When I am reborn, I just want to be a top student

In the conference room of the Tangdu Municipal Transportation Commission, a hearing on the "Detailed Rules for the Management of Unmanned Ride-Hailing Service (Trial)" is underway.

More than twenty people sat around the oval conference table, including officials from the Transportation Commission, legal experts, representatives from ride-hailing platforms, and several invited scholars.

A huge display screen hangs on the wall, scrolling through the core clauses of the detailed rules: "Platforms applying for operating licenses must sign formal labor contracts with their drivers and pay social security for them," "Operating vehicles must be equipped with a complete autonomous driving safety redundancy system," and "Platforms must establish a mechanism for driver skills improvement and retraining."

Liu Qing sat in the Didi representative's seat, wearing a well-tailored dark gray suit, her hair neatly styled, but the dark circles under her eyes couldn't be concealed even by foundation.

A printed copy of the detailed rules lay open in front of her, with the clauses on page seventeen circled repeatedly in red pen and covered with dense annotations.

Sitting next to her was Lao Zhou, the head of Didi's government affairs department. He had gray hair and had spent most of his life working within the system, so he was very familiar with the subtext of various policy documents.

At that moment, he was quietly reporting to Liu Qing the news he had just heard in the corridor.

"President Liu, I've checked. These detailed rules weren't drafted by Tangdu City itself; they were approved by higher-ups. Galaxy Technology has been conducting autonomous driving tests in Tangdu for five years with zero major accidents, and the data is impeccable. The higher-ups believe the technology is mature and have decided to let Tangdu take the lead."

Liu Qing tapped his fingers lightly on the table and asked, "Try to go first? Why Tangdu of all places?"

Old Zhou gave a wry smile: "Because Galaxy Technology is in Tangdu, the lithography factory is in Tangdu, the Xuanwu Battery Industrial Park is in Tangdu, and the National Frontier Technology Research Institute is in Tangdu. Tangdu today is not the same as it was five years ago."

Liu Qing did not respond.

She was certainly aware of the changes in Tangdu: the permanent population had soared from less than ten million to thirteen million, the GDP had jumped from fifteenth to seventh in the country, and the number of newly added high-tech enterprises had ranked first in the country for three consecutive years.

The city is expanding at a visible rate, and the core driving force behind this expansion is only one: Galaxy Technology.

"There's one more."

Old Zhou lowered his voice, almost whispering, "Those clauses about drivers' rights in the detailed rules weren't added by the Transportation Commission itself, but by Wang Donglai. He personally said during a meeting with the city that 'driverless cars can be on the road, but those who make a living by driving can't be left unattended.' The city adopted his suggestion and included it in the detailed rules."

Liu Qing frowned slightly.

It's Wang Donglai again!
She recalled how she had previously tried to communicate with Galaxy Technology through an intermediary, only to be met with Wang Donglai's single-word reply: "Get lost."

She thought this person was incredibly arrogant. How could a private enterprise act so arrogantly towards the industry leader?

Later she realized that the word "get lost" wasn't arrogance, but confidence.

When your technology is a generation ahead of others, you really don't need to be polite to anyone.

Although she understood this, she still harbored resentment towards Wang Donglai.

However, he never found an opportunity, so he could only suppress this hatred in his heart.

"President Liu, the hearing is about to begin," Old Zhou reminded him softly.

Liu Qing pulled his thoughts back and opened the prepared speech in front of him.

The core argument of the speech was that "autonomous driving technology is not yet mature, and large-scale commercial use poses safety risks; therefore, it is recommended to extend the pilot period."

But she knew this argument was untenable. Galaxy Technology had conducted tests in Tangdu for five years, with tens of millions of kilometers of real-world road test data on hand, and zero major accidents.

This data wasn't generated in a lab; it came from real data collected on the street.

She herself has ridden in Galaxy Technologies' driverless car, which is smooth, quiet, and precise, and better than most human drivers.

But she still had to say it!

It wasn't because she believed this rhetoric, but because the shareholders behind her needed her to say it.

The hearing began quickly.

Officials from the Transportation Commission first introduced the background of the drafting of the detailed rules and the conclusions of the technical evaluation, followed by speeches from experts.

