Self Driving Has 2 Court Dates, Dealer EV Bootcamp, Cybertruck Playing Dress Up

Paul Daly: 0:27Oh, just a split second late. The hat's already backwards today, which means we're working. That's how we roll. Today we're talking about some Evie stuff, court cases, dealers hosting days patrolling other pickup trucks. So it was kind of like a fun day in the news that

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:48

like a Tuesday roll that was like,

Paul Daly: 0:51

yeah. Friday and it wasn't? Well, the reason is, is because, like I realized I don't have my show notes up at all. While while I'm watching the show, which is a big no, no, because our show notes document. It's not like any other like Google sheet where you can just click it, and it pops open in three seconds. No, because our shownotes document basically includes all of our show notes from the beginning of the show, meaning it's about 700 pages, not even kidding.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:23

644 pages. Okay, how do we turn this into a book or book, an anthology, II make this into a cool book about the last two years of auto

Paul Daly: 1:34

Wow, gosh, what are we? Well, we can't get that much information in the jet GPT.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:39

But you can,

Paul Daly: 1:41

oh, he's got API connections. Okay. Okay, well, well, maybe we'll get back to that. But the cool thing about the show note is So, one, one of the we figured out the real power of the show notes was like late. That was, was it late last year, early this year, a gentleman named Jimmy Douglas reached out and sent a LinkedIn DM he's actually used to be the Director of Tesla's use car strategy and something else. And he reached out and we were going to be at the Reuters event. And he said, Hey, I just wanted to say hi to the guy that was talking about me on their show. And I was like, Oh, the Tesla guy reached out and I'm like, crap, what did we say? Well, because Colin, I was I was like, Is this a good thing or a bad thing? So we just searched it up, like, oh, yeah, that's what we started said about him like last December. And yeah, he's actually going to be at a soda con, we actually became pretty fast friends at the writers event. Really cool guy, we're excited to talk about some of the things he's doing. I think he's, he's stealth vote on a startup right now. And he kind of told us what it's about. And I think he's going to reveal his progress at a soda Con this year, September 26, and 27th. In Baltimore. Listen, you have to be there. You just have to be there. We're gonna have so many rooftops represented and so many industry leaders like Jeremy sharing things for the first time at this amazing venue where we're going to learn together when a workshop together, where to talk to actual practitioners who are doing fixed ops, and digital marketing and CVPs. All of them are going to be like opening up the treasure chest in a very collaborative environment. You can go to a soda con.com Right now, actually, Kyle, Cain had some things to say this morning about it.

Kyle Mountsier: 3:23

It just with the simplicity, and precision of Kentucky, gentle only David Cain can have with words, throw it up there. And we'll read it here. Because I told Kyle about it right before the show, man. So he says when I looked at the plans, the asoto team has put together for them their event next month, I can already feel FOMO setting in unfortunately, he can't make it he had prior commitments. We did ask him though, we did ask him. My friends, Paul. Jay, daily comments here, Mike Soileau. And Jordan Cox have chosen a new event path that may make some among us feel out of sorts, we get it, okay. But I encourage my friends and clients to embrace it, put a smile on your face and absorb the positive vibes. Here's the trigger sentence. This is great to have time to make plans and attend. And that is just like, it's true. You got 30 days, we do things in 30 day cycles in automotive actually, it was funny because we were talking to the venue and the hotel and they were like, Hey, is everybody going to kind of get their hotels? And we're like, yeah, we've we've sold more tickets already than what you guys have available? Oh, oh, that's right. Actually, the conference doesn't even exist till September 1.

Paul Daly: 4:39

Yeah. That's so true. Because we have, we have dealers who are close close with us. We're like they're going, they're speaking. They're like we're bringing 10 People from our store. We're bringing a whole truckload. And they're like, I should probably get tickets and start to think about travel. Right? That was last week. And we're like, oh, yeah, that's right. That's how it works around here. So yeah, we hope that you'll be in that group, go to a soda con.com Get your tickets, it is going to be a working party, I guess is the best way South by Southwest for retail automotive, and David Kane, we made one critical mistake with you this year. And it's the fact that we underestimated your level of pre booking and popularity because we thought we asked you early enough, but it wasn't. So this year after soda con 2023 We're gonna like get a date for 2024 and put our flag in the in the sand really quick and just scoop up all the people that we were just little behind the eight ball. Anything else we should talk about the news today? What?

