Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tex Stuff from dot Com.
Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland,
Speaker 1: and I know you're all dying to hear the exciting
Speaker 1: conclusion of the ten the obstacles at the Connected Car,
Speaker 1: and that is why I have brought Scott Benjamin back
Speaker 1: here to introduce the show again because the episode ran
Speaker 1: way too long, so we had split and we are back. Hello, Jonathan.
Speaker 1: We we had a lot to say, and uh man,
Speaker 1: there's still a lot more to get to hear and
Speaker 1: some some interesting stuff. I think it is coming on,
Speaker 1: you know, coming up soon. Yeah, let's get right to it. Well,
Speaker 1: the next one, I really want to hear your your
Speaker 1: thoughts on this one because this is the one that
Speaker 1: I thought, well, if there's a if there's an item
Speaker 1: on this list that Scott's gonna have something to say,
Speaker 1: it's going to be this one. Number five was connected
Speaker 1: cars will likely be shared cars. So Forbes is actually
Speaker 1: talking about the nature of car ownership itself changing and
Speaker 1: that there's a move to shared ownership models like like
Speaker 1: zip car, the zip car service, where you don't actually
Speaker 1: own a vehicle, you have a you know you you
Speaker 1: subscribe to a service where you have access to vehicles,
Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, you turn that
Speaker 1: back over to the service and then you go on
Speaker 1: your married little weight. And Forbes points out that this
Speaker 1: there will be new business opportunities with connected cars, such
Speaker 1: as customer service and power management for electric vehicles. I
Speaker 1: don't really see how that fits in with the It
Speaker 1: almost feels like that was something that they felt. This
Speaker 1: also is a thing that we need to put somewhere,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't really fit here, but doesn't fit anywhere
Speaker 1: else either. So we're just gonna here too. And I'll
Speaker 1: tell you what my overall impression of shared cars. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not one for public transportation, right, kind of fits
Speaker 1: with being the car guys here, right, I mean, I
Speaker 1: like my own personal vehicle and I like to be
Speaker 1: in my own personal space, and I'm just not one
Speaker 1: for the train or the bus or any that. I understand.
Speaker 1: I understand its purpose and I know it it fits
Speaker 1: well here in the city, but um, I'm just not
Speaker 1: that guy. And so my my idea of of automakers,
Speaker 1: you know, they have to respond. I mean, I understand
Speaker 1: why they do it, I get it, but they're kind
Speaker 1: of jumping on this model that was built or based
Speaker 1: on the bicycle sharing programs that were so popular, And
Speaker 1: that's exactly what they're saying, Well, it worked for for bicycles,
Speaker 1: why not make this work for cars. And there's a
Speaker 1: lot of reasons why car sharing has its problems. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's Oh I was just gonna say, I think I
Speaker 1: think if you look at it from a global standpoint,
Speaker 1: I could be understand forbes point a little more in
Speaker 1: that I could see certain certain cultures in Europe, for example,
Speaker 1: uh taking to the shared car model more easily than
Speaker 1: the United States. But in the US in general and
Speaker 1: specifically the Southeast, specifically the city of Atlanta, we car
Speaker 1: culture is a big part of our identity, right. Car
Speaker 1: ownership is a big part of who we are. And
Speaker 1: now you might live someplace like New York City where
Speaker 1: the population density, the public transportation options, and other things
Speaker 1: like just the scarcity of resources for land for parking
Speaker 1: mean that owning a car there might not make sense
Speaker 1: for you. If you live in Atlanta and you don't
Speaker 1: have a car, it's really hard to get around. And
Speaker 1: there are a lot of cities in the United States
Speaker 1: that are like that. And I just to me. I
Speaker 1: think saying that car ownership is going towards this share
Speaker 1: car model is being a little generous. I don't think
Speaker 1: that's the case universally. All Right, well, car makers are
Speaker 1: doing this. I'm gonna surprise you a little bit here
Speaker 1: at the end with the last thing that I want
Speaker 1: to mention on this. But, um, they are doing this already.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's the BMW Drive Now program, there's the
Speaker 1: Mercedes Ben's Car to Go program, which is like car
Speaker 1: letting the number to go program, and they're doing that
Speaker 1: with their smart car platforms. So then it's not the
Speaker 1: full size Mercedes that they're doing it with, of course. Um,
Speaker 1: but I think that, you know, programs like this, I mean,
Speaker 1: they can kind of alienate drivers who also like to
Speaker 1: drive their own cars. So there's there's another solution here
Speaker 1: that I think is maybe the best one. And this
Speaker 1: is the best one that I've heard of so far.
