Best Dealership, Tesla's Cybercab, and the Silver Economy

Paul J Daly  0:07  
Coming into Friday. Oh, coming into Friday. I didn't start the recording yet. October 11. I feel this Friday's got energy coming off best dealerships to work for. Last night, Tesla had an event, and what else we talking about, I go, one more thing. Oh, j over I'm sorry. Over 50 is old people now,

Kyle Mountsier  0:28  
I know I shouldn't have said it. I'm sorry. It was, it was a 40 and slip, you know, is a 40 and slip.

Paul J Daly  0:34  
Listen as a 45 year old who has made it to the next bracket, who now, like the 44 is the cutoff, folks, once you hit 45 they put you in the next survey bracket. And I'm well, is

Kyle Mountsier  0:45  
that what that is, people, 50 year old girl, drop down, and you're 45 to 55

Paul J Daly  0:50  
is that 40? That is no 40, it's like 45 to 54 on a lot of them, yeah. Oh

Kyle Mountsier  0:54  
my goodness, he hit the drop down.

Paul J Daly  0:56  
I was like, I guess. Okay, it okay. I could care less, though it's

Kyle Mountsier  1:03  
almost like, it's like, I don't know if, I don't know if you feel this way, but it's like, at some point I shouldn't be called a millennial anymore, because I feel like that term has just been like, so like, beat up that it's like, graduate, you get to be not a millennial again,

Paul J Daly  1:18  
right? At what age are we? Not the millennial generation? Because at some point where, like, you know, you think now, like, two generations ahead of, like, Gen X, you're like, the greatest generation, right? They're gonna be 90 year old millennials, right? Like, they're gonna be past it by then, guys, I think we're That ship has sailed, right? Like, the eighth place trophies and all that stuff. I think we worked through those issues.

Kyle Mountsier  1:38  
We worked I really think we have, we've gotten through it. I think we've worked through that

Paul J Daly  1:42  
like the world has shown you what it actually takes a meme

Kyle Mountsier  1:46  
for eighth place trophies, because I feel like I need that in my life, that, just like totally your shelf in the back definitely embody the spirit of someone who expects an eighth place trophy. Kyle, oh my goodness.

Paul J Daly  2:01  
I mean, there'd be a great segue into the trophy thing in the auto news story that really would. We got to talk about it. I know. I know.

Kyle Mountsier  2:09  
Oh, there's Shelly. I saw Shelly last night in Nashville. Look at that. Ready. Good morning.

Paul J Daly  2:15  
World is just coming together. We have two new podcasts released right now in the dirt. We call them in the dirt by ASOTU. And these are from the time that J, Jordan, J C, I was going to call them Jordan Cox on our team, Head of Community, spent at their grand opening 45 Wait, what got 45 million views on Oh,

Kyle Mountsier  2:37  
Honda pro Jason. He has 45 million views on YouTube. Yeah, gosh,

Paul J Daly  2:42  
oh yeah. There he is. There. He's right on the screen, um, check out. Go to in the dirt, buy ASOTU, or just in the dirt ASOTU, it'll come up. Check these out. They're a lot of fun, and you're gonna learn a little something. And rush flips is out there, and be like, That's my boy. That's my kid. 45 million views. Folks can't argue with you can't argue with the internet, can you? Can? Our internet is undefeated. This, I would argue this probably some of the best content with 45 million views, because there's a lot of garbage out there with 45 million views. Yeah, for sure. Okay, let's keep moving. Before we get in trouble. I'm going to release our next episode of more than cars, the Docu series where Kyle and I go across the country to tell the truth about car dealers. This one is the truth about Mohawk Chevrolet in just north of Albany, New York. And boy, did we have a lot of fun in this one. This kind of really kicked off another level of competitiveness, I will say. And I think it's going to stick. But amazing, amazing dealership, amazing leadership. And he's crushing it, Katie crushing it. And it's so much fun to watch. November 13 is when it's releasing. So circle your calendar. We hope you can be with us for the premiere. It'll be in the middle of the day so you can watch it. It's like a 20 some minute episode. It's a great break in the day. Check it out. Be in the comments. Have a lot of fun with us. We're just putting a little marker out there so you can, like, circle it on your calendar, and you and I, boy, this is kicking off, like a six week travel barrage.