Kyle Mountsier: 5:31

Speaking of being behind the eight ball,

Paul Daly: 5:33

we're gonna say maybe, maybe that was too good. Tesla is set to defend itself in its first trial involving an autopilot fatality crucial test for a CEO Elon Musk and the technology he's promoting so so I guess open handedly across the internet. The first of two trials scheduled for mid September in a California Court will scrutinize a 2019 crash, where a Tesla Model three veered off the highway struck a palm tree, and it burst into flames resulting in the death of the owner and some serious industry induced injuries to passengers. It accuses Tesla of knowingly selling a car with defective autopilot, they obviously have denied liability for that accident. And the other one, which were a Tesla ran into a semi truck, you probably remember that one as well. Um, you know, Tesla clearly states. They say they state it in the past. And they reiterated they said there is no self driving car on the road today. They're like, it doesn't exist. So another interesting point of the case is that it is positioning Elon Musk personally, as the leader of the engineering team behind the autopilot technology, obviously challenging his reputation as an engineering leader and putting him front and center in the allegations. So, you know, late last week, he was actually live streaming a test of the new full self driving beta version 12 where he apparently had to take control of the vehicle before it ran a red light. And also he pulled up Mark Zuckerberg address on his GPS. So he said it's not Daxing if you just Google it, he's like, I just googled it right there on the screen.

Kyle Mountsier: 7:11

Yeah, no, I like here's the thing. This one, they have called the full self driving a beta since the beginning. So it's been I mean, it's at least very clear to me, maybe it's because we're involved in auto that this has constantly been a test a trial, a doesn't work type thing, and that there have constantly been issues. Now, this is I think this is actually has broader impact to the industry. And this is why I'm paying attention to this to this case, I don't think it's as big a deal for Elon, he'll get past it at some level, like whether legally or by financially buying out or something like that. But it has massive implications for how automakers are held responsible as we go to more and more autonomy and vehicles. And so depending on what the court decides here, sets a precedent for future autonomy, whether that be full self driving, or partial self driving. And so as an industry, we should be paying attention to what the court says here, because it's going to dramatically change the way OEMs go to market. The way that dealers sell these vehicles the way that salespeople need to be aware of how they're talking about the technologies like radar cruise control that already exists in vehicles, because if OEMs begin to be liable for the accidents that happen on the road, that would be a massive shift in legislation that will totally change the landscape of automotive and the technology that it brings.

Paul Daly: 8:45

Well, we'll have to wait and see what happens. Whatever we're probably certain it won't be a it won't be a smooth ride. What to say good morning to our our good friend Bob Welby, who's just chiming in in the comments Good morning from commute time he says he's the Senior Director of Sales product and marketing operations at a little company we all know of called infinity and infinity is coming out with his really cool actually, we don't talk about infinity enough.

Kyle Mountsier: 9:11

No, we don't. All right,

Paul Daly: 9:13

maybe maybe this is enough

Kyle Mountsier: 9:14

to get some infinity.

Paul Daly: 9:16

We do Bob You just show this episode to your boss and be like see, I'm doing the hard work right now of getting out of the automotive troublemaker because it's really really hard to do these days. All right, let's move on to the next story. So this is a fun one right from the dealership world the front lines as the emergence of more and more EVs continue many progressive dealers are leaning into the trend by preparing themselves their teams and their communities for whatever's in store whatever that is full self driving that full Evie adoption hybrids, whatever. One dealer at the forefront is lies abortion as you know, or we have her on the show quite a bit. Good friend asoto investor and owner of Carter Myers automotive, a 23 plus store I think it's a 23 and growing it's hard to keep up store group headquartered in Charlottesville, Virginia who execute did a great idea last week you may have seen it on LinkedIn and Evie bootcamp. Here's we're gonna read a quote from Lise as post basically said welcome CMA Evie champions the 23 Evie bootcamp is taking place in Charlottesville with John Ellis from Bev everything Stewart Gardner from genuine Navy and Lena Lewis from Nature Conservancy Conservancy. It's kind of a neat little thread there are 40 Plus sales managers and Associates brought together 16, different EVs. So they brought them all to one spot for an Sobeys key is Hyundai's whatever, all the stuff, even some hybrids, I'm trying to read through this list, it's literally they have them all here, and so many more coming this year. While this is a private event, if you live in Charlottesville and want to stop by to see all the electric vehicle options in one place, come on to a GMC showroom, and be our guests, our team is ready to be your go to resource for all things electric car, why is this so amazing?