Speaker 1: This is the program from Autie. It's OUTI solution. I
Speaker 1: don't know if it actually has a name. It's just
Speaker 1: kind of the Audi car sharing program. And this is
Speaker 1: one that is different than from the others, and that
Speaker 1: you pay one monthly fee or one one price and
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's monthly or yearly or whatever,
Speaker 1: but um, it's kind of like a lease cost would
Speaker 1: be your price would be for a vehicle a flat rate,
Speaker 1: and then you have your choice of three different vehicles
Speaker 1: at any time you want. And the way it works
Speaker 1: is that, let's say that you you choose from like
Speaker 1: an A one or a T T for for city use,
Speaker 1: you know, something that you can you know, commute and
Speaker 1: economically right understand, and uh, then maybe on the weekend
Speaker 1: or something, you need to, um, you know, go out
Speaker 1: into the country for a trip through uh, you know,
Speaker 1: wine country or wherever, and you want to rent a convertible.
Speaker 1: We don't have to rent the convertible. You already have
Speaker 1: access to it through this, through this outide car sharing things.
Speaker 1: So you just you know, notify them you're gonna pick
Speaker 1: up this model there, you're gonna drop off the other
Speaker 1: one that you have, and then you know, later on
Speaker 1: you've got some friends that want to go to the
Speaker 1: movies or something, you can pick up a Q five
Speaker 1: crossover from them and you can take five or seven
Speaker 1: of your friends out to the movies. UM, seek your
Speaker 1: choice of three different vehicles at in any way you
Speaker 1: want throughout the month or the year, or however you
Speaker 1: want to break it down. Um, And it's just a
Speaker 1: way of you know, you drop it off, you pick
Speaker 1: up what you need, and then you drop that off
Speaker 1: again and pick up what you need, and it's just
Speaker 1: this continuous cycle. I suppose there's gonna be some you know,
Speaker 1: we don't have that available until you know, Sunday type
Speaker 1: of situations. But um, for the most part, you're able
Speaker 1: to choose the vehicle that you want because they know
Speaker 1: that let's say Lisa Car and you're kind of you're
Speaker 1: tied to that. Then if you want to lease an
Speaker 1: economical A one or T T or something like that,
Speaker 1: there's nowhere to haul anything. But you may need that
Speaker 1: for for moving, you know, helping a friend move. You
Speaker 1: may need to get a crossover or a full sized vehicle.
Speaker 1: So it really opens up this, uh, this this area
Speaker 1: that no other auto manufacturers doing that. I mean, you
Speaker 1: could always rent a vehicle like that, of course, you know,
Speaker 1: any anywhere you can get budget or hurts or whoever.
Speaker 1: But um, this is through a manufacturer, and it's totally different.
Speaker 1: It is interesting to me. And it may also be
Speaker 1: that there's some generational differences as well. Right like that
Speaker 1: that as we see the younger generations come up, that
Speaker 1: their idea of of ownership is different from the previous generations.
Speaker 1: So it could very well be that I'm starting to
Speaker 1: get again to that age where I start getting set
Speaker 1: in certain expectations and when those are are subverted, I
Speaker 1: get antsy. Well, the the idea of sharing a car
Speaker 1: gives me hives. Yeah, well, and it could literally do
Speaker 1: that too. Uh. The next one on our list, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes we get get a little dirty here
Speaker 1: on tex stuff. Um, the next one is the question
Speaker 1: about built in or brought in connections, which is a
Speaker 1: great debate and we kind of touched on this elier
Speaker 1: with the idea of the auto manufacturers partnering with mobile companies. Um.
