Tesla Robotaxi Rollout, 5 Min EV Charging, Record-Breaking Hackathon

Paul J Daly  0:00  
Good morning. I'm gonna get the date right today. It is

Unknown Speaker  0:05  
March 19. I almost got it wrong.

Paul J Daly  0:08  
It's Wednesday. We're already full bore into today. It's time to do a show talking about Robo taxis and crazy five minute charging. And that one's nuts, and a Twitter comment that turned into a million dollar competition over, like, the course of an hour. Did

Kyle Mountsier  0:24  
what, it's really cool. Now, it's

Paul J Daly  0:26  
super, super cool. Oh, so I woke up this morning and do you want to know the first thought that was on my mind,

Kyle Mountsier  0:35  
that it's way too short of time to ASOTU, it's

Paul J Daly  0:38  
very closely related to that. Literally, the first you know, you know when, like, at home alone, when Kevin's mom goes, Kevin, right? She realizes, like, we lost it. Well, for me, it was

Unknown Speaker  0:50  
Speaker invites.

Kyle Mountsier  0:54  
I feel that. I feel that so, so good. Yeah, obviously, we've got a lot of speakers and sessions kind of coming down the pipe right now. Over the next week, I think we're going to be announcing another, like, seven that we've locked down, yes, from session. So if you're, if you've been on the edge, on like, I don't really know if the right sessions are there. For me, they're coming they I guarantee you, if you can't find at least two sessions that you would be interested in it. We're doing it wrong. We'll give you all the money back that you haven't paid so far. That's

Paul J Daly  1:26  
we'll give you 150% back. Actually get that. So we, all people always ask us, like, Hey, why do you wait to so long to get your sessions out? You should do that earlier. It's best practice, whatever. But we know things change so fast, whatever, whatever. Things change so fast that if we got our sessions out, like 90 days ago, like a third of them would be irrelevant right now. So that's why we push it to the limit. We have an amazing group of sessions and speakers lined up, teed up topics already. You can go to see all the topics already that we're going to be covering. The reality is this is going to be the most progressive, like doing things group of dealers and industry partners that exist in this industry in one place. So this is where you're going to learn. This is we're going to make the relationships, and we're going to bring it all to you in a environment that is just, frankly, a lot of fun to be in so much and the swag this year is going to be, is going to be so nice everyone. We try to, we try to up the swag game.

Kyle Mountsier  2:21  
I am really excited about the swag game this year. And I'm gonna pair everything with my shoes, which is the first for me. But they're blue and orange. I'm actually wearing them today. They're like, breaking them in, you know?

Paul J Daly  2:34  
So you wanna, you wanna, yeah, you gotta be the show to see him.

Kyle Mountsier  2:42  
Okay, yeah. Oh, wow. Oh, look at that. If you know the show colors, if you know the show colors, you seem to

Paul J Daly  2:48  
go to show to con.com right now and see the colors, and get the tickets as cheap as they're gonna get, and book your hotel room in the event hotel before it's sold out, because it's really that to be in there. All right, I think we did enough damage for the intro. Let's talk about all right. Look, Tesla has taken a significant step toward its long promise, Robo taxi service after get this receiving initial approval from California regulators, but there's still a long road ahead. The California Public Utilities Commission granted Tesla a transportation charter party carrier permit, allowing it to operate a fleet of vehicles for pre arranged trips. The permit does not yet authorize them to provide autonomous ride hailing services. The company also has a permit to test autonomous vehicles with a safety driver, but has not yet applied for the necessary driverless permits, though they exist. We know in California, other companies have done way Mo and yep, obviously Elon Musk, big shift of Tesla's focus toward Robo taxis amidst the slowing vehicle sales revealing the cyber cab concept last October. So he's like, we're gonna be uber that owns the vehicles, basically,

Kyle Mountsier  3:54  
yeah. I mean, I think this has always been like, Uber has had to know Since 2011 that at some point they were going to trans, they were going to have to transition to this, that there was going to be others transition to this. It just, it makes a lot of sense. I don't know where all those Uber drivers are going to go. They got time. I think we're still five or six years away from, like, making, you know, having parity across states and cities, you know, at least in like, concentrated city areas. The interesting one to me is, I don't know if you saw this earlier this week or late last week, there was a group that did a like, Bugs Bunny trick where they basically, like made a mask of painting. Oh,

Paul J Daly  4:35  
it was Mark roper. Is YouTuber. Mark roper. He actually used to be a NASA engineer, believe it or not. Yes, exactly so. And they did that, and all of the LIDAR

Kyle Mountsier  4:44  
equipped vehicles stopped before it, yeah, the Tesla went straight through that

Paul J Daly  4:50  
Joel Bugs Bunny. Think, like, let's see if Bugs Bunny is the I mean, you know, It tricked the cameras for sure.

