Texas Lithium, Fortnite Dashboard, A.I. Fast Food Order Taking

Paul Daly: 0:31Yo, it's Tuesday, May 9, Kyle's in Chicago. I'm in Syracuse. Today we're talking about Lipson refining in Texas a fortnight dashboard and AI taking your order in the drive thru lane. How about that?

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:45

People really, like we're gonna have some opinions today. Stay with me

Paul Daly: 0:49

Good night. Give me one give me one example of a time you were in a drive thru where you're like, Gosh, I wish AI was taking my order instead. Every time

Kyle Mountsier: 0:59

I think I think basically every time that I'm in a drive thru I think why am I in a drive thru? Right so I was already barking and going in like I'm like this is gonna go wrong has already got Chick fil A or McDonald's is it's bad situation if I'm gonna

Paul Daly: 1:17

feel okay in a Chick fil A drive thru, but I typically get in the really long line, order my food on the app, and then I just pull up and be like,

Kyle Mountsier: 1:24

I'm already here. That's exactly what I do it especially when you have a family.

Paul Daly: 1:29

Dude, I have the most anxiety ever when ordering from my family because like, I'm gonna ruin my family relationships because I'm like, come on. Right?

Kyle Mountsier: 1:37

I just know you can't do it. Because like kids in the back, like, catch up.

Paul Daly: 1:42

All right, we're already sideways. We are just having a good old time cars running around the Chicago at David kicked 20 Group yesterday and today I'm holding on for here in Syracuse. But we have so much stuff planned and so many things are moving right now. We're gonna be wheels up on our way to Las Vegas on Monday to moderate several panels and teacher workshop at the Reuters automotive retail event. On the what is it the 16th and the 17th. We're also doing a collab podcast with Reuters called amplify, or we got some people on that show. We've never had a conversation with before.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:18

Oh, ringers I was looking them up last night. I was like no, that's, that's

Paul Daly: 2:25

okay. Any minute. They're gonna figure out as us any minute now. Any minute now. I had

Kyle Mountsier: 2:31

these guys. They got flat brims on you kidding.

Paul Daly: 2:36

We had some prep calls. So we were on with like, the global brand director for Ford, and the service fix UPS director at Nissan. And I can't remember his his position. But he's with karma. And like, this is just a group of people that are just thinking of things in a whole different way. And one of the reasons we do things we do, the way we do them at asoto is to constantly work to bridge the gap between dealers, and OEMs to because the consumers pinned right in the middle of those two. And so anything we can do to bring some some stability in those relationships and linear narratives and those relationships, we think is good for the entire industry.

Kyle Mountsier: 3:11

Yeah, I'm excited about that one, because we got Oh, yeah, from representatives, we've got dealer representatives, and we've got industry partner representatives that we'll be interviewed kind of like intermingled into each other. So I think we'll see these threads of like, how are we caring about the common view of the customer and and making sure that the customer is at the center, and maybe we'll even just kind of you know, have a little change of heart for some people, because they

Paul Daly: 3:36

think it's going to be a moment, it's going to be a moment after that. After that I'm on my way to Indianapolis to be at Gary Vaynerchuk V cons web three conference, we're trying to bring all the things our event director is going out. So he's going to try to bring all the good things, we can bring them back for a soda con, let's face it, we're just trying to steal the best idea so we can deploy them. So to kind

Kyle Mountsier: 3:54

of do an r&d Just doing a little r&d. Oh, on the 24th Paul, we're doing a live stream premiere of more than cars, you can go to more than cars.tv to check out the trailer on that too. And, and head right to the LinkedIn event will stream it on YouTube as well. So if you're like I don't do LinkedIn, you can see it on YouTube. That is May 24 at 1pm. Eastern back that all the way up for circle, timezone

Paul Daly: 4:21

circle the date, a 2014 because we need to show up as the industry on the live stream and show everyone outside the live stream that and outside the industry that there is something special going on inside retail auto dealers all over the country is a way you can do it and participate and help us make that a reality. That's enough. We have some news to talk about today. All right, so Tesla is now the first automaker to enter the lithium refining space as it breaks ground on a massive Texas lithium refinery capable of producing enough lithium for 1 million electric vehicle batteries by the year 2025. I don't know if you notice it's only like 18 months from now.

Kyle Mountsier: 5:00

Oh, yeah, that's not long. That's not very long. That's, you know, a couple years. So

Paul Daly: 5:04

they say it'll be online. It'll be online in a year. And then, first of all, that's crazy. There's a rendering if you're gonna be online in a year, and then it'll be up to full capacity. They said within two years. And so they're claiming give you a couple of details. They're claiming a much cleaner actually, they're innovating the lithium refining process using much cleaner materials and processes, things like soda ash, and Elon Musk says you could live in the middle of this factory without suffering any ill effects from from the processes going on Texas Governor Greg Abbott was on hand at the announcement. And he said just just wait for the nuance on this one. It is so Texas. So Texas, Texas wants to be self reliant. Yep. Not dependent. He goes upon any foreign hostile nation for what we need. Like I was like, that's a Texas statement.