Speaker 1: The idea here being, is the connection built into the
Speaker 1: car itself or is the car a conduit that connects
Speaker 1: to your personal mobile device. So if you have a smartphone,
Speaker 1: you maybe through Bluetooth, connect to your car, and essentially
Speaker 1: your smartphone is the thing that's providing all the apps,
Speaker 1: the connectivity, all that. Your car is essentially a user
Speaker 1: interface and display that can tap into that stuff. So
Speaker 1: what we have here is a hardware issue. Okay, so
Speaker 1: I understand that now. Also, I want to say that
Speaker 1: I don't think this is a problem. Really, it's not
Speaker 1: an obstacle. I think this is just the automakers trying
Speaker 1: to catch up with what's going on because that five
Speaker 1: year cycle or you know close to it that we're
Speaker 1: talking about versus uh. You know the software that's updated
Speaker 1: for our phones and all the apps that we can
Speaker 1: bring into our cars. Now, that is so fast. I
Speaker 1: mean it's daily you can come up with with new apps.
Speaker 1: How to auto manufacturers keep up with that being able
Speaker 1: to allow their systems to interact with that, It just
Speaker 1: doesn't work that way. Um. So I think it's just
Speaker 1: happening so fast right now that that they're just trying
Speaker 1: to catch up. Um. The thing you know we should
Speaker 1: probably mention here is that there there are some programs
Speaker 1: or systems in the work. I don't know how to
Speaker 1: describe what these things are, but um like Apple car Play. Um,
Speaker 1: and there's also the Open Automotive Alliance that we should
Speaker 1: probably talk about a minute. So, so Apple car play,
Speaker 1: how do you understand Apple car Play? So, Apple car
Speaker 1: Play is a system that would tie in with an
Speaker 1: iOS device and Apple Phone iPhone UM, and so it's
Speaker 1: it's the thing that allows you to connect directly to iOS.
Speaker 1: So your phone is providing the power, it's providing the
Speaker 1: not not literally the power, but the connectivity. But your
Speaker 1: cars controls are mapped to commands to your phone. So
Speaker 1: let's say that you wanted to you have your music
Speaker 1: streaming through the phone, then your car control, like if
Speaker 1: you hit fast forward, it's mapped to the control on
Speaker 1: your iPhone that would be fast forward through that song.
Speaker 1: So really that's just a simple this button needs to
Speaker 1: be mapped to this function kind of thing. Beyond that,
Speaker 1: it is it brings things like uh iPhone apps into
Speaker 1: the cabin of a car. I assume it's got a
Speaker 1: limitation on those because you probably don't want the driver
Speaker 1: of the vehicle playing Angry Birds as they're speeding down
Speaker 1: the highway. But things like navigation or notifications, that sort
Speaker 1: of stuff gets pulled in, okay. And then there's the
Speaker 1: Open Automotive Alliance, which is just kind of the Android
Speaker 1: answer to that whole thing, right right, And that could
Speaker 1: be either a Boden or Broaden system, Like you could
Speaker 1: have a car manufactured that is essentially if you think
Speaker 1: about it, think about that entertainment guidance system whatever, think
Speaker 1: of that is just a glorified smartphone, but it's in
Speaker 1: the form factor of an entertainment system in your car. Okay,
Speaker 1: I got it. Now, there's a few big manufacturers that
Speaker 1: have already joined the Open Automotive Alliance. There's Toyota, Audi, BMW, Kia,
Speaker 1: and I think more of Joint. I just don't have
Speaker 1: the updated notes on what you know, who's there. Now.
Speaker 1: One thing that I think we should just touch on
Speaker 1: here is that this also does it or does it
Speaker 1: not require the auto manufacturer to kind of create the
Speaker 1: ways for the the the user to interact with these devices.
Speaker 1: So UM, doesn't that change the way they design interiors
Speaker 1: or the interface of of UM the vehicle itself. I mean,
Speaker 1: so wouldn't I guess it would be beneficial for them
Speaker 1: to UM to to kind of work on controls that
Speaker 1: are not universal, because that would be impossible but the manufacturers,
Speaker 1: but UM, maybe for a particular manufacturer, maybe like for Toyota,
Speaker 1: that they would design a user interface that would remain
Speaker 1: constant for I don't know how how long should they
Speaker 1: leave it remain constant, like maybe five years um without
Speaker 1: change in every model year, so that it's something that
Speaker 1: you can you can get in and you know where
Speaker 1: the buttons are, you know what everything does, you know
Speaker 1: what what every feature and function is, just without even looking.
