Parts Suppliers Pinched, Public Distrust of Autonomy, Tesla Semi’s New Record

Paul Daly: 0:01Thursday, already, it's already Thursday. My gosh, soda was over like a week ago. Today we're talking about parts suppliers getting pinched public distrust of our autonomy, and Tesla's new semi record. The people really want a semi. Not

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:16

a half of a record. I got a half a record.

Paul Daly: 0:21

It's a record every other time. Every other time.

Unknown: 0:25

That's the record. Oh,

Paul Daly: 0:26

man, so I still feels like summer up here and I'm not happy about it.

Kyle Mountsier: 0:32

It's it's like we got two more days of 88 degree weather and then we full on plummet.

Paul Daly: 0:39

Okay, so we're in this we're in the same boat. It must be like a northeast. Yeah, it was like 87 yesterday. I'm like, why is our air conditioner? It's

Kyle Mountsier: 0:46

not beyond and then and then on Saturday. It's like lows of 3940 highs of 61. Yeah,

Paul Daly: 0:53

so I think you're lower than I am. I think my low is read the mid mid upper 40s Oh, you're terrible. I cleaned out the wood pellet fireplace thing that we have over the weekend. I'm ready for fall straight I'm ready.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:03

I'm ready to go eyes are falling a sweater and nice little jacket. You know, whatever

Paul Daly: 1:09

it is people people might ask some questions if we're gonna have sweat sweaters and like hoodies and stuff in the asoto Swag Shop. I think so. I think we're not but right now we do have long sleeve tees. Are they on? Yeah, long sleeve tees are on the store. You can see Yeah, there's not a ton of opportunity

Kyle Mountsier: 1:24

there for early fall. Like throw that over a t shirt. Perfect. Yes,

Paul Daly: 1:29

sir. Yes, we're building out the swag store a little bit more because we had a lot of offerings at a soda con we had a killer Swag Shop, multiple color prints and whatever shirt you want to be with these come in these more than cars shirts that people really liked. So we'll build that out but there's still a lot of great stuff on there. You can go to what does it shop.asoto.com and see the shoe laces and the things like returning turn into a fashion brand which is kind of our thing. Yeah, like the retail well let's let's we gotta retail some things. Oh, man. We got a new panel. Released what last night that is now on on the internet on YouTube on LinkedIn elevating an industry on amazon prime. So this is the one that got that was like kind of an in your face panel. We have a trailer in there of a new Amazon Prime series called repurposed, which was created by our two guests. John Sacco. Owner of Sierra he's in the metals business recycling business and our good old friend troublemaker Darren don't check out the panel the trailers embedded in the panel and then we have a discussion and John Sacco ain't taking no crap from anybody let me just

Kyle Mountsier: 2:30

he was coming in telling us all that everybody was like wow a metal recycling here we go let's go by the has an opinion.

Paul Daly: 2:37

Right especially when you think about sustainability to hear like about how recycled metals work with automotive when he's like, Did you know your car is the most sustainable thing that you own?

Kyle Mountsier: 2:49

We're like as an industry we shouldn't be talking about that right there

Paul Daly: 2:54

that all fired up he's like you know everybody's like you know making a big deal over like we use this soy plastic thing for an interior parties like 90% of the car is recycled already. Already you're talking about this little like half a percent thing and like you forgetting the fact that most of the cars recycled the brake even the brake pads and all the housings and the casings and the frames it's like most of it is like aluminum that existed like back in like way way way way long ago. Awesome. Go check it out. Also have our Soto concessions podcast, which I watched my first and listen to my first one yesterday. And it was awesome. I've listened

Kyle Mountsier: 3:29

to like three or four at this point. They're all good. I love listening to you and Jordan and Michael Cirillo all of which are you know, unique viewpoints on how to conduct like these quick seven to 10 minute pods fun. It is so good. You can find them on a so tube ASO to U dot V E or search for a so do podcast anywhere you get podcasts. So do Khan sessions is where it's

