Tesla’s Dive, Kia and Uber Drive, Run DMC Cookies

Paul J Daly: 0:11T

uesday so many strange parts of the country are buried under snow. Tesla is diving Kia and Uber are partnering up and Run DMC is making cookies. What are we

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:28

doing fun. We've been doing this for almost two and a half years now. So two years, three months, a lot, a lot, longtime episodes. And I would say that somewhere in the neighborhood of like 30 to 40% of the days we read the headlines, we you know, we look at it since episode 638. Most days, it's like, oh, that's a headline. Cool. Some days, we read, like you scour the internet and you're like, Ah, this is a title. This is a thing we talked about.

Paul J Daly: 0:59

The combination of things to it is the combination. Oh, good morning, Adrian. Good morning, Mark. Good morning, everybody on the live streams. It's good to have you here. It's good to be with you on this. Oh, Brian. Okay, give us a good day mates. You know, we'll say the Australian accent. He's probably dressed up right now like Crocodile Dundee waiting to film his next exam. He's just in the character right now. Spring special, has been going to bed with a big knife strapped to his hip. Right? His wife is like, Come on, man, really. But there's a lot of great stuff going on this week. This month. There's so many things now like that. We're officially in the first couple of weeks of January. The community is all starting to move and we're starting to get out are starting to travel. You know, so there's a few things we're doing want to tell you about. Alright. Get your little pen and notepad ready? Because there's a few things. Oh, why don't you write this day but look at Amanda. Good morning. The live streams lighten up this morning. Let's go lions. I feel like as an auto industry podcast, we should be Lions fans. Like, does it. It feels awkward field. It's

Kyle Mountsier: 2:03

enjoy kind of alliance.

Paul J Daly: 2:05

I want to see the lion out.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:07

I mean, like, Yeah, everybody's everybody kind of feels bad for the Lions for like the long history of suffering. And it's like, why not root for them? If they're not playing your team? You know? Absolutely. I'm hoping for lions Bill's Super Bowl would be amazing. That would be cool. They have a lot of conflicted interests, and we're not going to talk about the Eagles. So, tomorrow.

Paul J Daly: 2:26

So tomorrow we're going to be what are we doing here? We're promoting tomorrow. No, tomorrow. Yeah. David Spees at good friend of ours. A lot of people in the industry know he's kind of an icon and he's got the most iconic voice I can think of aside from our Michael Cirillo, of course we should have those two on a podcast. There's going to be a is it a five hour live stream? Is the event five hours three hour live? Oh, I got the time wrong here. When is the time? I think it's a lot. Okay. 12 to 3pm. Eastern, it's disruptive forces in automotive retail how to effectively navigate the Eevee transformation. There is a star studded list of guests that are going to be talking about a lot of issues around the Eevee transition how dealers are buying, selling thinking through things. I was able I wouldn't call it an E V session but I was able to jam with ClickBank Steve Greenfield and Dave Asprey Zak for an hour and all the things that are happening in retail auto, we had a few good laughs I don't know when that session is airing, but you can go to disruptive growth solutions.com And it's one of the main headers where you can click you can get a free registration by clicking through and follow that click path. Hope you can join join the fun, right learn a little something laugh a little bit should

Kyle Mountsier: 3:36

be good. The people that he's got coming together are from my from my seat. Definitely the people that are thinking the most and, and, and like working the most with the Eevee landscape. So I think it'd be really educational and also probably a little bit fun and a little bit Jabby you know, a

Paul J Daly: 3:53

little jab is always fun, good natured, jabbing. We're going to be on the ground in Washington DC on Wednesday, Wednesday night. The the event is actually Thursday, right? Yeah, my days are all messed up on Thursday will be full focused, live streaming from the Washington public policy day, the public policy Auto Show in the convention center, Washington DC is put on by the Washington area new car auto dealers to kind of kick off their car show. There's going to be lawmakers, members of Congress OEMs dealers there and we're going to be on the scene asking the questions talking about more than cars and just kind of mingling with the new community. I think will be received I think it'd be alright,

Kyle Mountsier: 4:33

we'll be fine. I mean, definitely be the only hats there will be the only hats for sure. There literally won't be another hat.

