VW Opts Out of Increases, Big Autonomous Trucks, 1 Sentence Warning

Paul Daly: 0:26Morning, it is the last day of a 31 month or 31.day month closed. Kyle, how is everybody? How is everybody?We're excited we got thanks for talking about two news dealers.The people really want to get to the end of the world, we're gonna save that for the end.We'll say the end of the world for the show today. We are gonna get there. We're definitely gonna get there. I just feel like right now in the industry,so many moving pieces at the same time. It's starting to feel like summer, right? Oh, without a doubt, right? When

‍Kyle Mountsier: 1:06

you're having conversations with dealers this week, actually, yesterday, and both of them were kind of in this mode where like, you know,like, everyone kind of sits back. It's like, you know, it just kind of strange. Like,watch it here comes you know,

Paul Daly: 1:22

there's a vibe about it and you know it like, we always pay attention to events and the chatter and things and everything just takes this natural. Exhale moment right around the beginning of June.Except for us, I guess.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:37

Zero exhale, in our world, zero exhale

Paul Daly: 1:40

are too young to be exhaling

Kyle Mountsier: 1:42

absolutely not exhaling on the fact that we are just launching podcast interviews after podcast interviews. If you have not caught the AMPLIFi podcast,which we partnered with Reuters to put together you have to check it out. And specifically,our latest episode with Brandis drummer. From NCM associates,you have yeah crushes it, like go search amplify podcast today on all your pod classifier, if you could actually hang up the rest of this one, because I like I don't know what we're about to say. But the podcast that we did with her is amazing. Better gonna check it out.

Paul Daly: 2:17

What's the best way to search that deep amplify because there are few things within flight if you type in like amplify and like asoto, it probably is going to come

Kyle Mountsier: 2:24

up. Or if you just type in a Soto and go to our channel, you can actually find all of our podcasts being amplify, including auto collabs,which we haven't another episode out today with Bruce Miller,which was a ton of fun, we kind of got into the personality and the person of that. So we're just we're just bringing together a lot of people across the industry from different sides of in and just having conversations so that you can be aware of the moving parts of what's going on.

Paul Daly: 2:50

We have deemed ourselves the official mayor of the retail automotive industry,by the way, we have and so we're gonna be everywhere. We're gonna be in Atlanta Next week, no two weeks on the 14th. If you're in Atlanta or can get to Atlanta quickly. We are having our next DeSoto X regional event. It's going to be unbelievable. It's in the Buckhead theater. It's in the evening so you can come after the day of work. We're going to we're going to show more than cars episode together.It's gonna be a lot of fun. And then we're branding a live tonight show live band from nationals coming in Cirilo is coming in. We have a crazy guest list, the best one we've had so far. And we're going to pack this place full of people who care about this industry. We're going to learn a lot. We're going to remember like get some free swag, and have a great time go to a so two x.com. So two x.com We hope you got one right there. Be there. All right,let's talk about a little bit of news. Okay, here we go amidst growing pressure from emerging Chinese manufacturers.Volkswagen CEO, Ralph Branstetter, has announced the company's refusal to partake in China's discount battles emphasizing sustainable profits over market share. So basically,he says this, our market position is strong enough for us to focus on profitability,profitability, not sales volume,but market share. So basically,they've been the sales leader in China for years. And last year,BYD Chinese manufacturer overtook them as the best selling vehicle, right, but they still said and the statement continues, recent Volkswagen aspires to be the biggest international carmaker in China,apparently understanding like we're not going to be BYD. He said, But it's irrelevant if another national manufacturer sells more than we do. So basically, he's like, we're gonna be the biggest non Chinese automaker in China, and we're going to be really profitable doing it. And he says, If we achieve sales of more than 4million vehicles in this environment by 2030, we should play the trick your pet with the same profitability. He goes,this is a position we could very well live with. There it is,