Kyle Mountsier  4:04  
It's a thing.

Paul J Daly  4:05  
It's like, like, six, the next six weeks, you and I are going to be hauling right, and a lot of the ASOTU team as well, right, like, not just Nathan and Jordan and am J and Al. We're going to be in Virginia celebrating the CMA Carter, Myers automotive Liza Borches group, 100 year anniversary, folks,

Kyle Mountsier  4:23  
100 years unbelievable. A lot of 100 year anniversaries have about to happen. Just so, you know, like, okay, like, automotive news, auto news,

Paul J Daly  4:32  
oh my gosh, automotive news and CMA started in the same Isn't that wild?

Kyle Mountsier  4:36  
There's something there. I think there's something there. You know,

Paul J Daly  4:41  
we're doing that? We're going to be with our friends at cars commerce in Chicago. We're going to be in at Beaver Toyota in Georgia. We're going to be with our friends at Roman. I can't wait to meet them. We're going to be. Where else we going to be? We're going to be in Austin, Texas, a T, A, E, comms event or the open door keynote. So we got to work on our dance moves. We're gonna be in Florida. Oh, my God, and then it's gonna be Thanksgiving. Yeah, thanks

Kyle Mountsier  5:08  
to places that we were at, Paul, what was that? Speaking of places that we were at,

Paul J Daly  5:13  
this is you're sending the text messages from this place last night. Rip the

Kyle Mountsier  5:17  
first story from you, because I was there. Audi Tyson's Corner has secured the top spot in the 2024 Automotive News, best dealerships to Work For list. Here's some of the the other other things out there. So Audi Tyson's Corner was ranked five overall in 2023 but climbed the number one spot in 2024 the it's a pencil store, luxury store, the Penske store, yeah, okay, located near DC and the the GM said this recognition is a testament to our commitment to our team's well being. Here's what, here's what was really cool. Like, as they announced this, they were like, Oh no, no, you don't understand the way that they celebrate birthdays was mentioned in the survey results. The way that they celebrate their team was mentioned on like, monthly and quarterly macro cadences. Last night. It was really cool to like the La Fontaine group was there, and then there was this whole group from the Tysons area of DC, and it was like competitive cheering happening when one of their dealerships was

Paul J Daly  6:25  
I thought, I thought you were gonna say it was like that scene from anchor band. No, with the two news crews met each other. No,

Kyle Mountsier  6:31  
no. It was unbe like they had cowbells there. It was the most automotive news thing I think I've ever seen. Usually don't get those two words in the same sentence. It was ruckus. Well, because it was like 80% dealers in the room, and it makes a lot more sense. They couldn't keep they couldn't keep control. Dan shine does a trivia, if you've never been to this thing, he does, like, all the trivia. And so there was, like six trivia things, and that was ruckus too. And so it was really fun. I'm so jealous. Thanks to the cars crew, and even for CDK for inviting me out and making sure that we had a seat to kind of have a front row to recognize these great dealers, you know. And

Paul J Daly  7:13  
thanks to our friends at automotive news for doing this every There you go, right, like getting getting the people to the front. I think one of the things that it's easy to forget, and I don't want to take away a thing, not an i Nothing from the people who won, but we know that not everybody applies for this, not everybody's nominated for this. And for every greatest dealership to work for on this list, there's another one out there that's also great to work for that we don't know about, which is the coolest thing about this industry is that even if you don't, you're not in that ecosystem to for this competition. We know that there are so many others that hold that level of standard, that are that enthusiastic about one another and their communities, and they're impacting the country. Right now, today, as we're recording this show, there are literally hundreds of 1000s of people greeting customers, taking care of them, involved in the community, like right now, at this moment, and that's a pretty encouraging thing. Yeah, it's amazing. So many things that were amazing. I'm gonna call it amazing. I'm interested

Kyle Mountsier  8:11  
to hear cautious photos. Yeah, I

Paul J Daly  8:14  
so. Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, introduced the futuristic cyber cab. They're calling it, an autonomous taxi aimed for 2026 full production during an event last night in Hollywood showcasing Tesla's vision for a high volume self driving autonomous vehicles, the cyber cab, they say it's going to get to below $30,000 nobody takes that with a grain of salt. It's easy to say that when it's two years away, features butterfly doors, lacks traditional human controls, no steering wheel, no pedals, etc. With a Tesla rideshare service, like Uber app, but it's also available for someone to buy. You can buy it. And they even talked about, if you want to, if you're an Uber driver now, buy a few of these and become what he called a little Tesla, a little shepherd of your cyber cab flock. It's pretty cool.

