Carvana’s Q2 Woes, Shopping Malls Moving Forward, A New Type of Super Sensor

August 5, 2022

We’re rounding out the week with Carvana’s Q2 performance and integration of ADESA, as well as general retail traffic increasing in shopping malls leading to tenants moving in. We also talk about a substantially more powerful sensor for autonomous vehicle operation.

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Carvana posts substantial $439M Q2 loss citing high used-vehicle prices, rising interest rates and other macroeconomic pressures

Less than $506M Q1 loss but way less than $45M profit YoY
Revenue up 16%, Units up 9% to 117,564
Profit per unit down 34% $5120 to $3368
In May, the company said it would dismiss 2,500 employees (12% of team) and top executives would forgo their salaries through end of 2022
First half loss this year $945M vs $37M last year
Realized first returns from ADESA integration and CEO Ernie Garcia is “extremely happy with [its] integration progress so far."
Embedding market hubs in 18 ADESSA locations and shifting some recon into ADESA locations, closed one recon center in Ohio and opening one in Richmond, VA
Stock up 13% in pre-market trading

Retailer’s continue moving into malls across the country

According to the largest Mall Operator in the country Simon Property Group (SPG) retailers are not backing out of deals to open up stores
tenant occupancy rate is even up year-over-year, currently at 93.9 percent over 2021’s 91.8 percent.
Better than usual lease terms in cost and term flexibility
Online stores moving into Brick and Mortar, lux brands moving into suburbs with smaller versions of flagship stores as luxury buyers remain strong
Foot traffic is up 1.7 over last year but still below pre-pandemic highs

This year there has been a net increase of 2,478 stores in the U.S., with 4,432 openings and only 1,945 closings, according to Coresight Research as reported by CNBC.

New autonomous driving tech can see around corners

Neural Propulsion Systems

AtomicSense Platform

Human error causes 95% of car accidents
The theory is if a system can see and process object from far enough away, they can be eliminated
This requires a data acquisition and processing rate of 100 terabits per second—that's 10 million times the estimated sensory data rate flowing from your eyes to your brain when you're not drunk or distracted.
combo of multiband radar, MIMO lidar, cameras, and "atomic-norm" computing
Combines solid-state array consisting of multiple laser emitters and receivers, each focused on a small area able to identify small objects at 540 yards
A bicycle was identified at 1,285 feet
Production anticipated for 2023

The current state of the auto industry for beginners - great video to get the broad, retail perspective on the industry if you want to learn or to show family and friends if they are curious.

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