Paul J Daly: 4:40

It's okay. We're not bringing nothing but the love 16 days away. We all know NADA is coming. We are actually putting together a webpage with the after parties. Yep. So we're gonna make

Kyle Mountsier: 4:53

your NADA show after parties and just get to it and you can see all the fun like we're it's getting populated there's gonna probably be like already haven't by the end of yeah, there's

Paul J Daly: 5:01

like six or eight right now, but NADA show after party do us a favor and just Google that. Yep. And it's fun when it shows up first. Just gonna brag about that for a minute. I don't know why it shows up first, but

Kyle Mountsier: 5:13

it does. Alright, let's get into it. Pause. You know, I

Paul J Daly: 5:17

know I know the last thing if you're going to be at NADA. Join us at the NADA live stage. They've been so gracious to feature more than cars on the live stage. Actually, I confirmed I'd even tell you this, we're going to have kind of the dealer star of episode four, which is yet to be released and the culture is going to be with us on stage there. We're going to show some summer class episodes. And we're going to have a little asoto meetup. So if you're in this community, and you are going to be at NADA, make sure you write down on your calendar right now. Thursday, February 1 315. To 330 That's NADA time which is Pacific Time. 315 to 330 at NADA, NADA live stage right next to reception, we're gonna do a little meet up and show everybody with the Soto community looks like Alright, let's get into some news. Finally, I told you it's gonna be a minute. Okay, Tesla's market cap has plunged over $94 billion Since 2024 started the worst start going since the company went public. You know, there's a lot of factors hurts Evie, strategy shift, price cuts in China disruption in the supply chain in the Red Sea, raising labor costs, right, they have a couple of issues right now dipping into their production margins, and maybe their biggest, you know, their biggest Nemesis has been their past success. But despite outperforming the s&p last year, they now have a lot of investors skepticism over valuation, future growth prospects. Meanwhile, CEO, Elon Musk is publicly saying he wants to control at least 25% of Tesla's voting rights, primarily because the AI that they're developing, he wants to make sure that it's safe. And if you read the books, he's got a very different view on AI than Larry Page. And that were the things that he's actually standing against. So and this is coming out as they've released a video of their Optimus humanoid robot, actually folding a piece of laundry folding a shirt, which, if you know about AI, and robotics that requires a lot of disparate dexterity, and a lot that's unbelievable. So yeah, a little bit of a turbulent times is I don't know, Kyle's Tesla car company, what are they,

Kyle Mountsier: 7:24

they're not a car company, they're still a data company with you know, they obviously are making a bunch of cars, but it's still a data company. And it's clearly not Elon is like, you know, favorite thing that he's doing right now, because he doesn't hold as much interest in it. He's working on these other projects that he holds a lot more interest in, and he's kind of a bright, shiny object guy like Tesla runs itself. Yeah, it's lost $40 in price per share, and $94 billion, which is a ton, but the based on their total market cap, like they still good, you know. And, and, and so like, I see them as probably rebounding like, we're, you know, there's been a lot of turbulence, Justin, you know, some of the conversations around like, their self driving and around their what their EPA estimates more. So, you know, there's going to be investor skepticism, and it's going to be most critical on the largest companies. But I don't see a company led by Elon Musk right now like that. And Tesla and not just Elon Musk, but like, we've gotten an inside view because of our relationship with Jimmy Douglas, just the level of expertise. So that team, they're gonna come out of this not worried about it.

Paul J Daly: 8:32

It's the one of the strengths. So one of the things that had been proposed, Elon is talking about, if he can't get 25% voting control, thinking about spinning off the other tech development into another company. Right, right, which would be really interesting to see from a shareholder perspective, because obviously, you get equity in another company. Like, it'd be weird. But the point of the whole thing is that Tesla's developing AI, they're developing autonomy. They're developing humanoid robots, and the robots and the cars are where the autonomy and the AI kind of come together. And he's often said in the past, like the robots and the AI are going to be more of a profit center for the company than the cars. Yep. Which is kind of crazy to think about, but you think of what happens if that shift happens, right? It's not just it's, it's well, it's, it seems in cars in a different way.

Kyle Mountsier: 9:18

It's way more than cars and and their valuation actually changes if he can shape the company's centers, the valuation of the company, the multiples of that company, interestingly enough shift, which is mind boggling to think about what that could

Paul J Daly: 9:34

do you know, when he had 25% of the company, I think before he sold off to buy 20. So it's kind of like, I had it, I bought this other thing, and now I need it back. Yeah, I can have it both ways and have it both ways via things going to ace segway. Kia and Uber are joining forces with a memorandum of a Understanding an MLA that marks a collaboration for developing another acronym, a PBV. What do they call? What's that stand for? No clue. Oh, it's it's in the article, it's you, somebody will figure it out. But it's their little new little vehicle that they have. It's like a modular vehicle aligning with Ubers 2040, zero emission ambition and showcasing key as approach to mobility tech. So the PV five concept was previewed at CES 2024. We covered it, it kind of goes from a micro car to a full size van using the same like battery and power plant. I don't know, they didn't show how that works. But basically, they're trying to cater to Uber drivers. And you know, say, hey, we were going to create vehicles that include like an Eevee, insurance, maintenance all in one package that we can deliver to an Uber driver, Uber driver saying we're going to focus on basic kind of like ride quality on the entertainment infotainment advanced safety features and a personalized experience. Oh, it stands for a platform beyond vehicle. Oh,

Kyle Mountsier: 11:00

yeah, that's their, that's their, like, new basically skateboard that all of their stuff is

Paul J Daly: 11:05

Yeah. And it's like all the little they kind of like those canoe vehicles, they're still just like a little transport vehicle looks like it came from Star Wars. Yeah, exactly. So I mean, it's a partnership, a memorandum of understanding, just saying, like, we have the intention of like, doing something together.

