Carl went to Detroit on August 3 and returned to Sacramento on the 19th.

This trip to Detroit was both a success and an unsuccess.

Evan had this to say.

The success lies in the fact that Carl sells the seat belts. Detroit's car companies, whether it's the Big Three (General Motors, Ford, Chrysler) or the smaller Hudson Motor Company and Packard Corporation, have expressed some interest in seat belts.

The reason why this trip was unsuccessful is that none of these companies are planning to install seat belts on a large scale, but only put them as an optional accessory on luxury models due to cost considerations.

Since it is an optional accessory, it means that sales are limited.

Evan didn't understand the choice of the car company, but he still couldn't accept it.

Since Ford introduced the Model T, the highest sales in the car market have been cheap and cheap models. This kind of car is market-tested. Once a component is installed, it will inevitably lead to an increase in costs and a higher selling price. In the price-sensitive low-cost car market, car companies have to take a lot of risk.

That's why these car companies have chosen the same strategy.

When Carl returned from Detroit, he immediately asked Evan, "What's next?"

"Should a company be set up to produce seat belts, and if so, where?"

After careful consideration of these questions, Evan replied: "The factory still needs to be built, didn't they say that it would be used in luxury cars?" If there is an order, why not build it?"

"As for where to build...... For the convenience of supply and the cost of logistics, you would definitely suggest that I find a place near Detroit. I don't want to do that, though. It's better to find a place to build the factory in California, not in Sacramento, around Los Angeles or in the San Francisco Bay Area. ”

"I have my reasons for doing this, and you don't need to persuade me, Carl. ”

A place like Detroit, where there are a lot of black people, Evan doesn't want to go. Although the factory is far away from the customer's location, it will increase the logistics cost, but who will let the patent in his hands?

"As for how to convince companies like General Motors, Ford, etc., that are interested in taking a stake in the factory, that's your business. ”

"That's the name of the new company...... It's called SecurityFitting, use this if you can sign up, and if you can't, take one yourself. ”

That's right, Evan didn't think about this seat belt company being completely in his own hands, and from the beginning of the construction of the factory, Evan will let the car company enter the game. even let them pay for the construction of factories to produce products. In this company, Alphabet, which represents Evan, will not even be the majority shareholder.

However, Evan will not let go of the patent rights, so they can't join forces to kick Evan out of the game after the factory is built.

Evan did this to minimize the resistance of car companies and reduce the resistance to the spread of seat belts. However, even then, the Big Three are reluctant to fully equip themselves with seat belts. It's no wonder that Evan moved the factory closer to California.

After talking about the seat belt, Evan immediately explained the Band-Aid and ACAH to Carl. If the Band-Aid wants to be listed, it is much more troublesome than the Rubik's Cube. It takes a lot of time just to get the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approval.

Of course, there won't be a lot of ACAH at the moment, and Carl still has time to deal with the seatbelt side.

After getting Evan's authorization, Carl went back to Detroit and gave him all the conditions. After some consideration, the car companies in Detroit all agreed.

In this way, the Big Three contributed money and small companies took shares, and at the end of August, a multi-party joint venture called SecurityFitting was formed.

Two people from Alphabet's side joined SecurityFitting, one was Evan's assistant when developing the seat belts, and the other was Alphabet's accountant. In addition, Carl served as a director of the company.

Immediately after dealing with the seat belts, Karl began bidding for the ACAH production line. To that end, Carl came to Los Angeles on August 28th.

Carl came to Los Angeles with two tasks in addition to his work at ACAH: one was to find some houses for Evan to choose from, and the requirement was that the environment should be good, and the location would be between Caltech and Craft High School. Second, in the name of a shell company, we found several universities in Los Angeles and funded them for several transportation-related research groups.

Both of these tasks were dictated by Evan.

As for the purpose of the second mission, Karl was clear.

Evan still hasn't given up on the original intention of promoting seat belts in general.

Since the manufacturer does not have this enthusiasm because of profits, Evan can only rely on changing the rules to achieve his goals.

It starts with academic research, then creates public opinion through the media, then arouses the interest of certain parliamentarians, and finally puts the "shackles" on car companies in Congress.

This is a common process in the Western world.

This process takes a lot of time and money.

Carl once asked Evan why he did this.

Evan said, "No why!"

"I just want to make a little difference in the world while making money. ”

Installing seat belts on cars across the United States and even the world more than ten years in advance should be able to save many old drivers!

……

On Friday, August 30th, Evan came to Magic7 alone to listen to the report.

This will be the last time Evan will be here in a while, because in a few days, he will be on his way to Los Angeles.

Audrey started school on September 9, and Evan himself started on September 23. Although Evan started school later, he would go to Los Angeles on the same day as Audrey so that he would have time to choose a house to rent.

Throughout August, the sales of Rubik's Cube have maintained a steady upward trend. Last month's total sales were 870,000 units, and in August it has risen to 940,000 units, and Girard believes that it will exceed one million units next month.

The construction of the new plant is also going well, and Davidson said that the new production line will be up and running at the end of September, and the production capacity will be further increased, and the export of the Rubik's Cube to Europe will also be carried out smoothly.

At the beginning of August, the head of Airfix Toys, introduced by Thomas Trenchard, finally arrived in California after a long journey. After some negotiations, Magic7 licensed Airfix the sales agency for the entire European region for three years. Magic7 will be available from October.

Originally, Airfix's goal was to build a joint venture factory with magic7 in Europe, but after some investigation, they found that they might not be able to find a suitable supplier in Europe after World War II, so they gave up.

That's why they didn't send people to the U.S. until August.

After listening to the report and encouraging everyone, Evan announced that in the future the debriefing would be changed to once a month. They all knew that Evan was going to college, and they weren't surprised by the change.

And just like that, as the weather began to cool, the school season arrived.