Kyle Mountsier  4:56  
Yeah, so it's still interesting to me. I think you. You're gonna see more and more of this, especially in the states that have already adopted it. You know, Phoenix as way Mo, you got some cities in Texas, like Austin looking at that type of stuff. You know, I think that it's a genius move, like, right? Why? Why not have these vehicles that know everything else that's happening on the road, moving people around a city with roads that are already there, instead of having to install like public transportation that takes five years and doesn't really change traffic patterns,

Paul J Daly  5:26  
no, and people don't want their own space. I think that what what's going to happen with the Uber drivers? Very similarly to what happens with everything when technology touches it, is that the best performers are still around. Because I absolutely no matter what level of autonomy happens in wherever cities, there's always going to be an option, like, I want a human driver in the Uber app, right? I don't know if Tesla's going to I mean, I guess they would expand into that if they had to get a driver network going. Who knows? But it's hard to argue when you say, like, well, we have the vehicle manufacturing and the ability to constantly train these vehicles and make them better, and we also own the vertical where all the revenue flows through for just general ride hailing services. I think that's one of the things that can get. Get a Tesla stock back on track by just bringing these other sources of revenue in and for whatever it's worth. Earlier this week, Elon Musk, take it. Take it, or leave it said. By the end of 2026 we are sending a spacecraft to Mars with the optimist humanoid robot on board. Whoa. I don't know why you'd give them a head start into building the trap for the humans when the humans finally show up, but they're gonna get gonna give it the Head Start, apparently. Speaking of

Speaker 1  6:36  
a head start, speaking of head starts, that is exactly right. That was a real segue.

Paul J Daly  6:44  
Oh, it's my turn. Anybody reading

Unknown Speaker  6:49  
this story. I'm so

Paul J Daly  6:52  
excited, proud of myself on that segue. Chinese EV giant BYD just raised the bar in charging technology, announcing a groundbreaking system that can add 249 miles of range in only five minutes. Could have used that a few weeks ago by these super e platform can charge at 1000 kilowatts, doubling Tesla's upcoming 500 kilowatt v4 super chargers. Currently they're at 350 they're going to 500 this one's going to 1000 the new tech debuts in the Han l sedan and the tang l SUV, starting around 37 three, very affordable. BYD is investing fourth in 4000 of these ultra fast charges across China. It's a big country, though. Addressing charging infrastructure gaps, founder Wang Chun fu says the goal is to make EV charging as fast as refueling a gas car. BYD is catching up to Tesla, selling 1.7 6 million cars in 2024 just behind Tesla's 1.7 9 million, with 90% of those sales, however, happening in China.

Kyle Mountsier  7:56  
Wow. So here's some some interesting stuff on this one. One is, I gotta know how these batteries don't just burn up float.

Paul J Daly  8:05  
I don't think they actually, I don't think they have the battery that can take it yet, because I think the next step is 500 but this is just a charger that can put out that much juice. But how do you cram that much energy into a small battery in that short period of time?

Kyle Mountsier  8:19  
Well, no, they said that the new, the new cars coming out, they've got two of them that can take it. That's, that's the whole point of it. But it like, that's what I just don't understand, how you can, like, pump that much power into a car that quickly. We know, all know that has to happen. Like, that's, that's the way that, like, if you're doing long trips or travel or getting people used to the same time frame as pumping up gas. That's without a doubt, BYD has already crossed so many American manufacturers for worldwide sales, they're just taking over. And when you think about them now being able to supply an infrastructure that might be able to make charging easier for the common person and not require at home, charging, which is, yeah, that's like a that's a whole new level. I mean,

Paul J Daly  9:05  
even 500 is very fast, right? If you can add 100 mile, even at 500 you can add 100 miles to your car in, oh, going around the city or whatever, yeah, you could add 100 miles in under five minutes, or, like, three four minutes, which, I mean, five minutes, I think, is probably the gas pumping standard, right? That's right. Stop. Charge credit card, put the gas in, go inside like five minutes. I even think if you get it to 10 minutes, it's a total game changer. You're fine. Yes, 30 minute nonsense, this 40 minute nonsense, that is just,

Kyle Mountsier  9:34  
what are you gonna do? Eat seven meals a day on a road trip. Come on. I try, fam. I tried. Didn't go well, he's like, gained a couple pounds due to my EV.