Kyle Mountsier: 4:49

uh, you know, I like I appreciate it. I know that there's probably some, you know, some stock value to the comments that he's making here.But at the same time, just a focus on profitability,maintaining the course staying the course not fighting with price battles or local, you know, the way that the local manufacturer is doing it. We've just seen time and time again,when brands move in that direction, right? You look at some of the major brands that have not gone price shopping or not gone, you know, gone against their, their their common business practices stuck to their values, they seem to end up on the other side winning.And so I think like, this is kudos to stay the course. And to because profitability, what does that do? Make sure that you can build better vehicles have great employee culture, like do all of the things that secondary down the line that don't attribute like one to one sales volume?And, and I think that what happens out of that is the reason why, like legacy manufacturers stay around is because there is some level of stay the course now adjusting and moving with the times is still important from a technology perspective or an employee culture perspective.But this type of this type of move in this type of statement,I think is a big deal for Volkswagen and recognizing like they have a much bigger impact globally, as well. And not just in the Chinese market, I think is is kudos to them. Because BYD is still really only held to that Chinese market.

Paul Daly: 6:23

If you look at the brands that hold the line on profitability. There are brands that actually see themselves as brands and not companies. When you look at Volkswagen, right,like they do have this unique ability to build brand around their product. I mean, you like what they've done with the scout launch, and how they've repositioned it as America's next shot. Like how the heck is a European country positioning South America's next show

Kyle Mountsier: 6:52

on like,assuming the center in the manufacturing world, they're like, Yep, we're the middle.

Paul Daly: 6:59

Yeah, it's it's just,it's pretty amazing. So we'll see how that goes for them. But if history is any tell of the future. They kind of know what they're doing in that space speaking know what you're doing in a space segue. We're doing the Tour de the world today. So autonomous Evie freight company I ride is set to revolutionize the United Arab Emirates freight landscape partnering with the Ministry of Energy. I love it when it's the ministry of something. The Ministry of Energy and infrastructure to deploy a comprehensive electric autonomous freight network. So big trucks, moving things across the highway, autonomously covering 550 kilometers is about three and a 41 miles. The initiative includes 2000, just picture 2000 electric trucks and200 autonomous trucks. So UAE is not huge. No, I mean, it's only300 miles, right? So you think300 miles and 2000 trucks and200 autonomous trucks. So we have electric trucks. And these little autonomous structures are super cool, you got to click the link and see him an eight charging stations across the countries. They call it the Falcon rise grid. So basically,they have this grid, and it's kind of linear with a couple of branches. So think of like what a tree branch looks like main road, and then these little branches that go off of it.They're deploying autonomous vehicles to move freight EVs to move freight over 500 charging stations for these things. And it's expected to be rolled out and fully operational in less than five years. So it's crazy.So

Kyle Mountsier: 8:33

because yeah, I mean, it's basically the size of Tennessee, right. Actually,slightly smaller. Right. And so,you know, well, the engine miles

Paul Daly: 8:43

Yeah, that's like that's like Syracuse to Baltimore.

Kyle Mountsier: 8:47

Right? Yeah,exactly. So it's not huge. What my favorite part of this whole story outside of the fact that it's just cool that bunch of electric trucks and and autonomous trucks are going to be running all over the UAE is that the Ministry of Energy and infrastructure is crowded the Falcon rice grid.

Paul Daly: 9:06

The building looks like a falcon by the No, that's it. No. So this, this, this company I read is only seven years old. It's a Swedish company, they kind of debuted some new technology at South by Southwest, which is just super cool. In and of itself, they have these EVs that have these autonomous pods that kind of follow it, like a like a little dog, right? It just follows along it's about a third of the size of the big truck. And so like they they can have a driver in the Eevee they can have the autonomous pod following the human operated vehicle. They also are pioneering this remote this remote piloting system where it's you said when we were talking about this before the show, it feels like a little bit like gaming. Yeah, so you have these operators it actually looks exactly like it's

Kyle Mountsier: 9:51

like a three screen setup with with little like game controls. It's not it's not steering wheel. It's like little game controls like you were playing Nintendo back in the Today, and it's like having a little gaming experience, but running autonomous truck across the highway,

Paul Daly: 10:06

driving a 10,000pound. It is super cool

Kyle Mountsier: 10:09

though, like, I am wildly impressed. And, you know, just like the 5g infrastructure that's necessary to make decisions in real time like that is it has to be there,right? Like you can't have Wi Fi down. But still cool that like pushing the boundaries of innovation and for a smaller country with a big global economic impact, to be putting their foot down and saying, Hey,we're doing this and for I'm ready to partner with them.Kudos. Yeah,