Unknown Speaker  9:00  
It's actually really smart. I actually

Paul J Daly  9:02  
saw someone on LinkedIn. Do they change their profile to Tesla semi Shepherd? Because they own like 50 they ordered 50 semis. So production is planned for the Austin, Texas plant with an anticipated high volume output. Obviously, if they hit those marks, it will be he envisions a future where cyber cab handles ride share duties autonomously for Uber or Lyft. And he says the future should look like the future, which is why they designed the cars the way they do.

Kyle Mountsier  9:29  
They do look really cool. You got to go check out the full like photo list of this thing. They just look cool like I they look like they should, you know, if your drive, if you're in a fully autonomous car with nose with no controls. It should look like the thing is something that we haven't seen before, and it absolutely does. So I'm thrilled by it. Hey, is it going to come in 2026 is it going to be under 30 grand? Who knows, but it's cool to think about. You

Paul J Daly  9:55  
know, on LinkedIn you can see a lot of like first person videos and things there, they did release another V. Article they hadn't talked about called the robo van, which is a like, I think it's like a 15 passenger van. It looks like a Star Wars transport people like, inside face one another. It's like two tiered seating. But at the event, they built this entire set. It was 30 acres. It was a 30 acre set where they had 20 cyber cabs, and the people who were out there could just take rides in the cyber cab. You get in, you tap which part of the set you want to go to. They had, like, West world, they had a few things, and they also had some great videos you can see on like, how it would be deployed, which made sense. And they they also had their humanoid robots out mingling with the crowd. It was another big announcement. They were, I saw one where they were playing like rock paper scissors, with, with, with some of the guests. They were serving drinks behind the bar like, literally, the robots were the bartenders that's on West world, like they had cowboy hats on. Like it it was, it felt like, like a Tesla event is back, right? And love or hate it, think he's going to deliver on the promises or not. I do think, though they have delivered on some promises, it's

Kyle Mountsier  10:56  
art as it's art impossible, right? Like, there always has to be someone doing art, if possible, and that person probably will do it. There may be other people that do it in a similar or slightly different timeline, but, like, our world always needs art possible, yeah.

Paul J Daly  11:11  
I mean, there's, there's an element. A comment from Doug Klassen, didn't he just release the optimist robot for 20 to $30,000 per piece, like a butler or a maid. Yeah, that. I mean, that's another thing he said at the event. He said he envisions these robots being in the 20 to $30,000 price point. So, like, you could have one your house, but we'll see, right? Like, all this is grain of salt. It's Elon Musk. He's an optimist when it comes to timelines. He actually said that. He goes, Uh, he's like, I've heard, I've heard that I can be a little optimistic on time frames. Like he said, it like poking fun with himself. Um, but here's what I think we as the auto industry need to be thinking about. This conversation feels very similar to when we were having four or five years ago, when we were talking about autonomy and thinking of transportation by cost per mile. Is a big conversation we were having four or five years ago. It went away back but it's coming back around with, I think, a much clearer vision of how that could be possible. And you know, they were showing pictures of like, Hey, would it be nice if the cities look more like this? And they show like a football stadium, and then instead of parking lots all around it, it was like parks and and they showed an airport instead of the big parking garages, it was like green space and parks. And basically he said, we're taking that in lot, out of parking lot, is what he said, as a joke. But this, I mean, well, the point is, you have a car that operates maybe 10 hours a week. He said, right, when what if that thing operated? You know, five times, maybe 10 times more. How many fewer cars where we need to, which the auto industry goes, Whoa, yeah. So what's it gonna do to personal car ownership? I mean, you can buy these personally, but it is a conversation that is like, back, like,

