to history.

However, the results would come out sooner than history.

This is because an astronomical amount of money was spent on battery development, and before the regression, a battery was developed that was far superior to the current one.

However, this did not mean that electric vehicles could be released right away.

It would take at least 3 to 5 years to create a proper electric car, and preliminary work for that time was currently underway.

[ah! And the US presidential election is just around the corner. David is quite busy meeting politicians these days.]

“There are as many as three elections a year to worry about.”

The US election was more important to me than Korea.

The profits earned in the US market were increasing more than the amount earned in the domestic market, and it is certain that the amount will increase significantly once the Korea-US FTA is concluded.

[This time, among the companies that gave donations to President Bush, SAVE Investment Company donated the largest amount. The sponsoring chairman came to visit us in person and thanked us. There is nothing to be gained by lobbying the political world, so it is a bit of a waste.]

“Even if you don’t get any benefit, at least you won’t be checked. That’s enough. And if you want to become the CEO of Taewoo Securities, you need to understand that logic.”

[…] … While waiting for that day, I will at least practice face-wall training. If I can become the president of Taewoo Securities, what can I do?]

He was a team leader who had lived abroad for a long time.

Although they said they had become accustomed to life in the United States, people still dreamed of a golden return.

What could be more rewarding than rising from the position of assistant manager of a small team to the position of president at Taewoo Securities?

“And gradually increase your cash reserves.”

[I am making a deposit for a fintech bank.]

“There will come a day in 3-4 years when you will need to spend a lot of cash. So increase your cash reserves to the point where you can spend at least tens of billions of dollars at once.”

[Are you referring to the U.S. real estate market bubble you mentioned earlier? After talking with Dimon, I found out that the US real estate market was acting very strangely]

“There will be a great depression that is different from the IT bubble. Prepare for that time by creating a new portfolio.”

[If you want to make a big hit, you need to have a strong bullet. Don’t worry. We will prepare so that you can fire indiscriminately without worrying about bullets.]

I had faith in what team leader Han said.

He was a team leader who had never let me down until now.

It was thanks to Team Leader Han’s outstanding ability that we were able to increase returns of more than 20% every year while managing tens of billions of dollars.

* * *

A few days later.

I received a call from Representative Choi Jae-seok, who I had been waiting for.

For security purposes, I answered the call using an eavesdropping-proof cell phone, and Representative Choi Jae-seok also made a call using an eavesdropping-proof cell phone that I provided.

[Vice Chairman, the negotiations are finally over.]

“Seeing as your voice is bright, I guess the results were good.”

[It couldn’t be better than this. Without giving anything away, we obtained cooperation in hosting IIT’s Korean campus.]

I didn’t understand it at first.

The basis of politics was exchange.

But you just took it without giving anything?

Are you saying that it was a one-sided advantage?

“Tell me more, what happened?”

[We created a compromise on relocating the administrative capital and presented it to the representatives of major political parties. However, without even looking at the compromise I provided, they just tried to bite each other’s leash.]

“But how did you get cooperation to host IIT in Korea?”

[I accepted it on the condition that I remain neutral in matters related to the administrative capital. Both parties were confident that they would win as long as the National Economy Party did not intervene.]

Politicians were the top 1% elite in Korea.

Of course, there are some who are not like that, but most of them are lawyers or people who have risen to the top in their field.

But it’s really strange.

As soon as you set foot in Yeouido, your good brain hardens.

With so many interests intertwined in such a complicated way, would you say it becomes simpler?

Well, it was a good thing from my perspective.

Because I could only benefit one-sidedly without giving anything away.

“Will a major political party keep its promises? Aren’t politicians different from each other? Ah! Except for Representative Choi Jae-seok.”

[Politicians are people who are more important to winning the next election than promises, so there are some things that can’t be helped. But this promise cannot be broken. The moment a party that breaks its promise emerges, the National Economy Party will form a coalition with the opposing party.]

In this general election, the major political parties should have been seen as having recorded a draw.

The balance of power was too tight, and the National Economy Party had the power to break the balance of power.

“Then, please pass the IIT Korea hosting bill as soon as possible. Once the Constitutional Court ruling comes out, we may wipe our mouths.”

[We have already decided to propose related deregulation and special laws at the next extraordinary National Assembly meeting. If it’s really early, we could break ground as soon as next year!]