The expert who spoke was a professor from the Department of Transportation Engineering at Tangdu Jiaotong University. His hair was gray, and he spoke slowly and methodically, but every word was supported by data: "...Based on Galaxy Technology's actual operational data from the past five years on public roads in Tangdu, the autonomous driving system's decision-making accuracy in complex road conditions reached 99.997%, with an average human intervention interval exceeding 100,000 kilometers. These two indicators are significantly better than the average level of human drivers..."

Liu Qing silently calculated in his mind that an accuracy rate of 99.997% meant that there were only three mistakes in every million decisions.

This number was even higher and better than she had expected!

After the experts finished speaking, it was the turn of the representatives from each platform to present their opinions.

Liu Qing was the third to speak.

She stood up, walked to the podium, and pulled up the prepared PowerPoint presentation.

Several sets of data popped up on the screen, which were Didi's current number of registered drivers nationwide, average daily order volume, average driver income, and social security contribution rate.

"Didi currently has over 20 million registered drivers nationwide, of which about 80% are part-time and 20% are full-time. If the detailed rules require the platform to sign formal labor contracts with all drivers and pay social security, we estimate that the additional labor costs will exceed 10 billion yuan annually. This figure far exceeds Didi's current profit level."

She paused, then turned to the next page, which featured a pie chart showing the income breakdown of Didi drivers.

"More importantly, a significant portion of our drivers are flexible workers. They may work in office buildings during the day and drive for Didi for a few hours at night to supplement their income; they may be seasonal workers who return to their hometowns to farm during the busy farming season and drive for Didi during the off-season. These people have extremely high mobility. If they have to sign a formal contract to drive for ride-hailing services, many will choose not to. This is a loss for their income and also a loss for the platform's capacity."

An official from the Transportation Commission frowned and interrupted, saying, "President Liu, I have a question. You just mentioned the percentage of social security contributions Didi currently pays for its drivers. Could you tell me the specific percentage?"

Liu Qing was silent for a moment before saying, "Currently, we have assisted about 30% of the full-time drivers in paying part of their social security contributions, while the rest are handled as flexible employment."

The official glanced at the documents in front of him: "According to our data, what percentage of Didi's full-time drivers have an actual employment relationship with Didi, but have signed formal employment contracts?"

Liu Qing naturally knew this data, and for this official to ask this question at this time was undoubtedly undermining her.

However, since the question had been asked, she couldn't refuse to answer. She took a deep breath and said, "Currently, it's about 10%."

A low murmur of whispers filled the conference room.

The official nodded and didn't ask any further questions, but the data was like a stone thrown into calm water.

Liu Qing continued, "We understand the government's determination to promote the development of autonomous driving technology and recognize the importance of protecting workers' rights. However, policy implementation takes time and requires a transition period for companies. We suggest that the implementation of the detailed rules be carried out in stages, starting with pilot programs in some areas and then gradually expanding the scope..."

"..."

She closed her speech, sat back in her seat, and remained expressionless.

Liu Qing knew that his statement had no flaws, but those few figures had already explained everything: 20 million drivers, 10% signed contracts, 50% paid part of the social security, and the rest were all "flexible workers".

She knows better than anyone how much this model has saved Didi over the past few years.

Now, Tangdu City's detailed rules are essentially telling her that this model should end.

After the hearing, Liu Qing did not leave immediately.

She sat in the lounge area outside the conference room, scrolling through her phone.

On the screen was an internal meeting summary titled "Suggestions on Strategic Adjustments to Didi's Autonomous Driving Business." She quickly skimmed through it, noting three core recommendations: first, increase investment in autonomous driving technology research and development, striving to achieve technological self-sufficiency within three years; second, adjust the driver management model, gradually phasing out "non-high-quality drivers"; and third, intensify lobbying efforts with local transportation management departments to secure a more lenient policy environment.

Behind these three suggestions lies the shared attitude of Didi's shareholders: when making money, drivers are the transportation capacity.

When it comes to taking responsibility, the driver will be "optimized out".

She turned off the screen, leaned back in her chair, and closed her eyes.

My phone vibrated.

She picked it up and saw it was a push notification from Douyin (TikTok), titled "The era of driverless cars has arrived! Tangdu takes the lead in issuing licenses for driverless ride-hailing services."