Kyle Mountsier: 10:53

It's it's genius one because like one of the knowledge gaps that we're going to have as as we continue to grow out and EVS is like we may get education locally to our brand, but maybe maybe not a broad education across the industry and across OEMs. And for a dealer group like this that's regionally focused, that has the opportunity to bring in, I think it was something like what was it 16, different EVs and hybrids, for the managers to understand across brands, exactly what other brands are doing and bringing technology to market, it's going to get, make them be better equipped to serve their communities and serve their customers. And bringing in some outside influence. We have John Ellis actually this morning gives, you know provides a lot of content to the industry both on the economic side and on the TV side. And and we actually weekly have some stat updates in our email. And so his insights and his understanding from his time at Cox into the Eevee market. And then I love the genuine ad and The Nature Conservancy. Conservancy, it actually like expands the the understanding of why EVs exist. It's not just in the auto side, that she actually brought in some people that were saying, hey, this, this actually impacts broader culture.

Paul Daly: 12:07

You think there are a few people in Virginia, that care about nature? Absolutely. Right. So they got to get there. They got the big hill up there. You know? Yeah, yeah. There's a big hill over there, Virginia, one of those.

Kyle Mountsier: 12:26

I like and I think, I mean, the real win here would be like, do this next month, and invite the whole community consumer day, just a massive thing.

Paul Daly: 12:37

I mean, because like when you really learn stuff, not when you learn it, you learn it when you teach it. Right. And so now you have all these managers that came in, like, do mini ones at the stores. I mean, they have a pretty, we just love it. Bravo. Thank you for showing us the way. Thank you for giving everybody just something to swing at and you know, a good friend of asoto John Ellis, he's on the clubhouse room. David Long's all things use cars with us every Friday, and it's cool to see him out and about in the community, like doing his thing, deploying his knowledge and helping dealers like push it down into the community. It's a good thing, speaking and just pushing it down in a big way. Every once in a while.

Kyle Mountsier: 13:22

Hey, we're gonna consider that we're just gonna consider this a nod to some great trucks. The truck was yet again spotted with a new another rap after having been wrapped like an F 150. A little over a week ago that we saw. It was now wrapped like a Toyota Tundra.

Paul Daly: 13:40

It looks really good if your show will actually I think it makes it more palatable. It does. It's like Oh, I could look like a pickup truck.

Kyle Mountsier: 13:49

It's unbelievable. Yeah, you look at it, and you're like, Oh, that looks like a truck, but

Paul Daly: 13:54

actually looks like a really cool tundra. It's really really

Kyle Mountsier: 13:57

legit. It's actually like if you took a I see it like, you know the old the old avalanche? Avalanche? I knew it. Yeah, switch, put the avalanche squash together with the tundra jagged edges. Boom. cybertruck Yeah, so the question across the Internet is like, is Tesla trolling? Are they testing potential rats? If they're gonna Yes, yes, I'm doing all of it. There's also some rumors like, Hey, is Tesla gonna do the wraps? Are they going to make a massive is this kind of like, letting the third party market see what might be possible? Since the color of this vehicle is a one color fits all. And that wraps would be the way to stylize your vehicle. I like I'm starting to see the vision now. You know, early, I thought the cybertruck look ugly, but now. Oh, it's just a palette.

Paul Daly: 14:48

I gotta say how it oh my gosh, when I saw the truck on there, and then cool. Like if I'm a Tundra, an F 150. I'm honored. Right? Okay, absolutely. Right if you're mimicking the best selling trucks in America, thank you very much yes, thanks for the acknowledgement. It looks like thinking of it you just put it the perfect way. It's a pallet. It's a big it's a big pallet if you don't want the stainless steel DeLorean meets Mars rover look. Yeah, there we're gonna see a whole bunch. We're gonna stop so much cool art and if I'm a vinyl shop or if I'm a dealer who's in commercial, who's in commercial vinyl, we were just with the dealer we're going to teach them more than cars they actually bought a vinyl shop not for this but for their commercial business so smart and like hey, like Yeah, if I had a business is good and this is

Kyle Mountsier: 15:33

that sucker different ways to Sunday and throw that thing on go for it and it'll be over.

Paul Daly: 15:41

Well, the production version of the cybertruck is expected to be launched at a delivery event at the end of September. It's a shame we couldn't get him to do it a soda con

Kyle Mountsier: 15:53

I mean hey, questions. I got them out on the road though that question maybe maybe

Paul Daly: 15:58

things are friend George Jones in the comments is the cybertruck will roll out just after full self driving. Oh, that.

Kyle Mountsier: 16:09

That deserves one of those.

Paul Daly: 16:11

So I also want to make sure we say hi to our friends Christine Robertson. Ebron. Good to see you here this morning. Hey, community. We get to do it every day. We get to create these more than cars moments that push down the auto industry in every aspect of life. You should join us out of soda calm by the way.

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