Ford Launches AI Training, Fastest/Slowest Selling Vehicles, Wal-Blox

Paul J Daly: 0:18

smell that Kyle. Fresh month and it's a springtime month and it's sunny It is May 1 We're getting down today we're talking about oh Ford and AI fastest and slowest selling vehicles anyone know buying peanut butter on Roblox? I don't know if you can buy peanut butter? Probably not.

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:39

But I'm happy about is the fact that we both have sunny days like that's a non normal thing. I feel like the day I'm not here to burst your bubble,

Paul J Daly: 0:48

but it's not quite sunny here. Oh no, it will be sunny. It's a little overcast. It was so sunny. It'll be sunny.

Kyle Mountsier: 0:56

I was just surprised. Honestly, for a minute. I was like a sunny day in Syracuse, we

Paul J Daly: 1:00

actually got we got a ton of those. Now. We get. We're through the sunny day in February, well, then you could buy the lottery ticket. Oh my goodness. I don't even know where to start. But I do know where to start. Actually, it is

9: 1:15

14am Eastern, which means we will just be getting through the opening videos and monologues of mainstage at a soda con in two weeks from right now.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:25

The now though gotta we warm it up a mic ready to go jump off the shades get everyone turned out, you know, ah, two weeks away.

Paul J Daly: 1:33

We saw a ton of tickets come in yesterday and it was four tickets. Why woke up and it was like we have this little widget in our Slack channel. And every time when tickets sell sells or is registered, it pops up in this little feed. And

Kyle Mountsier: 1:47

when we call it the adrenaline booster is what it is. And

Paul J Daly: 1:51

that thing was packed yesterday and this morning when it was like seven o'clock and I looked at it in there already for four in there from this morning. I was like it's gonna be a good day, because it's May 1. I was like yesterday, I was like they know dealers registered yesterday. But actually some did. But But today, tomorrow is when people are like, okay, it's me, what are we going to do? Oh, that's in two weeks. Oh, let's go. We got my

Kyle Mountsier: 2:12

wife goes. The kids feel like it's so far away and so close all at the same time. I'm like, I totally feel the same exact way.

Paul J Daly: 2:20

I think it's just one of the reasons that we're so prepared. So much more prepared this year than we were last year just because you know, it's second time around at the same venue. So we kind of got it locked in. We have a lot to do still. But I feel like last year it was like we were having a soda con like last week with our level of preparedness. Exactly what it was. Yeah. Oh, so yeah, panel prep calls go and shot. Oh, I was on a great panel prep call yesterday it was the fixed ops hiring panel prep call. And Dan shine, the senior editor of automotive news is going to be moderating that and I was on with Adam Robinson, Liza Borches Patrice Banks and I was like man, this is another panel that I hope I don't miss but I know I have to miss like,

Kyle Mountsier: 3:01

Oh, no. That was awesome. It's the worst when you have to miss the other panels that you're like, I want to know what they're saying. Did you know

Paul J Daly: 3:10

that one in four hires comes through hire out in automotive comes through hire ologies platform. You are kidding me?

Kyle Mountsier: 3:19

That's unbelievable.

Paul J Daly: 3:20

It is or applications. It's not It's like one in four. So Adam Robinson CEO founder of higher ology. He's got a couple things. He's got a 30,000 foot view that like just kind of opened up in that panel prep. I was like, oh, okay, we're gonna learn a thing. Wow. Yeah, there's a ton of data there for you any panel perhaps yesterday, didn't

Kyle Mountsier: 3:40

been talking to Joe Bassam. He's, he's got he's on Eastern handles. We were chatting this morning. He's Easterns automotive Easterns automotive. He's got some franchise stores some use car stores. He has a roll up kind of like strategy super smart tech guy knows us cards inside now. You know he's been he's gonna be chatting with myself and Brian Kramer about us car strategies and growth there. And then he can flip over and he's doing a tech style talk with effective and clairvoyant about the future of addressable marketing and authenticated users for for, you know, audience strategies across like OTT and CTV you know,

