Groundhog Out of the Dirt, Hyundai Highs, ‘EV’ Like “Kev”, Paid AI

February 2, 2023
Thursday is looking good as Hyundai stands hopefully as high as the groundhog. We also give an update from across non-gas powered vehicles, as well as what’s going on over at ChatGPT.
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  • The numbers are in and January is a record setter for Hyundai Motor America as total sales increased by 9% making this their best January ever
  • Reported sales were 52,001 units which is up 9% over January 2022 and the third consecutive month of record total sales
  • “Achieving year-over-year growth in retail and total sales, as well as a record-breaking January, highlights the company's commitment to delivering a great product lineup,” said Randy Parker, CEO, Hyundai Motor America. “The positive feedback from our dealers during the 2023 NADA Show demonstrates Hyundai’s strong standing in the industry and the level of trust and confidence dealers have in the brand.”
  • Hyundai Motor America has been ranked first in customer loyalty in the automotive industry for the 14th consecutive year according to the Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index.
  • Also just released a new marketing campaign and commercial featuring Kevin Bacon and his daughter Sosie…soooo (watch till the subscribe…)

  • Non Petrol update:
  • According to a source close to the matter, Reuters reports that Tesla’s Shanghai plant is boosting production to satisfy a significant demand spike in light of recent price cuts. Producing over 20k vehicles a week back to September 2022 highs
  • Speaking of Tesla, the Roadster turns 15!
  • A joint Honda / GM fuel cell venture has cut the production cost of the cell to one third and announced a CR-V with the power plant to be produced in Ohio and released in the US and Japan late next year
  • Citing major performance improvements, the company says it is an important part of their plan to phase out all petrol powered vehicles by … 2040 as they see hydrogen as a primary way to power large passenger vehicles as well as commercial equipment
  • An Audi e-tron collided with a Toyota sedan in British Columbia and the battery pack ‘ejected’ and ended up across the street…on fire

  • Popular AI chat tool and high school essay writer's best friend, ChatGPT has converted from altruism to capitalism as it announced a $20/month subscription plan to give paid users priority access and faster response times. Welcome ChatGPT Plus
  • Will be sending out invitations to those on its wait list
  • Last week it looked like it was going to be $42/mo, but they backed down to a more accessible level for a broader offering
  • It won’t

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

gpt, people, dealers, reuters, years, toyota, search, paid, honda, sales, groundhog, e tron, battery, chat, 17th, event, hydrogen, great, released, days

SPEAKERS

Kyle Mountsier, Paul Daly


Paul Daly  00:27

Kyle, it's one of my favorite days of the year.


Kyle Mountsier  00:29

I don't know if you knew this, but it's Groundhog Day. We're also gonna talk about Hyundai. There Kevin Bacon commercial paid AI and a bunch of other stuff.


Paul Daly  00:39

Because it's Thursday. Thursday, we talk about stuff just like we do on Monday, Tuesday. Friday,


Kyle Mountsier  00:47

punks. 20. Phil,


Paul Daly  00:50

it's a great pronunciation


Kyle Mountsier  00:52

Toine in there now, Hill has seen his reflection, meaning we're getting lots more snow days up, at least up in the north and we get in the cold. So


Paul Daly  01:03

I think it's if he doesn't see his shadow. It's six more weeks of winter if he does wait. I mean, I think if it's like if he stays out of the hole, then springs around the corner, which is just a bunch of BS anyway. But still, they did a great job of bringing Punxsutawney Pennsylvania.


Kyle Mountsier  01:24

Yeah. I mean, that's like if you go and you just search it, and you look at visit pa Twitter. It says, more pa snow days are on their way. Punxsutawney Phil seen his shadow predicting an extended winter. So that's the way it is. That's what that's what we got. That's what I'm seeing. Hey,


Paul Daly  01:45

let's answer the question. Everyone really has what happens to the groundhog the other 364 days of the year. I found out this morning. So they have a whole groundhog committee. And the groundhog actually lives in like a burrow and you see they like knock on the door in a library.


Kyle Mountsier  02:02

Ah, poor


Paul Daly  02:05

a lap of luxury. This is the most comfortable groundhog you've ever seen. So if anyone's ever a little grumpy about look, they pulled him out of the hole and you should let him be like that. That suckers got


Kyle Mountsier  02:15

it made. It's like living in the lap of luxury. Absolutely.