She clicked on the notification, and in the video, a silver-gray self-driving car was smoothly driving through the Tangdu High-tech Zone.

The camera zooms in on the driver's seat, which is empty. The steering wheel turns automatically, as if controlled by an invisible hand.

The logo on the car is a simplified star trail pattern, subtly alluding to the name "Galaxy".

Scrolling to the comments section, she saw a netizen excitedly asking, "That's so cool! When can we see it in our city?"

"Oh no, my job is going to be taken away by machines."

"Autonomous driving is an unstoppable trend. The important thing is how to give those affected the opportunity to transform their lives."

"What can Didi do? They haven't even developed their own driverless cars yet, and the policies have already blocked them."

"This is so cool! I never thought that self-driving cars would actually be implemented!"

"I also want to ask, if a car accident occurs, who is responsible?"

"No need to even think about it, it's definitely Galaxy Technology!"

Liu Qing's expression turned grim as he casually scrolled through the comments section and looked at them.

At this moment, Lao Zhou hurriedly followed and asked in a low voice, "President Liu, what's the response to the shareholders?"

Clearly, Lao Zhou also saw this news.

Liu Qing's expression was icy, and his tone carried a hint of coldness as he said, "Tell them that I will continue to follow up on the situation in Tangdu, but the possibility of loosening the policy in the short term is very small. The clauses regarding drivers' rights in the detailed rules are ostensibly proposed by the Tangdu Transportation Commission, but the real driving force behind them is definitely Wang Donglai."

“Wang Donglai is not someone who can be persuaded. It is basically impossible to change anything in this regard.”

“Tell Chen Wei that instead of complaining behind his back, he should think about how to use the effort he puts into saving money by outsourcing to improve the rights and interests of drivers. If he catches up now, at least he can maintain his market image. The longer he delays, the worse it will look.”

Old Zhou nodded and said nothing more.

He was just a worker, with no shares and no surname, so naturally he didn't have the guts to get involved.

Liu Qing got into the car, the driver started the engine, and slowly drove out of the parking lot.

She looked out the car window at the street scene of Tangdu. The city was changing at a visible speed, and the driving force behind the change was always in that office on the top floor of the Galaxy Technology headquarters.

She had been paying attention to Galaxy Technology and Wang Donglai for a long time.

She was even among the first venture capitalists to want to invest, but was rejected by Wang Donglai.

Even later, when Galaxy Technology opened up investment opportunities and the Liu family was ready to invest, they were still rejected.

In this way, the Liu family finally understood.

Wang Donglai was not one of them at all, and he harbored deep-seated hostility towards them.

If we can't be friends, then we'll be enemies.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard they tried to find the problem, they didn't make much progress.

We could only watch helplessly as Galaxy Technology grew to such an extent.

To some extent, the two are no longer on the same level.

The core technologies that Galaxy Technology possesses are the real core technologies.

It is no exaggeration to say that they all fall into the category of national strategic assets.

The attitude from above is also very clear: support, strong support!

All policies and actions clearly demonstrate this point.

Therefore, the option of going head-to-head with Galaxy Technology never even crossed her mind.

They're looking for a weakness, but they can't find a suitable one right away.

Now that this has happened again, Liu Qing is in a very difficult position.

Didi is not yet listed on the stock exchange, and the huge amount of money invested has not yet yielded a substantial return.

If Didi simply lets the self-driving car industry grow, all the money it has invested will be wasted, and it could take many years to break even.

Sitting in the car, looking at the bustling construction scene in Tangdu outside, Liu Qing had a variety of thoughts running through his mind.

She had ideas such as stalling for time, trying to persuade others, or confronting them head-on.

But in the end, Liu Qing gave up on these ideas.

Didi doesn't belong entirely to her; losing a portion of the profits means she's lost something.

But if they really do something outrageous, it could directly affect the entire Liu family.

If we completely offend Galaxy Technology, our business will be greatly affected.

This price is one she cannot afford.

Liu Qing was quite clear about what was more important.

"Ugh!"

Liu Qing sighed softly to himself, then looked away, his expression returning to calm.

She needs to rush back to Beijing to discuss this matter with other executives and shareholders.

As for what to do, she already had the answer in her heart! (End of Chapter)