Kyle Mountsier: 11:18

Well, and I think this is cool, because, you know, if you think about, like, the things that Uber drivers and Lyft drivers go through to make the experience of being in that car, feel more than just like getting in the backseat of your friend's car. You see, some of them put screens in there. They're putting things like, you know, little like waters and creature comforts, and, you know, cords and things like that. So my guess is that this would make all of those little things that make it easier to ride in the back of someone else's car. Even easier, right? They just expose more of the things that are necessary for an Uber driver to be a better Uber driver and for Uber to get have better guest guest experiences because they have better cars driving the roads, right? It's kind of like Uber is a taxi company or something kind

Paul J Daly: 12:09

of like that. I mean, maybe they have an air filtration feature in there at some point. I mean, we've been in a few overs that not say anything, guests, but when you get it and when you get out and you smell like weed. Oh, it's kind of a it's kind of a bad bit of tough couple was I think we were

Kyle Mountsier: 12:27

like getting on the plane like No, no, no, I swear, I

Paul J Daly: 12:29

swear. Where was that? It was Phoenix. It was

Kyle Mountsier: 12:32

you. Oh, that one was the best one you people in Phoenix.

Paul J Daly: 12:35

telling them what to do is tell us about his exotic trips to Dubai or whatever that was. We'll tell that story again somewhere. Speaking of good storytelling. I love this one so much.

Kyle Mountsier: 12:47

So Hip Hop legend. You'll not get the name for a minute, Darryl McDaniels also known as DMC, also known as on DMC launched a unique cookie brand. In a little bit of a tongue in cheek, Darrell makes cookies ECC blending sweet treats with a powerful social message. The venturi aims to bring generations together inspired by DeRose commitment to family, community and positive change. So Darryl has a dare McDonald's basically wants to have a cookie brand that's more than just a treat, but a medium to unite generations and smiles. His quote is, I'm always doing something with families and kids. I do a lot of work with foster care and adoption. Most importantly, I like to do nice things that make people smile. My company, cookie company isn't a business for me. My cookie company is an opportunity. I can hire kids that want to bake. I can hire kids that want to run businesses and do management. There's no such thing as generation gap. It's an information gap.

Paul J Daly: 13:46

Let's go Darrell,

Kyle Mountsier: 13:49

dude, Darryl, DMC MCDANIELS, Daniel gets our like stamp of approval that this was substance of character, so much character and to say like, yeah, anybody can, like, a couple of the notes in this was like, Yeah, anybody can make cookies. This is just cookies, but it's the heart. It's the intention. It's the message. It's the way that we position it. It's the way that we're hiring into roles so that people can get business experience life experience, have community like,

Paul J Daly: 14:18

it's it's leveraging what you do, yep. To empower what you believe. And I think that's the tie down to the auto industry. Like tying that stuff together, is like we talked about the the generation gap, something we talked about in automotive, and he's like, I don't think there's a generation gap. It's just basically saying the lack of empathy, the lack of understanding of how the other people processes things, and if we can do things that bring them together, I was like, this is like a warrior poet, right, coming out of Run DMC with the hat and the glasses that

Kyle Mountsier: 14:50

he's like, he's always been a poet. He's just implementing it different.

Paul J Daly: 14:54

It's so awesome to see and I think he lives in North Jersey. And I was just thinking if you're A dealer in the North Jersey area you should reach out because talk about having a collaborator he can bring his products to your show you think people in the service would like some cookies and wouldn't like to like a picture with Ronny

Kyle Mountsier: 15:12

smartest why wouldn't you do that?

Paul J Daly: 15:15

I think he's North Jersey I think runs in North Jersey too. And I think they'll throw out Reverend Dr. Like Rolls Royces and stuff like that. But I mean, it definitely seems like Darrell is in touch with foster care adoption, right like giving kids jobs teaching them new skills. So I think this is us moving get him to come out to ASOTU CON. Oh, it's not far. Think about that, by the way so well, whatever you do today, we hope we spurred few smiles. More importantly, a few ideas that you can get out there and implement to care for your team. Care for your community. love people more than cars you more than you love cars. We'll see you tomorrow.