Paul Daly  02:20

So there you go. So we got a little more winter to go. It doesn't really matter because it's always sunny inside in a soda verse. Got a few other things, really fun announcements to tell you about today.


Kyle Mountsier  02:30

We're gonna be proud get paper out people. We got dates to draft. Yeah,


Paul Daly  02:34

get your calendar out, because we want you to reserve some dates. First and foremost, I don't know if you can go to this or not. But first thing we're talking about publicly that asoto is partnering with Reuters. Yes, Reuters. In their retail automotive event in Vegas, May 16 and 17th. You know what happened? They saw the year and extravaganza actually will tell you the backstory and they were like these people. These people are crazy with these jokers. Bring them over. So so our party with our friends at Reuters events, Kyle and I are going to be moderating some of their mainstage panels. And we're also going to be launching a joint podcast for the event asoto on Reuters, we're gonna do an exclusive podcast at the event. So if you're not going to be there, and you can be there 16th and 17th We need to flex on him and show him what a soda the soda community is all about. Some of our other friends are going to be there. Steve Greenfield is going to be emceeing it in his MC Hammer pants. Brian Kramer, I think is going to be there too. And then just a bunch of other people we've never met. So Miller


Kyle Mountsier  03:30

is going to be there from cars. what a what a great dude.


Paul Daly  03:34

So we're gonna have a good time. So that's may 16 70. So we're gonna have more info about that in the podcast and everything. Also. We are going that's may 16 17th. We're going right from there to where's it Indianapolis? Because we're gonna be at V con. That's Gary Vaynerchuk, blockchain and ft conference, we're gonna be there again, a couple of special surprises we think in the works for that. So not just automotive, right? We need pop culture. We need, you know, forward thinking technology, even the blockchain. And so we're going to do that. And this next one last one, get your calendar ready, because we're taking asoto on tour, y'all. We're going the asoto X regional tour. smaller events. Remember the year and extravaganza? Well, that was so well received. We're taking that show on the road, and we're running out some theaters. But first, the day before, we're going to dealerships. And we're going to make a show, like a show show like think MTV cribs, meets diners, drive ins and dives we're going to highlight the dealers and the people and the experiences and all the things that we all know are so great. Well, you know, we're just so frustrated that enough people don't know about it. So we're taking matters into our own hand we're gonna go into the city so April 4, and fifth the events on April 5, we're going to Arlington so if you're in the Texas area we were just there right circle the calendar dates because it's gonna be limited seating and all that stuff. Circle it now in May. We're going to be in Tampa during digital dealer. So if you're going to digital dealer or if you just want to head in to the That area on May 2, we're going to put on our tonight show we're going to do so have amazing guests and have amazing stuff Tampa may 2, and then also June, summer 13th or 14th We're hitting Atlanta and we got some great dealerships to highlight there so a lot of dealership folks a lot of people on the ground in the dirt front lines are going to be there people that you don't usually see which is kind of we want to do wrap our arms around the whole thing so there you go there's some dates circle and more information with


Kyle Mountsier  05:26

us with the dates we promise like we're gonna get more information coming out about all that soon but we wanted to get these in all you insiders listening to have That's


Paul Daly  05:35

right, that's right for you here in this union. Sarah let's talk about some news. So this is a fun one the start the numbers are in a January's a record setter for Hyundai Motor America as total sales increased by 9%. Making this their best January wait for it. Ever. Yes, January ever sales were up were 52,000 units were dropped 9% over 2022 and the third consecutive record sales month. Here's a quote from Randy Parker, CEO of Hyundai Motor America says achieving year over year growth in retail and total sales as well as a record breaking January highlights the company's commitment to delivering a great product lineup. This is great too because we were just there. The positive feedback from our dealers during the 2023 Nada show demonstrates Hyundai strong standing in the industry and level of trust and confidence dealers having the brand also this is a great 14 years in a row. They are ranked number one for customer loyalty.


Kyle Mountsier  06:31

Wow. That's pretty wild. That's like people love that brand. I can tell you this from being in the JD Power event where Randy Parker was there and communicating like the the room. You know how sometimes the room just like all of a sudden turns focus, right? Everybody's on different feelers? Yep. Oh, it was everybody was on him. There was he has this very likeable personality. And I think that that speaks to the brand. You know, we there's LinkedIn, the show notes, they just released a new marketing campaign with Kevin Dave and his daughter, it is unbelievably funny. He's like, yo, it's like, F four. It's kind of like, Kev you know,


Paul Daly  07:12

he's like, I don't pronounce it Evi pronounce it f like, like, it will do a reaction video to the whole video because it's worth it. It's


Kyle Mountsier  07:18

unbelievable. And then even I even loved the fact that they they were so savvy and thinking oh, this is gonna go on YouTube. Let's record a little bumper for this at the end with Kevin Bacon, getting people to subscribe to the channel. It's like you can take a lot from just that don't even think about the fact that you know that the record sales and all that but the marketing efforts there's just every little thing is taken into account with Hyundai like they've been doing it for years. So I mean, they may here's the other thing that love about this stuff. I mean, they made content that was


Paul Daly  07:49

platform specific.