Kyle Mountsier: 5:50

And then he ended up with including the US

Paul Daly: 5:54

included

Kyle Mountsier: 5:57

announcing your seceding now that

Paul Daly: 6:01

we got this, we got

Kyle Mountsier: 6:04

we got lithium, we got cars, we got oil, we have Michael

Paul Daly: 6:07

Cirillo, Michael surrealism, we're over. In a call. Last year, Elon Musk actually begged entrepreneurs to get into the lithium refining business. And he said, it's just like printing money. He said, We don't want to have to get into it, we hope somebody else does. Nobody did. And it was their only viable way. They said to secure their lithium supply. The company, like I said, did share a rendering of the new Corpus Christi, Texas facility. So I mean, this is this is new ground, right, we're not just making the batteries, we're refining the raw material,

Kyle Mountsier: 6:37

ya know, and this is where OEMs, automakers are going to have to look to move a lot more vertically. And they're going to have to align their supply chain all the way down to the battery. And I think we're going to see probably more OEMs doing this. Because if their that this thing is going to be capable of producing enough lithium for a million vehicles by 2025. That's like chump change compared to what the industry is going to put out before 2025. Based on all the numbers that we've seen, that OEMs are talking about. So we're gonna have to get really good really quickly figuring out how to care for and refine lithium. So, you know, Tesla being an early mover, we see that a lot. If I had to guess we're gonna see companies like Ford, and GM, and cilantro is kind of hanging on the coattails and figuring out what they're gonna do on this as well, especially with battery requirements, with some of these tax credits, and just like getting all everything aligned and centralized, so that we can produce these vehicles quicker, you know, I'm gonna because this is our only electric. Well, there's a little Evie story here in a second, but it's a little bit just to mention, just anecdotally, I was with a buddy last night that lives in Chicago, and kind of all of his, all of his friends are gone. You gotta get you know, they've got a growing family, you got to get a Tesla, you got to get a Tesla, you got to get a Tesla. And, you know, his hesitation was similar, like they're in Chicago, it's like, I'm always driving around downtown, where am I going to charge if I get if I get stopped? Right, there's not a ton of chargers in parking garages or anything like that here. So it's a real kind of question mark that people are still asking. And so even with the acceleration and adoption of the actual vehicle purchasing, the other side of it is still you know, still lots of question marks

Paul Daly: 8:20

there. Sure. You know, our good friend, Todd Caputo posted on LinkedIn just a few days ago, that his friend has an Eevee 686 and gotten an accident and and it's going to take six months to repair that sucker. And he was like, insurance companies aren't gonna stand for this customers are gonna stand for this. Like there's still all these ancillary things we just haven't solved yet. But we are solving the lithium refining issue at least taking a step toward it. And Brian Ortega comments in the thread. Oh, the irony, right. Think about a Texas Big Oil. Well, now they're just back to raw materials, refining the raw materials, putting it in vehicles. That kind of got that little playbook buttoned up. Okay, speaking of having things buttoned up. Putting things in vehicles Yeah, we'll just go super generic. Auto Tech company EA car X is set to announce its partnership with Epic Games yes familiar the creator of fortnight to integrate their Unreal Engine into vehicle displays. The Unreal Engine if you don't know about it is basically the technology that allows the rendering of the graphics to smooth motion. It builds all these realities out of digital ones and zeros primarily designed for EVs. A collaboration will enable drivers to interact with 3d visuals of gauges and car control features in real time to provide a more immersive experience and be a differentiator their current clients include companies like Volvo Mercedes Benz, smart. Here's a quote for also Lincoln Co. You might know that that startup company Christine Gaul, head of human machine interface and user experience. How's that for a job title? She says sure is it is the experience that will make you reach the tipping point and actually decide to buy something.

Kyle Mountsier: 10:03

Now, now that that'll get me all fired up right there because I Yeah, and I don't care if it's a digital experience or like a process experience, it is the experience, right? Whether or not whether or not you decide to buy something, the experience that you get on the other side, it'll be interesting to me whether or not like this is a native or, or comfortable way of engaging with a vehicle, just because it's never been done before. I think, you know, consumers are going to, you know, question like, hey, how does 3d engage with what I'm doing in my vehicle? And can I kind of like, process that and engage with it at the same time, while while still being? You know,