Paul J Daly: 4:20

if he has a couple of new words for introverts, it ends of the spectrum right there. We got hiring technicians on one side and user authentication on the other side. Jimmy Douglas, we did a podcast with him yesterday, me you and Michael Cirillo. And he was like, did you know that two out of the 10 top Evie dealers used car Evie dealers in the country are going to be at a soda con. I was like, I didn't know that. Point. 1% I was like, it's turning into a thing. I'm so excited. As you can tell. All right, let's talk about some news. This. This is a really fun one. Ford is introducing a new Ford University which is basically a cutting edge AI powered training platform. You aimed at training dealer staff, and helping them with customer interactions and product knowledge the platform is designed with get this cinematic storytelling. And this, this cinematic storytelling covers everything from Ford's history to detailed technical breakdowns of vehicle features. They're using AI, it's powered on GPT and what's the other that's GPT. And think it's Microsoft's thing. Can't remember. Basically gives perf personal feedback on quote unquote missions that simulate customer interactions that actually Oh, copilot, Microsoft's copilot, thank you so much, Nathan for popping that in there. It actually went it does like roleplay and it reads your facial expressions and tells you whether or not you were a little too happy on that one, you're an authentic and it gives you immediate feedback on that. So you know, speech nuances use of filler words like, um, it's launching in US dealerships and was going to expand to include technical staff. By the year the end, here's a quote from Abby, Viet, Vitor Global Director for training and productivity says it is very much an opportunity for us to completely reimagine how our dealer training is done today. And they would not say how much it cost.

Kyle Mountsier: 6:16

Man, I'm a little sad, because we got invited to go I know on day and see this in action and like be a part of a little like in house day at the Ford headquarters, but we just could not make it work with our with our schedules, we're actually going to get a demo this week after ASOTU CON. So we'll try and like bring this story round and tell a little bit more of like the insider scoop of exactly how it looks, feels and interacts. But, Ninja, we were actually talking about this yesterday how, with Jimmy actually, how, especially when it comes to EVs, that the necessity of education, not just on like how to approach a person, but how to understand the vehicles is going to be so much higher at the dealership level. And so I think this, you know, I haven't seen inside of it, but it's probably a big step as to how they can get the knowledge transfer necessary. Because, you know, if you've ever taken OEM training in the past, you know, it is drudgery, it is tough, it is not great. And so it sounds like they've gone above and beyond to create an experience that's actually worth doing so that you can get the knowledge necessary to do the sales cycle.

Paul J Daly: 7:27

So I was I didn't tell you this, we didn't have time to talk. The Education Director of the MRA A, which is marine Retailers Association of America, it's basically NADA for boats and power sports. Stop by the office. And yeah, and trying to bring those lanes a little closer together love people more than you love boats, the water, power sport, but I don't know. But basically, they were showing me this AI tool that they built to train their dealers. And they've been building it for a year based on their education platform. And it was kind of like in its early stages, but it reminds me of this I mean, this is only tech space. But um it's pretty cool. This is going to change it and help a lot of people move forward. Speaking of moving forward, segue oh boy well, some wheels fast some wheels take off this is first of all I want to say this is like almost a direct poll from our morning email because it was so good. And I wanted to talk about the story but I was like I'm just gonna use their words because I have to use it. If you don't get on board email and got absolutely go to a soda.com get the email. It is so much fun every day. And here we go. Some wheels take off faster than a teenager after curfew. And others linger awkwardly like guests at a party long after the music has stopped. The latest study from icy car shows when it comes to clearing out inventory not all cars are created equal. We're going to talk about the list of the 10 fastest selling and that's 10 slowest moving models on dealer lists. So hybrids no surprise leading the charge. toyota highlander hybrid is the fastest selling new car at 14.2 days on the market and let me just read out a bit of this list if you're just listening it's not No surprise here. We got a grand highlander hybrid number one number two again this surprised me a little bit Mercedes Benz G class

Kyle Mountsier: 9:17

with like an average selling price of 212,000. That'll Land Rover but that was tricky. Okay, so the Land Rover and the Mercedes Benz are tricky because the tires are on order, then they don't actually sit as inventory on lots. Gonna give them a pass on the

Paul J Daly: 9:33

day they hit the lot is the day they're gone because they never hit a lot. All right. Well, let's back up. Listen here. Starting at number four. We have a Toyota Sienna hybrid. GMC Canyon, Chevy Colorado comprises both of those. Those are a little bit Toyota grande Highlander, Cadillac Escalade, and then we have Toyota, Toyota, Toyota, Toyota, Toyota, Volvo, Toyota, Toyota, Toyota Cadillac, the top at the bottom. Let's go bottom 20 The slowest slowest to go EVs obviously slowest in the new car market. All the slowest selling cars are taking 90 or more days to sell with the top ranked Jeep Cherokee taking more than three times the 54 day average at 169.7 days so the bottom 20 I guess this is an order from like the bottom of the list up would be a Jeep Cherokee Mercedes Benz it's their Evie GMC Acadia, Hyundai Santa Fe, navigator Infiniti Infiniti Lexus I'm not going to read