07:52

Or they do their you know they


Paul Daly  07:54

contextualized they contextualized their broadcast commercial for YouTube and made it platform specific you can do unbelievable I'm just on what were you gonna say I interrupted you.


Kyle Mountsier  08:04

Oh, no, I this is what I love reporting sales were 52,001 units. You know this, I'm telling you right now, this is what happened there. There was some one rep down in Florida, and he's on the phone at 1133 at night with some Miami dealership. I don't know where they're at. He's like, look, we got one more to go can you go find the customer? Everybody scrambles the salespeople go wild. They're like we got to already are one more some person comes in off the street, and they're like, put that person in a car. I'm telling you, that's what happened.


Paul Daly  08:39

I pictured somebody like screaming around the corner like paper flying like right away. Wait clocks like 1158 You know, 59 and 57 seconds 58 seconds and he just gets right in and they stamp it? I know it doesn't work like that. But in my mind it does in my mind that does speak either way. Thanks. Segway. All right, we're gonna call this the non petrol update because it's getting complicated out there. It used to just be the Eevee update. But now we got to we got to change this so we're gonna start with a little Evie stuff and get into the non petrol part. So according to a source close to the Mater, Reuters, we know those people. They They reported that Tesla's Shanghai plant is boosting production now after cutting it back in November to satisfy what they're saying is this significant demand spike in light of recent price cuts from Tesla producing their plans to produce over 20,000 vehicles a week from one plant, which is back to September 2022. Highs and yeah, so price cut demands driving, they're turning the throttle back up on the plant and a nice little fun thing. This blew my mind. Speaking of Tesla, the Roadster is 15 years old.


Kyle Mountsier  09:54

That kind of that that definitely blows my mind. Yeah, how absolutely blows my mind


Paul Daly  09:58

where you were 15 years ago on that came out. I mean, I probably saw something about in the news, but I honestly could care less at that point in my life, right? Yeah, no, that's 15. Yeah.


Kyle Mountsier  10:08

15 years ago that's, it doesn't even feel like that was like we were even talking about things like Tesla and and EVS back then, but I guess we were


Paul Daly  10:17

well, my son. Well, I guess we're basically ready for that. Oh, wait, I don't know. I mean, we weren't talking about what of seven. Well, here's the funny thing. So one of our one of our editors, who is my son, Myles, who is probably maybe a hair taller than me at this point. He was one. Wow. Because he's only 16. Yeah, okay. Yeah. Speaking of things growing up. We had to segway in the middle of a session. We can't do that. Okay, here's the non Evie part, a joint Honda GM fuel cell venture has cut production cost of a hydrogen fuel cell to 1/3 of what it was, which means they're announcing a CRV with this new power plant to be produced in Ohio and released in Japan. And the US next year, citing major performance improvements, the company says it's important part of their plan to phase out all petrol powered vehicles in their lineup by No, not 2030 2040 40 We're gonna make a new making like thing. That's 2040s


Kyle Mountsier  11:17

I think that's a good goal. They, you know, 17 years, 18 years. So what does that 17 years from now? Like? That's a lot. Listen to me, you can figure out a lot, just the technology that we've done in the last infrastructure


Paul Daly  11:30

all the time it takes so basically, they see hydrogen as a primary way to power larger vehicles like larger commercial vehicles. And also commercial vehicles. You think of all the different engines and things that Honda powers, right. And that's like industrial equipment. Like you can't sit on the charger that long. Some of that stuff is like 20 hour a day continuous use. Yep. So there you go. So hydrogen,


Kyle Mountsier  11:56

look, Honda, Toyota legacy, really, really sound technologies. All looking at hydrogen and hybrid. Hello, hello,


Paul Daly  12:08

pay? Are you paying attention? Are you paying attention? Well, and we're gonna end back on a battery powered thing. And the Audi e Tron, which is like a midsize SUV collided with a Toyota sedan and British Columbia and the battery pack literally ejected from the vehicle. Be hard to believe unless you looked at the video, but you see the E Tron on one side of the road and the flaming battery on the other side of the road. So it's like, oh, okay, that's possible. I think we're gonna have a lot of like, oh, that's possible, you know, and the new thing and the thought of like, a, like a six 700 pound battery on fire flinging across the street. Not okay.