Representative Choi Jae-seok and the National Economy Party.

We provided them with a lot of support, and we should have seen that we at least got our money’s worth through this project.

* * *

The hosting of IIT in Korea was progressing smoothly.

I focused a little more on the electric vehicle business, which is one of the next growth engines for Taewo Group.

The development of electric vehicles had been in preparation for a long time, so there was nothing to worry about, but it was difficult to attract people’s interest simply with electric vehicles.

In the end, the path electric cars should take was autonomous driving.

A system that literally makes decisions and drives the car on its own without human intervention.

The electric car and autonomous driving system had to be developed as a set, and Cheon Min-jeong’s help was needed for this part.

“Can you create an autonomous driving system through deep learning?”

“Suddenly an autonomous driving system?”

It’s been a while since I had an idea meeting.

As soon as we arrived at the conference hall, I brought up the topic of self-driving, and she got a puff of air in her cheek and fell into trouble.

“If we invest a lot of development costs and manpower, wouldn’t it be possible someday?”

“If we support Cheon Min-jeong with nearly infinite development costs and manpower, how long will development be possible?”

“Hmm, I think it will be difficult to achieve full autonomous driving even if it takes more than 10 years. However, I think autonomous driving in a driver assistance role or partial driving automation will be possible in as little as 3 to 4 years.”

Those were very hopeful words.

Even before the regression, a fully autonomous driving system had not been created, and a person had to be on board to play an assisting role.

It would have been enough for only a partially autonomous driving system to be developed within 3 to 4 years.

If we could release electric vehicles and partially autonomous driving systems at the same time, we could receive a great response.

“To what extent is possible?”

“I think I can give you an accurate answer if I know the functions the vice president wants first.”

“I think changing lanes, avoiding obstacles, responding to unexpected situations, driving speed control, steering wheel control, acceleration, deceleration, and sudden braking would be sufficient for an initial autonomous driving system.”

Did I ask for too much?

I said whatever autonomous driving system I could think of that I had experienced or seen.

“In order to develop the functions that the vice president wants, we need a variety of basic technologies. In the case of driving or responding to unexpected situations, they can be learned through deep learning, but to do that, we first need technology that can properly transfer information about the surrounding environment. To do this, extensive yet detailed real-time map information is essential.”

“When you say map information, do you mean navigation?”

“Although it requires technical skills several levels above navigation, just developing excellent navigation skills can be of great help.”

Did you think of Cheon Min-jeong too much like a goblin’s bat?

Just because it clicks doesn’t mean the technology will jump out.

No matter how genius he was, he could create new technology while possessing the basic technology.

“The priority would be to secure navigation technology.”

“I will start researching technologies that can be created with deep learning and algorithms.”

“We will form a team dedicated to autonomous driving. Please take on the role of general team leader.”

“I’m the general team leader? But I also have to work on the artificial intelligence project, so it’s burdensome to get the team leader position.”

Cheon Min-jeong was a talent that was a waste to keep in one place.

However, since he could not keep her as an employee forever, he offered her the position of team leader.

“He is called the general team leader in name only. Minjeong Cheon just needs to develop the technology and deliver it. The dedicated team will be in charge of the details.”

“I am the general team leader. Can I do that?”

“If you become a team leader, your salary will increase by 20%. And you will be able to enjoy more welfare benefits.”

“…Then I’ll take it. I’ve felt deeply how important welfare benefits are.”

Cheon Min-jeong was able to save her younger brother from school violence thanks to welfare benefits.

So, without even asking what kind of welfare benefits the team leader received, I just asked.

“Then, starting today, I will give you the position of team leader. For the dedicated team, all you have to do is select the IT department staff you like and let them know. I will select the remaining staff from among Taewoo Motors personnel.”

“How many people can I select?”

“Wouldn’t it be about 50 people? It doesn’t matter if there are more.”

“50 people? If a large number of people leave, won’t there be a problem at Taewo IT?”

“We plan to hire IT developers on a large scale through this open recruitment, so there won’t be much of a problem. We also plan to bring in experts from all over the world who can be immediately used as a force.”

“Suddenly the scale has become too large.”

It wasn’t that big of a scale by my standards.

This is just the beginning, and the autonomous driving team that started with 50 to 60 people will grow to hundreds of people in a few years.