Paul Daly: 10:41

have you ever have you ever watched a 20 something or a team play video game? They are not thinking about how do I engage with this and that they, it's like, it's so dated. So even even the way things are gonna move is probably going to be so native. Now, granted, there's going to be in the adoption curve, right? So if you're under 35, you probably don't play autonomy and exceptions for sure. But like, my 16 year old son would probably step in and be like, oh, yeah, this feels normal, right? This is I can I can navigate this whole world and just do it naturally. So the China in the article does mention that the Chinese market is much more progressive in its adoption of like, infotainment experience and different gauges and customizations of the US debt generally take some more slower and measured approach which makes a lot of sense as well. I wonder how this is going to kind of come together with all the talk we've been seeing about Apple CarPlay and all that right, like now it's like a whole other realm throw it into it. And yeah,

Kyle Mountsier: 11:38

but that's not even in your phone's ecosystem. That's that's a whole gaming care system and I do agree like but it's interesting that like typically you don't think as Volvo Benz and smart as a younger buyers buying demographic so you know, Jerry just to see what the adoption curve on something like that when the actual vehicle on the new vehicle side is not the buying demographic or does the buying demographic shift? Right as new money actually go over there because it's more native have a digital experience inside your driving experience? Maybe?

Paul Daly: 12:10

Man? Well, US own Epic Games is located in Cary, North Carolina, which if you've never been there, you realize it's just people from New York and Philadelphia, which is why carry ca ry stands for containment area for relocated Yankees, and eat car x is actually a Chinese company headquartered in London, there were some questions that came up about like, hey, with all the news about bite, dance, and tick tock and the security features, ie car X was really quick to say, doesn't apply to us. We don't touch any of the data. We don't touch the data, we just create the experience. So speaking of creating an experience that segues

Kyle Mountsier: 12:45

segue c k e restaurant holdings actually headquartered in my home city right near Nashville, the parent company of popular fast food chains, Carl's Jr, and Hardee's is taking a bold step towards automating drive throughs by partnering with AI companies. Preston presto, automation Open City and valiant AI to introduce voice ordering automation at drive thru locations across the country. Sounds amazing. Basically, the initiative is is the goal is to increase the accuracy, speed and revenue while addressing the obvious staffing shortages that they're dealing with right now. CK, CTO, their chief technology officer Phil Crawford said a pilot program with Presto showed positive results, recording a significant uptick in revenue due to the technology's ability to upsell customers. You know, this is like this. Well, this is the next version of what McDonald's did with the with the on screen ordering where you don't actually talk to a person and they recognize like a 25 cent per something like 25 or 30 cent per order increase increase the size of its ability to like, yeah, increase of the actual ticket. So just because of the ability to like present the user with the next best thing,

Paul Daly: 14:05

apple pies, but those Apple

Kyle Mountsier: 14:08

got them with the apple pies. And so, you know, they didn't have the way to do that in the drive thru. And this is a clear way to do that. It's interesting, because every nobody hates the walk, you know, over the drive thru thing, but removing that human element, there's always that kind of like interesting balance are, are people going to enjoy that or not? Now, if it's clear, it's clean. It's an easy process and you're not like I want a chicken, you know, a chicken burger and they come out with you know, the regular meat burger, then you know, if that doesn't happen, I think everyone's gonna be okay, but I don't want my fries instead of a shake or something like that. So

Paul Daly: 14:47

yeah, I mean, there's it we will see how it goes in like, obviously even in the auto space. We see a bunch of companies deploying AI to move customers around a call system to get things scheduled and appointments booked. So Uh, I mean, there's obviously, you know, I feel like the things you can say in a situation like that are a lot more unknown than something you're going to say with a defined menu with like, 50 or so items, where it's like, okay, it's going to be something like this, it seems like a little more of a controlled experience. But you know what it's going to avoid, you know, who does it most if everybody doesn't know, or whatever, but like you pulled to a Burger King, and it's like, Hey, how are you? Can I please place your order, blah, blah. I'm like, Oh, that was really pleasant. I'm like, I'll have this, this and this. And then you realize, like, that's not actually the person there. And then they're like, Please pull up. Yeah, I'm like, wait, wait a minute. Wait. So I can fix that. But granted, like, you know, the drive thru experience isn't usually a great one. And so it'll be, it'll be interesting to see how AI doesn't drive through. It feels like it needs to be like a little faster. We'll see how fast it goes. Right? Because people at the drive thru, they're ready to fire, they're hungry. They're in their car, they got somewhere to go. And it's like, if there's that, like three second pause between what you say and what comes back, and we'll see. But hey, in an earnings call precedency the Presto CEO, Rashad Suri said the company's AI never forgets to upsell and upsell is better than a human so well let the sales do the talking. I

Kyle Mountsier: 16:10

guess there it is. Hey, gotta get that money. Money. Money.

Paul Daly: 16:15

Yeah, well, we all gotta go get that money. You gotta go. serve people, right? Not all business. You can make a lot of money. You can also serve a lot of people. When you serve a lot of people. You make a lot of money. So go out there. It's Tuesday. Go search people make money all that

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