Kyle Mountsier  12:47

I just say, and I just say real quick, because of the quadruple crown that Toyota has gotten in the last few last few days. Like the irony, that a Toyota


Paul Daly  12:59

that a hit a sedan, Emery,


Kyle Mountsier  13:01

got a sedan and the battery was like, I'm out. Yeah, that's Samira right there.


Paul Daly  13:06

Yeah. And we can be like this. Because when you look at it, actually, everyone's fine in the accent, right. So we're not trying to make light of a situation. But everybody's cool. The battery's not cool. And I think like the bracket, the battery bracket engineers have a little bit of extra work on their plate this morning. You're like, alright, what happened to the brackets? Right? How do we make sure that doesn't happen? Again?


13:27

They became engineers. Oh, okay.


13:29

Okay, segue.


Kyle Mountsier  13:34

The engineers at open aI have been hard at work, trying to keep up with demand on chat GPT. Every time that you try and log in, sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. And we're moving quickly from chat from GPT 3.5 to GPT. Four. And just recently, it announced a $20 per month subscription plan that people can buy up to giving priority access and faster response times, to chat GPT to some users, they will still continue with a free plan. Luckily, it wasn't the original stated price of about $42 a month. So they're just allowing it to go into a broader offering give better access and give more consistent access to those paid to your users. I'm sure they'll come up with an API access very, very soon. Right now, this is just the access to the chat function. Because right now you only have API access to GPT three, which is being utilized at a lot of companies across the nation. So yeah, I'm excited to see where they take this because now that they can monetize chat, GPT it's going to allow them to move quicker, develop faster, and probably get to GPT. Four, which is probably going to be the most mind boggling thing that most people have ever seen. If you thought chat GPT was crazy. You ain't seen nothing yet.


Paul Daly  14:51

You know, Google is is releasing a check. GPT like we didn't cover the story, but I saw it yesterday that Yeah, yeah, they're releasing like a little a little chrome install. Like you can actually have it and search things and it'll give you search results in plain text form. So obviously, they're like running double. They're the ones running around the hallways with the papers and stuff, trying to figure out how they're gonna keep up with this.


Kyle Mountsier  15:12

It's so smart. Okay, real quick, real quick. It's so smart on Google, because a lot of people have talked about this kind of zero click search results. And the reality is, is that most people, when they search Google, actually, the majority of searches on Google don't end up in a click to a website, surprisingly enough, be on the search base, and start trying to just find out the quick information, right? Maybe it's an address, maybe it's a quick information piece, it's the answer to a question. And so there's zero clicking to a website. So if you can surface that information in plain text in real time, and make it quicker to the user. That's, I mean, that's why everyone loves chat, GBT. Because it gives them real answers real quickly, without having to go find a web page and search through it and figure out what they're reading and all that. So


Paul Daly  15:59

one of the one of the issues that is going to come up and it's more of a social issue, though, is the the results that come up. And a lot of people have said like the lack of sources, right? One of the things that allows you to make quick, quick, you know, you make your decision on what you're gonna believe or not believe based on the source of the information, Google search page, you can kind of see that right away. It's like chat GPT, you're gonna ask it a question, it's gonna spit you out an answer that seems like very authoritative. And like, there's no doubt this is the answer. And a lot of times there's false information, because it's based on the entirety of the internet. So um, that'll be something that'll be interesting to see how it sorts out. But back to like, chat, GPT $20 a month for like priority access to it. What happens kind of when you pay for something, you use it more or less, typically more, typically more, and you're more intentional about the way you use it. So I think when they get this $20 paid tier, those folks are going to lean in and figure out more ways to use it more ways to leverage it, which means they're going to develop even faster and chat GPT is committed to providing free access to this tool. They kind of see it as almost like a like an important thing for humanity that everyone can have access to this. And they said introducing the paid tier is going to help keep the free tier even better. There you go. We're hoping to keep the automotive industry growing everyday being a little better every day, but that doesn't really have to do anything with us. That has mostly to do with you. We're on the front line. So go out there. do just that today.

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