00:00It is. I've been asked by my friends on the East Coast, like, when is autonomy finally going to arrive?
00:05And my answer is for the last year has been it already has.
00:08If you go to the West Coast and spend any time in San Francisco or L.A. or Phoenix or Austin, you see these.
00:14And they've become the majority of the rides that I take in San Francisco now.
00:19And so San Francisco's got the density of New York City and it has hills that New York City doesn't have.
00:25And so you could argue that Waymo has solved a more difficult problem already in San Francisco than they'll experience in New York.
00:33But you said it's pretty exciting news to hear that their their vehicles are out on the streets.
00:38They're mapping. They're not doing rides, but they're mapping in New York and Philly and Boston in Washington, D.C.
00:44And so I think finally the East Coast continued is going to get a taste of autonomous driving and how magical this is.
00:51It is magical. And, you know, you know, I have to just kind of point out, too.
00:55I mean, we're a little different than San Francisco. Pedestrians here, bikers as well, kind of have their own rules that aren't always compatible with the vehicles on the road.
01:03So they're going to way most definitely certainly going to have to have that learning curve to adjust to.
01:08But when you look at the technology behind it and particularly the competing technologies that we're seeing in the robo taxi and other autonomous vehicles, is there one in your view that you do think is better?
01:19And by better, I mean safer and more reliable.
01:22Yeah, I think to your point, you've got to lean towards safety to get the acceptance of the public and the acceptance of regulators.
01:28And there's an argument that is now a decade old inside of Tesla, which is, hey, if humans can drive cars with two eyes, we ought to be able to drive a car with eight eyes.
01:40And that's been the mantra there.
01:42And what that meant was is no LIDAR and no LIDAR for a couple of reasons, cost and then how it slows down the compute.
01:50And the challenge with human eyes, though, is we can't see through sun glare, we can't see through weather, we can't see through the dark, and we can't see around corners.
02:01And to your point on cyclists and pedestrians in Manhattan, LIDAR does see those.
02:07LIDAR can see through glare.
02:09LIDAR can see through weather.
02:10It can see through dark.
02:11And it can see through objects to the other side to see that there's a pedestrian coming out around that car.
02:16And so I think if you're leaning safety, you're leaning towards LIDAR, and that's what Waymo has deployed in its cars.
02:24And the cost of LIDAR has come way down.
02:27There is still the cost on the compute side.
02:30It slows the compute down to have an extra set of sensors.
02:35However, those sensors, I think, are a real nod towards safety and are necessary at this point.
02:42In addition to sort of the potential excitement that some people have for maybe what could be an autonomous future, it's also putting just electric vehicles overall back in the spotlight.
02:54I'm sure you've seen some of the recent data from various car companies showing a slump in EV sales.
03:01That sort of big boom in interest that we had over the last few years, at least for right now, seems to have cooled.
03:06And I'm curious as to what you think is driving that.
03:09Is that more about sentiment? Is it about availability, price, what?
03:13I think, well, it's a different question geographically.
03:17So if you look internationally, the share of EVs continues to climb all over the world.
03:23And then if you look at pockets of the United States, Colorado, where I'm from, 25% of cars now sold in Colorado are EVs.
03:31And that's this year.
03:32And GM has doubled its volumes and its share in EVs so far this year.
03:40But as you said, there's been some politicization of the drivetrain of the car.
03:47And then the removal of the EV tax credit and the leasing availability for folks of all incomes to claim that tax credit is going away at the end of September.
04:01So I think we're going to see demand headwinds.
04:03And therefore, carmakers that are positioned on both sides of the aisle with gas and electric, I think, are going to be able to play their portfolios into that situation.
04:15But there will be challenges for the EV-only carmakers.
04:18Absolutely. And we've seen some incentives.
04:20And it kind of gets back to the autonomous driving question because, at least here in New York, a lot of the incentives are coming from regulations with regards to fleets.
04:28Here in New York City, there's a lot of mandates about how cabs, anything licensed by the Taxi and Limousine Commission, has to achieve a certain gas mileage,
04:37which just means that for a driver, it's usually just easier just to go out and buy an EV.
04:42What I've not seen them buying, John, are Teslas.
04:45They're buying Fiskars.
04:45They're buying Rivians.
04:46They're buying a lot of other vehicles that, frankly, didn't really exist a few years ago.
04:50And I am curious if you do think we are truly seeing a broadening now of brand availability in the EV space.
04:57Yeah, I think there's not only a broadening of availability.
05:01I think there are more than 60 models that have been introduced on the EV side over the past 18 months.
05:07But you're also seeing now price competition.
05:09And you mentioned this before, and I think that's really important to adoption.
05:11The Chevy Equinox EV is the best-selling EV in GM's portfolio by volume.
05:18It is a car that is $27,500 with 300 miles of range.
05:23And so I think you see not only rideshare drivers flocking towards that, but you also see the general population flocking towards that,
05:30because it's competitive with the gas-equivalent crossover utility vehicle.
05:37And it's a great driving experience with a lot of space.
05:41And as the EVs become price competitive, now people have a choice.
05:46And they've got a viable choice that may not require the EV tax credit.
05:51I have to ask you, of course, John, about Tesla and, more importantly, its leadership.
05:57And I know there's been a lot of questions.
05:58We don't have to get too deep into the politics.
06:00But there are a lot of people looking at how much Tesla was a pioneer in this space.
06:05And what sort of allows it, I guess, to hold on to its relative dominance, its relative relevance, if you will,
06:13and whether that means you need a new leader in that CEO seat?
06:16I think, you know, if you look at, if you do the analysis as a car company, Tesla, as you said, has been wildly successful.
06:25They owned 90% plus of the market.
06:28It was natural as other competition came in that market share would fall, and their market share has been falling.
06:35And their shipments are roughly the same, down a little.
06:40And I think, you know, what's key in any product market, whether it's phones or cars or computers, is you've got to have a really compelling product lineup.
06:52And that product lineup has to be modern.
06:55It's got to be attractive with attractive features.
06:58And it's been years since the product lineup was updated at Tesla.
07:03And so it's showing age.
07:05And that's difficult when you've got so much competition coming in with fresh product, not only in the United States, but in Europe and in China.
07:13So it's hard to hold your ground without great product.
07:15But they've got a fortress balance sheet.
07:18Tesla's got, you know, more than $30 billion in cash, so they can withstand the storm.
07:22But they do need to really return, I believe, to really focus in on the product and making magical product with newness.
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