Kyle Mountsier  12:52  
I haven't heard it yet. We're talking about it next few years, and let me tell you big conversation, but, you know, I think it'll be looped in there with the EV conversation. We'll see. I think people still like driving their car. Driving their cars, you know, oh,

Paul J Daly  13:04  
without it this, without a doubt, they show, like, a picture of, like, one of the videos, like, people get in the in the Tesla cab, or the the robo cab, and they bring their dog in there. I'm like, what's that thing smell like now, right? When the next person gets in. But they also showed that they in a couple more things. They introduce induction charging.

Unknown Speaker  13:22  
Oh, these

Paul J Daly  13:23  
are things that I haven't heard said on LinkedIn, or anything. Induction charging, so you don't have to plug it in. And they had a video where they were like robots cleaning the vehicle, not humanoid robots, but like, the car goes in, it pulls over the charger. The gull wing doors open up, and then, like all these arms come in, they vacuum the seats, a little buffer comes in, polishes the touchscreen glass. I

Kyle Mountsier  13:44  
was like, see that? Like, I don't know if you ever remember the original video of the Tesla battery swap, where it like, came in from the ground, yeah, oh my gosh. It kind of reminds me of that. It's like, Oh, that's cute. It's funny. It's

Paul J Daly  13:56  
funny. Talk about, yay. Fun to talk about. Speaking of things that are fun to talk about. Segway,

Kyle Mountsier  14:04  
we all know that Gen Z is reshaping consumer habits, obviously, but a new key demographic is kind of exposing itself. The over 50 population has a bunch of financial power and brand loyalty. Even the retail experts are calling it the silver economy, and it is a way to target individuals age 50 plus, offering tailored products in sectors like health, automotive and tourism. The group boasts high purchasing power, focusing on experiences and active lifestyles. Listen to this. By 2030 the population age 60 plus will surpass 1.4 billion globally creating vast market potential. The population of this group of baby boomers has a combined net worth of 70 trillion. What smart homes and E health are key to appealing to this group they want experience. They. Want consumer comfort, and they got money to spend. Y'all,

Paul J Daly  15:03  
I mean, this is, I mean, is this really news? Like, the older people have, the more money, the more

Kyle Mountsier  15:09  
money is

Paul J Daly  15:10  
that? Is that really? Well,

Kyle Mountsier  15:12  
I think, okay, so here's, here's what, here's what. I actually think

Paul J Daly  15:14  
the news is generation bigger. They have more wealth than previous

Kyle Mountsier  15:17  
generations. We've known that this generation is going to be in a retirement phase is going to be in a phase where they have more money and they have exposed income and they want experiences. And I think what's interesting about it is is we always see culture doing this over and over. It's in cycles millennial. You know, we kind of joked about millennials, but the graduating culture typically drives consumer interest, right? Because it's the most attractive culture to retailers. It's the ones. It's the culture cares what they think. Yeah, they're saying exactly the creative culture. So basically, whatever that culture is that's like graduating, kind of like the mid 20s culture drives the rest of culture, but they typically can't spend the money like the rest of of the generations. And so these older generations, as they're being driven by the culture, cultural experience, which is interesting, because Gen Z definitely loves experiential definitely loves creature comforts, right? It kind of transfers into this populous generation that has the money to spend. So I like that.

Paul J Daly  16:17  
You know, the the focus on experience that has not been a part of a 50 year old generation before, right, right? It's like, the focus and intentionality, the expectation of experience. It mentions automotive in here, and I'm kind of trying to think of like, what does that mean? Like, what does experience mean for an automotive it means

Kyle Mountsier  16:35  
these people still want to visit your store, they want to they want to have an emotional experience with a person, and they want it to be an experience. I

Paul J Daly  16:42  
think it's a great time for them to try their first Eb, if you ask me, a week little weekender. Speaking of weekenders, we're on our way to one right now. Look, whether you're on the lot over the weekend or you're at home, refreshing with your family. Pay attention to the people. We had so much fun with you this week. We will see you tomorrow

Unknown Speaker  17:12  
morning. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

‍