Paul Daly: 3:50

all right. What else? That's it. Oh my gosh, Premiere coming up. We're gonna have a link up and a LinkedIn event, October 11. Next week, episode two is going to drop. So you can go to more than cars.tv watch episode one. But you know, we'll have more about that tomorrow. So there we have it. All right. We gotta get into some news here. So a little bit of a lack of drama today which I'm really digging, right let's just information as we go into the you aw update. All right. The ongoing UAW strike against the Detroit three nearly 30% of suppliers have initiated layoffs. With this number expected to surpass surpass 60% By mid October reveals a Mima which is motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association survey. The strike that started on September 15 is significantly impacted the auto chain amplifying financial pressures from the pandemic and material shortages. So here's the deal, more than 50% of idled suppliers anticipate needing at least a week to return to pre strike production levels just right now. Mica has requested yeah as of right now, maybe as requested the White House to speed up commercial vehicle cross At the US Mexico border, due to added security checks because of the migrant issues, because it's slowing down transport from parts and supplies coming from outside the US manufacturers. So we're they're starting to feel that pinch when they used to have a little bit of leniency there. To this point, UAW and OEMs haven't been feeling much financial pain. This is a shirt. This is a second article, Wall Street Journal article talked about the fact that, yeah, it's kind of a deal. And there's a lot of drama, it's got all the makings of a great strike, right, sound bites, and enthusiastic workers and drama. But they were said during the 2019 strike, GM lost one an estimated $1 billion over the first two weeks, whereas the losses in this strike have barely even reached 200 million. A lot of that is due to the strategy of striking only certain plants in certain places and trying to keep a limited number of workers on strike and a majority of workers at work. So it's like a lot of noise right now. But they're saying like, from a financial standpoint, not a ton of impact.

Kyle Mountsier: 6:00

Yeah, the fact that it's not an all out strike, and there's plenty of ground inventory and inventory at holding lots to deliver that and still receive close dollars, you know, that they were in a good place. But I think we're starting to get to that, like, close, you know, I said three to four weeks originally was kind of my estimation of when it was going to start to sting a little bit. And, you know, if they lost two weeks, they lost 200 million, you're looking at 400 million in the first four weeks, you know,

Paul Daly: 6:34

I think, well, if they keep swinging, strikes, right, you think the velocity will pick

Kyle Mountsier: 6:37

up, the velocity is going to pick up you're gonna get into that fourth week parts suppliers are really gonna see the pinch, you might start to see day supply of vehicles on ground on the on the retailer side to be different. And so you're gonna, you're gonna see a little bit more like level of panic in the US car pricing market that's going to be influenced by new car availability. You know, those things as we breach that four week, which would be I think that the 12 will start to get a little bit uncomfortable.

Paul Daly: 7:04

It's it's really, I mean, it's a unique strategy that we haven't seen before. And remember, the UAW has, I think it's like a $500 million strike fund, something like that. It's a lot of money. No, maybe the 500 and then workers who were on strike, get $500 a week out of that fund. So they're obviously as the OEMs know, that's being depleted, it increases leverage on the other side. So everyone's kind of like playing this little game where it just feels like a big thing right now, but it's a lot of talk. So hopefully, we don't have to get into the real painful parts, and everyone can kind of get what they want out of it. And we can keep moving forward speaking and moving forward. Segue. Public Trust in self driving cars is waning, as shown by a study from JD Power and MIT which distrust is growing due to perceived deceptive marketing practices, and the frequent Robo taxi accidents that doesn't help. The 2023 Mobility confidence index study indicates declining trust in autonomous vehicles or AVS over the past years. Currently, the index is only 37 out of 100. It's pretty low. First time Robo taxi riders tend to have positive reviews on AVS but negative media coverage of deployment issues counters the sentiment on autonomous vehicle crashes, some fatal are prompting greater attention from legislators and regulators. And the researchers at MIT suggests a pause and reassessment of AV technology to address foundational issue so MIT obviously, a college not a business, so they're like, Yeah, let's just stop all this.

Kyle Mountsier: 8:37

Like, just hit pause on the whole Yeah. And then.

Paul Daly: 8:43

And also to blame or, you know, from the report says misleading naming conventions such as Tesla's autopilot or full self driving cars confusion, no surprise there with 22% of study participants erroneously believing Tesla cars can operate fully autonomously.