Paul J Daly  9:44  
I definitely did. I definitely, I will say, Ev. Update, I hauled a ton, like a full ton in the back of that thing yesterday. And I wouldn't even even known it was there. It's the handle it like a champ. Literally, I was like, this. I mean, it's. Side from, like, you know, it rides a little different, like, you know what? I mean, it's just more weight in the truck, but, like, acceleration and all that. It's just like the one pedal driving with the braking. I would have felt like I was driving an empty pickup truck. It was really weird. Full on life hack, I know, Speaking of LIFE HACKS, that was great. Speaking of hacking, do you like that game over a good day.

Kyle Mountsier  10:22  
What started as an ambitious tweet turned into reality in just a few hours. X user KP casually suggested a record breaking live hackathon with top sponsors, and both happened. Read the tweet. It's on the

Paul J Daly  10:35  
screen for the people that are just listening. Yeah.

Kyle Mountsier  10:38  
So the tweet says if I was the CEO of bolt or lovable, which are kind of like new AI generation web platforms, I'd figure out a way to host the world's largest hackathon live and try to set a Guinness book of world record in the sheer number of new web apps built in a day by people around the globe. Imagine 100,000 builders shipping. Find a couple top sponsors, like anthropic or open AI and bam, you have the marketing event of the year. And bolt just, they just threw down. They immediately responded. They they are, they are going to fund it with a million bucks for what could be the biggest hackathon ever. They the first thing that they're going after is a website. And if you win, you get 3000 bucks for the best design. Just right off the bat. If you haven't checked out bolt or lovable, they they can't, like, spin up a used car site. But if you're, like, doing any site, any kind of site that just needs content, that just needs, like, simple content, it is. It's absolutely I was playing around with lovable just a couple weeks ago, and it's kind of insane what can happen and now you now, like, what does bolt get out of 100,000 people trying to mess with their platform? I mean, are

Paul J Daly  11:51  
you kidding me, the learning that you get out of that? I mean, we're talking about it too. I know I we love plays like this, when somebody just steps up, I bet, I bet, there are opportunities. So I think this story has two points of relevance to automotive. Number one, you always need to spin up sites. And there's nothing worse than trying to spin up a page for a local fundraiser that goes on your like site that was designed and made to sell cars. Right? The page is always terrible. Maybe I can't say always, but I haven't seen a good one. I won't say 93.8% of the time. So oftentimes, it makes so much sense to just buy a separate domain, set up a site made to engage and communicate in a retail fashion, or like a fundraising fashion. So have a template. It'll practically write itself for you these days. So just do that. And I think that even simple tools, these tools like you don't even have to be like, tech savvy, one of your marketing people, even one of your like, communication savvy sales people, could set it up and do it. So that's part one. Part two is, I think there are opportunities like this in communities all over the place, where somebody pitches an idea locally. Wouldn't it be nice if? Wouldn't it be nice if there's a mural on that? Wouldn't it be nice if we had this little thing? And dealerships just have a lot of resources, not just financial people who are willing to help you have facilities, you have vehicles, you can help move things around. It gets a lot of social traction. When a company responds to an individual and says, let's do it right. That kind of stuff makes news. And I think that you just have to be paying attention. If you don't know how to pay attention, just like go into Instagram and search your geography and see what people are posting and spend five minutes scrolling those and I bet you find something that you can interject in a way that's going to get you PR and lock into exactly. There you go. A couple I mean, that's the fun stuff. Honestly, there we go. That's fun.

Kyle Mountsier  13:49  
So it's fun. This is man, the world is crazy, man, the world is crazy. It's fun to be

Paul J Daly  13:54  
able to talk about it every morning. Have a little fun. But mostly we want to encourage you to go out there, pay attention to the people, and the people will take care of the business. We will see you here tomorrow. You.

‍