1121 The Concept of Smart City
Among all the technologies owned by Future Group, Hua was the most interested in the magnetic levitation road.
Three-dimensional traffic had a significant effect on releasing traffic pressure in high-density cities. Needless to say, the unfriendly policies of limiting plates and limiting the days of driving could be completely eliminated. With the three-dimensional traffic implemented, the traffic load a city could handle would increase exponentially.
Precisely because of this, Hua offered an astronomical figure of 10 billion Xin New dollars to ask Future Heavy Industries to a.s.sist in the transformation of the existing road infrastructure in a pilot city.
Jiang Chen certainly wouldn’t refuse this proposal, after all, it was a great opportunity to open the overseas market for Luer magnetic levitation vehicles. The more electrified Hua becomes, the more difficult it would be for the country to reject his Global Grid Plan and the more difficult it would be for them to escape Xin’s sphere of influence…
Not satisfied with just this, Jiang Chen used this opportunity to also sell the concept of a “Smart City” to Ye Qinghua.
“Smart city is to integrate all the public service projects of the city’s logistics, transportation, communication, water and electricity, and coordinate the allocation by Artificial Intelligence. Taking the magnetic levitation technology as an example, we will connect every car into the traffic network and maintain a specific speed at a certain height, so that vehicles of the same height remain relatively static, thus completely eliminating traffic accidents caused by vehicle collisions…”
Ye Qinghua s.h.i.+fted the phone into his other hand. His cloudy eyes flickered, disguising his thoughts.
Although he did not say anything, Jiang Chen’s words have already planted a seed in his heart.
A seed named future.
…
At 9:00 pm on July 29th, a bright silver silhouette emerged from the horizon, and the Gulfstream G650 landed smoothly at Coro International Airport.
Sitting at the seat beside the window, Elon Musk, who had not fully adjusted to the jetlag, opened his weary eyes and looked out through the window. He saw all kinds of airplane models, saw the runway that quickly reversed backward, and saw the brightly lit city in the distance…
The blue signal on the side of the runway flew backward. Like a glowing snake, it gradually mystified his vision.
Just then, he felt someone pulling his sleeve. He narrowed his eyes and stopped gazing at the runway that fascinated him to look at the person beside him.
“Mr. Musk, we are here,” his a.s.sistant whispered.
Elon Musk nodded and pressed his hands on the armrests. Just as he stood up, his weary eyes were replaced with a sharp gaze.
He was a very clear-cut person who is used to seeing the world from the perspective of an engineer.
When he was in college, he often thought about the real problems the world faced and how those problems affected the future of mankind. He was optimistic about the Internet, sustainable energy, and s.p.a.ce exploration. Later, he subsequently entered these three areas and created three companies, PayPal, Tesla Motors, and s.p.a.ceX.
Although the latter two were defeated by Luer and Celestial Trade respectively, neither Tesla nor s.p.a.ceX faltered. Now, with the bankruptcy of the Noah’s Ark Fund, s.p.a.ceX narrowly missed the 100 billion US dollars project and got pushed out of the Earth Fleet program.
In the long run, even if s.p.a.ceX inherited the advantages that NASA has acc.u.mulated since the Cold War era, it would be left behind in this ever-changing era.
Elon Musk’s mood was not so pleasant with the thought.
The primary goal of his trip to Xin was to have a face to face conversation with Jiang Chen. Although he didn’t have much hope, what would be the harm in trying?
After he got off the plane, the airport staff came over and talked to his a.s.sistant. Soon, his a.s.sistant came back and whispered to Elon Musk.
“Mr. Musk, Future Group has arranged a special convoy for us outside the VIP pa.s.sage of the airport.”
“Future Group?” Elon Musk was slightly surprised. “They already know I am coming?”
But it made sense. The international airport under his foot was funded by Celestial Trade and even the air defense of Xin was contracted to Celestial Trade. Perhaps when the airplane took off from LAX, Celestial Trade already knew.
Although the feeling of his privacy being invaded made him a little uncomfortable, he did not say anything about it. After all, he hoped to convince Jiang Chen to separate politics from economic cooperation and allow s.p.a.ceX to compete fairly in the market.
“What do you think? Should we take the hotel’s vehicle, or…” his a.s.sistant whispered.
“Let’s use the hotel’s vehicle, remember to bring my suitcase.” Elon Musk walked in the direction of the airport staff.
A black car was parked at the exit of the VIP pa.s.sage. He finally understood why Jiang Chen would send a special convoy to pick him up; the exit of the airport was surrounded by reporters.
It seemed that the news leaked before he left.
Among the vans that surrounded the airport exit, he even saw the LA Times.
s.p.a.ceX lost in the bidding for the Earth Fleet program, and many people were eager to see his disappointment. His compet.i.tors, especially, would mock at his downfall. It was no exaggeration to say that as soon as he revealed his face in front of the reporters, he would appear on the news the next day with the label of bowing down to Celestial Trade.
With this thought in mind, Elon showed a bitter smile. The dissatisfaction of his privacy being invaded disappeared, and he felt grateful for Jiang Chen’s initiative.
On the vehicle headed to his hotel, Elon Musk gazed at the traffic pa.s.sing around him and sighed.
“I originally thought that Silicon Valley is the future of the world. I didn’t think that Coro City has already entered the 22nd century ahead of time.”
“Your first time here? You will be more surprised when you get to the city center.” With the magnetic leviathan mode activated, the man in charge of driving looked at Elon and grinned. “I don’t know if you have seen that movie? The one starring Bruce Willis?”
“Bruce Willis?” Elon Musk frowned and suddenly a t.i.tle appeared in his mind, “The Fifth Element?”
“Yes, The Fifth Element. One of the few sci-fi blockbusters in France.” The driver laughed.
“I didn’t expect the American Dream to be realized by Xin,” Elon Musk said.
“It is the dream of all mankind,” the driver said with pride.
“You are not a native of Xin?” Elon Musk suddenly asked.
“Used to be British, but why does it matter? My wife and I left Europe after the referendum about three years ago. Did you know? That’s my most proud decision I made in my life. If you never lived here before, you will never get a sense of how amazing the changes are here.”
Elon Musk gazed at him for a long time.
Once a person started to feel proud of his new nationality, no matter where he used to come from, it was in the past.
Xin’s a.s.similation of culture was shocking. This a.s.similation didn’t exist because of inst.i.tutional or cultural pressures, but because of pure scientific and technological advantages. People living here already felt a sense of superiority compared to people from other countries. This kind of superiority was a feeling of civilized people looking at the more primitive.
Yes, even the most prosperous city in UA was far less advanced than the city of the future.
At least no car there could fly on the road.