Kyle Mountsier: 9:02

Yep. Yeah. I will say like just, I was this morning watching the news while I was running, and there was a crash in just north of where I'm at is called it was in Gallatin. And it was a a autonomous or self driving vehicle that ran into a business with the driver actually inside the car. So we're starting

Paul Daly: 9:29

to see the safety driver inside. Oh, no, is the passenger vehicle

Kyle Mountsier: 9:33

Yeah, the passenger vehicle was self driving turned on and lost control and, and and major accident. So, you know, we're, again, this is still it's still a small sliver. But the bigger issue is that when it's autonomous, when it's self driving, the manufacturer starts to hold the bill and that's where I think this like pullback and the trust level from the consumer side, and from the legislation and regulation. Inside is having the biggest question mark it's not you know, volume of accidents at this point. It's where do we put the blame? And is the technology ready to have enough trust in the marketplace and on the roads to be able to lean into it and so you know, this is this is what like everybody has been kind of questioning on what's the go to market strategy of autonomous vehicles you know,

Paul Daly: 10:20

we're going to be in Phoenix in just a few weeks Yeah, you know where I'm going with that why my used car week if the venue is within the radius which it may be, we have to look into that you maybe you and I will do our first podcast from the

Kyle Mountsier: 10:35

back when I look we're just going to take a ride through within three miles.

Paul Daly: 10:39

Oh, yeah, we got to the venue like ride or whatever. Whatever. Speaking of taking a ride now taking a ride

Kyle Mountsier: 10:49

segway is a heck of a ride because Tesla's Evie semi truck clocked over 1000 miles in a single day. It was a 24 hour real world tests challenging skeptics and outdoing competitors in the NA CFE is run on less program. So Tesla's achievement challenges Bill Gates previous statements doubting the viability of electric semi trucks for long haul distances, saying they would probably never work because of battery weight. And even just last month, Nikola motors new CEO, Michael Lowe Scheller challenged skeptics by stating I defy anyone to find another zero emission vehicle truck, anywhere that can run up to 900 miles a day, after the Nikolas hydrogen fuel cell trucks traveled more than 900 miles in a day. There the NA CFE has been monitoring a few electric trucks under real world conditions and is going to come out with a little little 18 Day comprehensive insights study. So we'll have to take keep an eye out for that. But look, shots fired, you can't do 900,000

Paul Daly: 11:57

needed one more little thing to brag about can you imagine like feather? Oh, Bill Gates said we can't all right, check this up. Oh, here, hold my hold my, you know, yeah, Twitter post, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta go. You gotta go send a picture over here. You know, I think this is probably the best, most effective real world deployment of autonomy. In general, you just think of the amount of energy and carbon and human element and human level failure is moving all this cargo across the country and loading and unloading I've always thought this is just one of the best deployments for autonomous technology, especially if they get to the point. I mean, it'll be a while before they're just driving themselves with no one in them. Yep. But But I, I love the fact that these trucks would be autonomous and loading and unloading, it just means much more efficiency. I mean, it's better, maybe it's better for the environment. I don't know. I'm not gonna here's the here's this is another. I think it'll make that cheaper for consumers. I wanted to

Kyle Mountsier: 12:57

look this up because like vehicle weight at the the passenger vehicle on EVs has been a big question mark. And like, this was something I was thinking like, man, a bunch of these semi trucks that are just heavier, rolling around. But it's interesting, because of the way that a semi truck is put together, typically, an unladen semi truck weight, so nothing on it is anywhere between 25 and 35,000 pounds already today. Tesla semi truck 27,000 pounds plus tires.

Paul Daly: 13:29

So like Yes.

Kyle Mountsier: 13:30

So right, well, right in the range, right, right in the range of what another survey says

Paul Daly: 13:36

because of the size needed of the engine and the transmission, like all that heavy stuff. It's like actually, now it's electric motors in a battery. So yeah, much different than a pass. It's

Kyle Mountsier: 13:47

a total. That's so that's a really interesting like I see, I still see the path to commercial vehicle adoption with EVs show. I mean, we see these large companies like Amazon, and like Domino's, adopting these wholesale across a lot of their vehicle lines, and I just see the adoption curve, deepening through those methods first, rather than like super deep into consumer methods. So this is just like another feather in the cap of hey, we might actually be able to pull that off. I wonder how long it takes to charge one of those things, at least overnight.

Paul Daly: 14:18

But you know, when you look in the article, if you click through and you go to it, you'll see the show. There's like a graph that shows like when it charged and how much it charged. Because there were like, some small stops were like just charged for like, you know, a little bit for a little bit. Yeah, charge all the way back up. Because you think about you don't need to. You just need to get to your destination whenever you have to make your stops to the next place. Exactly. I know. Well, it's a fun, brave new world that we're living in. We hope you have an amazing Thursday. If you need anything damn reaches out, follow us. So do on LinkedIn too, because there's lots of great content and conversation happening in that community. See you tomorrow.

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