Paul Daly: 10:39

it's gonna be fun,fun to see how that plays out.Speaking of things play out,yeah, see,

Kyle Mountsier: 10:45

there was a bunch of segues for that

Paul Daly: 10:52

clutch end of the world,

Kyle Mountsier: 10:54

this is the end of the world and a one sentence warning, we would have raised a collective eyebrow at just 24months ago, tech leaders and experts have asserted that the initial that the existential risk posed by artificial intelligence should be on par with avoiding nuclear war. So basically what happened was a statement came out published by a nonprofit called the Center of AI safety. Basically, they are they're a big proponent for AI safety standards. The Warning includes signers such as Sam Altman, the creative open AI,which is the the creator of chat GPT is that many of us know the gentleman Demi has to be of Google DeepMind, Dario emoti of anthropic among a whole bunch of other high profile public figures. And what is really,really wild about it, is that it was literally a one sentence,extremely clear. 22 Words 22Words was all it was. Yeah, wait one sentence, it reads, it ever reads like this, Hey, I'll read it, of mitigating the risk of extinction from Ai should be a global priority alongside other societal scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war. Bam,

Paul Daly: 12:15

that said, they that's no joke. They said they made the sense, they, you know,they could have put up a list of like, mornings and a list of your requirements and suggestions. But they made it so short, because they said, it makes it that much more important. If we put it into one sense, because people get lost in all the requirements. They wanted to make sure that everyone understood the dire nature of attention that is needed on this. You know,basically, they said, there's a very common misconception that even within the AI community,that there are only a handful,like a small handful minority of people who are Doomers. They said, people who think like this could go really, really wrong.So all these people got together to say like, no, no, no, no, it really could go really, really wrong. And a lot of people,smart people think that, um,apparently, you know, some significant players in the AI space, like meta did not sign it. What does that tell you? I mean, there's a lot of supervillain there's a lot of supervillain lore out.

Kyle Mountsier: 13:18

Well, Paul,here's the real kicker. Here's the real kicker. They use catchy Peter right? Ah, oh, God, Oh,God. No, that didn't happen.That's not real. They actually wrote the sentence. I'm just messing around,

Paul Daly: 13:32

you know, that though, really? Like, did they?Did they write a long sentence and be like, maybe there's a

Kyle Mountsier: 13:36

reality, like,take this up, you know, this shorter, write it up and put it under 2325 words, right? That's probably gonna happen. It could happen. But the reality is, is like, we just don't know what this is possible. I mean, just,you know, between the between our friends network and the people that are messing around with this, and like, really pushing the boundaries right now, what we're even utilizing it for, is there are so many capabilities, and it is It's so wild. I mean, the crazy fact that like, lawyers are trying to use this stuff, you know, and some of them, some of them are failing miserably, right? with it. A lot of riders, a lot of a lot of like, just a bunch of people, you know, there have been arrests over inappropriate information across other countries. So, like, we're starting to see these hinges of where we don't really understand its capabilities. So but for the for the large language, you know, large, large learning models out there. It's, it's,it's huge to say like, oh, the creators of those are the ones that are actually the most concerned. You know, that's when like, raise the eyebrows

Paul Daly: 14:52

whatever I mean,whatever. Like, I think we just put this in here so that we could be like, just cover our butts in case it does. We could be like we told you So we told you, and I don't think we did that. But But reality like tie this back down to, you know, if you're in an industry partner or if you're in a dealership, I guarantee you, we know because we've been leaning way into this in many different areas. There are ways GPT alone, just that one tool is going to make your life way easier. You should use it as much as possible, learn from it as much as possible,because it does actually translate into freeing up more of your time to pay attention to the human elements of your business. Yep. Right. So there's a little bit of a dichotomy there. But without a doubt, like we're big proponents of leveraging it. I think Dave Meltzer said it is the most powerful assistant you've ever had. Get it, get it? Well, we help you go ahead into this 31st day of the month into the close with a full head of steam. If you're an industry partner.Encourage your dealers if your dealers encourage your clients current your team will be here tomorrow.

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