Investor That Can See The Future

Chapter 222

Cars are more than just machines, they are an inseparable part of American life.

So, when the three automakers collapsed due to the financial crisis, Americans’ self-esteem was hurt, and Ronald’s promise to save the automakers in his country was paid off.

Traveling around the United States by car, you will see endless roads that you drive for several days.

Route 66 runs 2,500 miles from Chicago, Illinois, to Santa Monica, California.

Autonomous driving technology shines more on highways that cross these state borders than on crowded downtowns. Just enter the destination and route, and the car runs along the road.

In the meantime, the driver can listen to music or take a break. The car runs at the same speed according to the movement of the car ahead, and changes lanes on its own.

The buyers who received the released car expressed great satisfaction.

-I rode from San Antonio to Las Vegas, but I don’t drive by myself except when I put gasoline in the middle to eat. I think I could just put my hand on the steering wheel and take a nap.

– I’ve tried Nikola’s Autopilot, but this is a real revolution.

-I fell asleep in the middle, but when I woke up with an alarm, I arrived at my destination and informed that the autonomous driving was over.

– Do not expect driving performance. The first time I rode it, I was furious that this car cost $45,000. However, after using self-driving once, I was convinced. Even $60,000 is worth it.

-damn. Waiting 183,000 times, when the hell is it coming out?

-Please note that AD1 is shipped faster than AD2.

Korean consumers as well as other countries showed great interest.

– Now, the real driverless car era is about to begin.

-When will it be released in Korea? Let’s ride it one more time

– It seems that the law should be amended before that.

-Until Eunsung Cha puts it out, it’s not even starting.

– Still, the government has changed, so I won’t just push Eunseong Cha.

– I don’t know. At first, automobiles were a key industry, so they were forced to push their own cars. This is the same all over the world.

Automobile experts generally praised it as the most complete autonomous driving car. (Although there was not much good talk about driving performance)

But Nikola’s CEO, Allen Eberhart, was particularly venomous.

“Caros is selling a lousy car at an exorbitant price. This is terrible for the automotive industry!”

Taek-gyu looked at the article and said.

“Why is this guy mad?”

“I guess we don’t like it.”

He was a person I liked personally, but it seems wrong to get to know him.

Carlos is similar to Nikola in many ways.

First of all, both started out as start-ups rather than traditional car companies. Nikola has an overwhelming strength in the electric vehicle field, and autonomous driving technology is also quite high.

We are going to make electric vehicles starting with autonomous driving technology, and Nikola is trying to move towards autonomous driving, starting with electric vehicles.

Currently, almost all automakers are launching electric vehicles, but they have not surpassed Nikola’s popularity. This can be seen from the hundreds of thousands of Model TH reservations.

Nikola’s biggest problem is that its production capacity is low. (However, this is far superior to other automakers’ EV production capacity)

So I’m going through a production hell… … The big one happened.

Unlike most automakers, which have factories in Rustbelt, Nikola has a factory near Silicon Valley, which shook the ground and collapsed parts of the factory, shutting down operations for nearly a month.

It has now been restored and is running again, but even so, it is still less than 70 percent of its previous production.

The production hell intensified, and the churn of reservations accelerated. (Will some of them buy Karos cars?)

The market cap, which once surpassed GM and soared as the number one car in the US, has now shrunk by more than 30 percent.

Right now, it’s an internal combustion engine versus an electric car, but if we release an electric car, we’ll have a head-on collision with Nikola.

There are many cars that are better than Nikola in terms of cars. However, it was not easy to find a better car than Nikola’s Model A or Model B when looking only within the category of electric vehicles.

While we are ahead in autonomous driving, Nicole is still at the forefront of electric vehicles.

However, we do have an OTK lab.

If Professor Homin Kim solves the stability problem of the new battery, he can create an innovative electric vehicle that lowers the manufacturing cost and doubles the mileage.

From then on, the real Karos era will begin.

* * *

I kept getting reports on sales and production from the company. Interviews were flooded with the launch of the new car from domestic and foreign media outlets.

Because of his busy work, he declined the interview, and instead, the head of the PR team, Jeong Ki-hong, diligently circulated the press release.

Taek-gyu asked.

“When will it be released in Korea?”

“Right now, it is difficult to meet US demand. As road conditions and laws vary from country to country, each country has to learn autonomous driving AI, which takes time too.”

In the United States, it will only work with dealers that have already signed contracts, and in all other countries, it will be sold only through the Internet.

In order to meet the order quantity, the factory worked nonstop, and overtime and overtime work were also carried out. The subcontractors, who had been playing with them because they had no work, were also busily moving to meet the delivery date. Still, it was not enough, so additional contracts were signed with other subcontractors.

When the water comes in, you have to row hard.

Daryl said that it is accelerating development with the goal of launching an electric vehicle in the second half of the year, and that it will launch an unmanned truck equipped with autonomous driving within this year.

As it took over the heavy truck division from Eunsung Motors, it only needs to be equipped with an autonomous driving system. Of course, you will have to go through a test drive.

As the rail network in the United States is not developed, most of the inland freight transportation is based on trucks. In Korea, a round trip is possible in one day, no matter how far away, but in the United States, this is not the case. U.S. truckers eat and sleep in between and deliver cargo across state borders over several days.

The way Daryl envisioned it was to move the truck like a railroad.

Trucks communicate with each other, exchange information about deceleration and acceleration in advance, and maintain an appropriate inter-vehicle distance.