Kyle Mountsier: 10:35

the rest of the list Ford Mustang years there you know Buick all the mock Lincoln's yeah

Paul J Daly: 10:42

you know if the hybrid that's an interesting one I didn't even know they made that and even though they made that either maybe that's apparently no one knows they make it and probably no one knows to even have one to sell on the lot which is why it's sitting there in the back

Kyle Mountsier: 10:53

Oh no. Yeah, I mean, you know, the interesting one to me is that the like the top use car being Lexuses like the I think the top three are all Lexus and you know that's a Toyota brand but Lexus on the used car market is more attractive because you have a lower cost basically Highline Toyota right you know, and then and then on the on the slowest to sell like that's been it. I don't know what the trend line is on that but the majority of those have been that way since I started in the industry in 2009. It's like, you get a Jeep Grand Cherokee on trade you're like oh man Cherokee, just a Jeep Cherokee or Jeep Cherokee? Yeah, not the grand different now a little smaller. Yeah, I

Paul J Daly: 11:38

think that feel like that they've kind of lost their identity. That whole like that whole like middle group of Jeeps. You're like middle Yeah, what do they call it wrangler still rockin wranglers Wrangler? Right? Get the wagon here in the Wrangler the two that stand out now. Yep. All right. We're gonna find things

Kyle Mountsier: 11:55

fast. Oh, my goodness. Segue, fun

Paul J Daly: 11:58

and dangerous all at the same time. Oh,

Kyle Mountsier: 12:01

dangerous. So at the top of their game, Walmart and Roblox are first in the Pioneer accessible virtual e commerce as they're calling it launching a collaborative platform where users can purchase real life items have them shipped to their home through an immersive, immersive Roblox experience. So if you're not familiar with Roblox online virtual gaming, popular with the the little one kids, the teens and the younger. The partnership introduces Walmart discovered on Roblox allowing users to buy physical products from a virtual store that mirrors Walmart's online shopping experience. So basically, what happens is you're in you're in the robots experience and then like, a mini web browser kind of comes up in like, inset into a computer, and you can shop online, which is like it's still so weird to me. I might I don't know. Isn't that what you're supposed to do on Walmart online anyway,

Paul J Daly: 12:57

I know. It's got 3d Like, like product twins or whatever.

Kyle Mountsier: 13:01

The thing is, is you can try it on your Roblox characters, especially for any clothing.

Paul J Daly: 13:06

If you've ever seen a Roblox character, it doesn't look anything like a human body nothing.

Kyle Mountsier: 13:11

The initiative is targeting users 13 And older so your kid's gonna be buying stuff in the US featuring products designed in collaboration and this is the key with Roblox creators like Sarah book slash I don't know how to say that maybe you know and and then MD 17 RB LX for Roblox so

Paul J Daly: 13:32

love that guy.

Kyle Mountsier: 13:33

I don't know who Yeah, we have no clue who these people are. We are total like you know, millennial almost Boomer you know, probably

Paul J Daly: 13:40

I mean there is a generation in between the two of those Kyle Yeah, that's my generation Well listen, I miles daily 70 miles the only 70 You know I always tell my son miles are 17 Who is like in Roblox the very beginning he doesn't play anymore. Haven't played in years. But man, he could own that joint if he just stayed with it. But I think this is a step like Walmart is a constant innovator when it comes to like being in front of this and they always seem like the sleeper, but they understand like buyer behavior, they understand where their customers are at. And this this little mash up with Roblox makes so much sense because like the Roblox audience is definitely a large part of the Walmart art audience. And even if they don't sell a ton of stuff, like these little innovations, like they're going to figure it out. And I wonder, but I also wonder what kind of data they get from from like, from blog articles, a lot of for sure.

Kyle Mountsier: 14:39

I don't know, questions. I like to ask him. What's this data play on the backend?

Paul J Daly: 14:43

There is one for sure. We just don't know what it is yet. So I mean, we'll be making its way to the auto industry anytime soon. I don't think so. I mean, we had our little Metaverse stint. I think we'll get back to augmented reality. I think that's really what's going to end up being the real players like you put on the Ray Ban. And you kind of look at features and check out a car but yeah, this is fun to talk about and that's a

Kyle Mountsier: 15:05

good collab. You know, collab coach, tell folks in the audience, it's retail. There you go.

Paul J Daly: 15:11

And if you didn't know, automotive is retail so called retail auto, your retailer, you serve people, we give them what they want you make them feel good about their purchasing or take care of them afterwards. So we do around here we'll see you tomorrow, go to soda con.com

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