It’s anybody’s guess when it comes to future demand for EVs. KPMG is the latest to put a perspective out on the subject – drastically slashing timelines for EV adoption based on a survey of senior industry executives. KPMG says the surveyed executives reported a median expectation for EV adoption by 2030 to 35% of sales from 65% … Read More
Author: Roger C. Lanctot
To EV or NOT to EV?
The Smartphone Snitch in Your Pocket
The story in the New York Times came with a sensational headline: “Couple in Car Survive 300-foot Fall into a Canyon.” The canyon in question was Monkey Canyon in the Angeles National Forest outside Los Angeles and the couple survived, so the story goes, thanks to their satellite-connectivity-enhanced iPhone.
This is the kind… Read More
Regulators Wrestle with ‘Explainability’
The letter from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority (SFMTA) to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) shines a bright spotlight on a major weakness of current automated vehicle technology – explainability. The letter is in reply to a request for comment from interested parties by NHTSA… Read More
Don’t Lie to Me
Some things just really rile me up. Mark Zuckerberg testifying before Congress. Bernie Madoff explaining his investment strategy. Elon Musk inveighing against restrictions on free speech. But there is a new candidate for boiling my blood – word of a potential merger of vehicle data aggregators Wejo and Otonomo.
These two… Read More
Hyundai’s Hybrid Radio a First
Current owners of a wide range of Hyundai connected cars encompassing multiple model years are receiving or have received notification of the availability (i.e. eligibility) for a software upgrade that will connect their in-vehicle radio to the Internet. For those owners who receive and have this update installed they may not… Read More
Mobility is Dead; Long Live Mobility
What the hell is going on in the automotive industry. Every automotive executive is talking mobility, mobility, mobility while simultaneously divesting every mobility asset that has been amassed over the past 10 years of surging mobility mania.
The latest spinoff of a mobility asset was Volkswagen’s sale of its WeShare car … Read More
Requiem for a Self-Driving Prophet
In a few short years, self-driving tech enfant terrible George Hotz managed to get a rebuff from Tesla CEO Elon Musk and a brush back from both the California Department of Motor Vehicles and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) while single-handedly inventing the aftermarket for autonomous vehicle technology. … Read More
Musk: The Post-Truth Messiah
The hand-wringing over Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter began in earnest, Friday, as General Motors announced it would suspend advertising on the platform. Ford Motor Company, too, said it would take a step back.
The news of Musk’s completion of his Twitter acquisition completely eclipsed Mobileye’s hugely successful… Read More
GM’s Bad RTO Optics
The automotive industry has been uniquely whipsawed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Factories, dealerships, and offices were shuttered in its earliest days undercutting both supply and demand.
The industry impacts spread outward from these initial shocks with major auto shows folding their tents and ripples of supply chain disruptions… Read More
Super Cruise Saves OnStar, Industry
Listen in on any automotive podcast, earnings call, or attend any automotive industry event and you will hear about “software defined” cars and “service oriented architectures.” This euphemistic terminology obscures the reality that cars in most major markets are almost universally connected – even if the owners of those … Read More
Real men have fabs!