This platooning technology is called platooning, which reduces air resistance and greatly helps in fuel economy savings.

The advent of driverless trucks will radically change the transportation system that has been around for decades. As labor costs are eliminated and fuel efficiency is improved, transportation costs will be greatly reduced.

The U.S. Congress moved to amend a bill that would allow driverless vehicles to operate only on approved vehicles, and the National Transportation Workers’ Union immediately issued a protest statement against it.

Just as the advent of automobiles took away the jobs of drivers, the development of new industries is a threat to workers in old industries.

Karos announced that he would hire drivers who would lose their jobs in the new factory hiring first, but dissatisfaction did not subside easily.

People like their work and take pride in them. Asking you to quit your job and start doing something else is, in some ways, extremely cruel.

However, it is not possible to stop technological development or reverse the flow of the times. Although Karos has moved ahead of time, the advent of self-driving trucks is to be expected.

In fact, this is happening across industries, not just transportation. It is the role of the government and corporations to minimize side effects such as unemployment.

The stock price of Seosung Electronics continued to rise.

Two days ago, JP Morgan and Nomura Securities offered a sell opinion on Suseong Electronics, saying that the semiconductor supercycle is over and there are concerns about a slump in the industry.

Previously, it was a bad news that would cause the stock price to fluctuate greatly, but this time everyone snorted.

– What are these bastards doing?

– Submit a 100-day selling report. Who will sell Seosung Electronics stocks now?

-Hey, it looks like you’re running short sales too.

– These bastards are putting out a sell report and putting in a buy order. Have you tried it once or twice?

-Isn’t there a Black Cow that you sold by trusting that?

-Even if the semiconductor industry is sluggish, is the electronics business doing so well?

-It is also bullshit that the semiconductor supercycle is over. If self-driving cars sell well, demand for semiconductors continues to grow.

-Don’t forget that Seosung Electronics is the second largest shareholder of Karos.

-I bet you, the stock price of Seosung Electronics will surpass NPL within the next 3 years!

Even after the sell report was released, Seosung Electronics’ stock closed up 2 percent.

There are expectations for the electronics business, but there is another important reason.

As Karos is a privately held company, it is not easy to obtain a stake. Most of the shares are held by OTK Company, and the 4% stake held by Daryl and the developers is prohibited from selling until they leave the company.

However, Seosung Electronics currently owns a 10.5 percent stake in Karos and has a purchase right to acquire an additional 14 percent in the future.

In this situation, there is no reason not to exercise the purchase right, so Seosung Electronics will have a 24.5 percent stake in Karos.

As the only way to invest in Karos is to buy Seosung Electronics’ stock at the moment, institutional and foreign investors have flocked to buy it.

It also included JP Morgan and Nomura Securities, which issued a sell report.

* * *

Suh Sung Electronics immediately reorganized the organization and created a new electronic division by combining the tasks that were previously divided into one business unit, and appointed Myung-Ho Myung as the president.

Myung-ho Myung-ho, along with Su-hak Lee, president of Seoseong SB, and Myeong-soo Kim, manager of Mijeonsil, is also known as the vassal trio.

This was the will to intensively develop the automotive electronics sector at the group level.(Read more @ wuxiax.com)

I went to Seoseong Town around lunch time and met Chairman Im Jin-yong. He looked a little tired because he had come to Korea in the morning after a business trip to Germany.

“Didn’t Taek-gyu Oh come with you?”

“Yes. I have work to do.”

The game I’m playing isn’t over yet. I came alone because I was not ready to move until I saw the ending.

“What did you go to Germany for?”

“I had an appointment with BMW Chairman Tobias Hilbert.”

BMW is one of Seoseong SB’s main customers. Currently, electric vehicles made by BMW are equipped with Seoseong SB batteries.

“How is the atmosphere there?”

“He welcomed me very much. I guess that’s the one who makes the finished product, so I didn’t feel like I was being treated as a supplier, but this time it was a little different. He asked a lot of questions about Carlos and his junior. Ah! And from what I heard, the three companies seem to be working together in the field of autonomous driving.”

You’re moving fast too.

When we talk about the three German companies, we usually mean Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi. Volkswagen and Porsche are in the same group as Audi anyway.

A few years ago, the three German companies jointly acquired a map specialist from Nokia. The acquisition price is 2.8 billion euros. The shares were divided equally.

However, as much as autonomous driving technology has been developed by each individual, it seems they have turned to joint development.

The same goes for other companies.

When there is a strong enemy, even the bad guys tend to unite. As it is not easy to narrow the technology gap once falling behind in the competition, NPL, Gubble, Nvidia, Iver, GM, Ford, etc. have sought cooperation by finding areas with each other’s strengths.

The 20 or so companies currently classified as leaders will soon be merged into four or five groups.

“Did you know that AD1 and AD2 have already gone to Europe and China, right? It seems that Chairman Hilbert also rode it himself.”

I nodded.

“I got a report from Daryl. I think it was bought by competitors.”

It is natural to acquire and analyze a competitor’s product.

Hundreds have flowed into China alone.

Currently, the United States is leading the autonomous driving field, but China’s pursuit was also not easy. At the government level, China is fostering future vehicles such as electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles.

Chairman Im Jin-yong said with a bitter smile.

“By now, Chinese automakers and IT companies will be disassembling the electronic equipment installed in AD1 and AD2.”