Speaker 1: And this this is a great point you're bringing up, Scott,
Speaker 1: because uh, these operating systems update on a yearly basis,
Speaker 1: sometimes more than once a year. So sometimes you'll get
Speaker 1: updates to an operating system, and sometimes those updates dramatically
Speaker 1: change the way the user interface looks. Now normally the
Speaker 1: stuff that you have is more or less in the
Speaker 1: same place as it was before the update happened. Because
Speaker 1: the you know, Google and Apple both know that if
Speaker 1: you mess with an operating system too much, you're gonna
Speaker 1: lose your customer base. You want to make it useful,
Speaker 1: you want to make it accessible, you want to make
Speaker 1: it engaging, but you don't want to make so many
Speaker 1: changes that no one knows where their stuff is anymore.
Speaker 1: That would be a much bigger problem inside a car,
Speaker 1: as you point out, So if you have your car
Speaker 1: connected to a specific type of smartphone, how do you
Speaker 1: make sure that the experience in the car remains consistent
Speaker 1: even as the smartphone you're using is becoming more and
Speaker 1: more sophisticated, and how do you not alienate your your driver? Who?
Speaker 1: Who says? Why is this such an amazing experience when
Speaker 1: I use it on my phone? But it feels like
Speaker 1: a dumbed down experience when I'm in my car. And
Speaker 1: to take this to the to another level, I guess
Speaker 1: is that you know the the the location of the buttons,
Speaker 1: the location of you know, everything that you access as
Speaker 1: a driver that you want you want to remain um
Speaker 1: focused on the road, of course, you want to be
Speaker 1: You don't want to have to hunt around for the
Speaker 1: for the one button UNI exactly right. So I've heard
Speaker 1: that manufacturers this kind of comes from that Popular Science
Speaker 1: article as well, um that they're looking to gaming controllers
Speaker 1: as inspiration for for automotive interiors. And it makes perfect
Speaker 1: sense because you know, how long does it take you
Speaker 1: really to learn the buttons of a gaming controller. It
Speaker 1: doesn't take that long. So you know what what button
Speaker 1: maps to what command, then you adapt to it very quickly. Sure,
Speaker 1: I mean I know it changes between game, you know,
Speaker 1: from game to game, but that can also be extrapolated
Speaker 1: to what we're talking about here as well. But but
Speaker 1: you know where that button is, you know where the
Speaker 1: A button is, you know where the up and down
Speaker 1: buttons are. If they could do that for automobiles, and
Speaker 1: then sure, you have to learn that one time. You
Speaker 1: have to learn that. You know all the features and
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, all the buttons and functions and everything. But
Speaker 1: once you know that, then it's almost like sitting down
Speaker 1: at a keyboard, you know, and you don't have to
Speaker 1: look when you type UM. It's that similar experience. You
Speaker 1: know that, well, I know how to do that. They've changed,
Speaker 1: they may have changed what I'm accessing, but I know
Speaker 1: how to get there right well. And there's some other
Speaker 1: issues here. I think that this is truly one of
Speaker 1: the real obstacles to the connected car, because if you
Speaker 1: go with a built in system, then the car manufacturers
Speaker 1: have to figure out the best way to create a
Speaker 1: user interface, right. They have to design that user interface.
Speaker 1: One of the attractive things about going with the brought
Speaker 1: in connection, where you're relying upon someone like Apple or
Speaker 1: Google to provide the operating system, is that they've been
Speaker 1: working on that for years. They're experts at these operating
Speaker 1: systems and user interfaces and how to make it UM uh,
Speaker 1: intuitive and engaging and useful. They the car manufacturers would
Speaker 1: have to reinvent the wheel. They'd have to be coming
Speaker 1: at this from a totally new perspective as opposed to
Speaker 1: relying upon the expertise of companies that have made you know,
Speaker 1: the reason why the Android phone and iOS are the
Speaker 1: dominant smartphones is largely because of the user interface and
Speaker 1: the experience. So the R and D is already done
Speaker 1: for them. They just kind of just say, we're going
Speaker 1: to allow you access to our vehicle. Uh, make it work. Now.
Speaker 1: The challenge with that is which one do you pick?
Speaker 1: Do you pick iOS or do you pick Android? And
Speaker 1: if you try to create a system that can work
Speaker 1: with both, because you could have a Bluetooth connected system
Speaker 1: that works with both phones. But if you're talking about
Speaker 1: something where you're you're accessing apps and you are trying
Speaker 1: to load in different types of software, then you that
Speaker 1: makes a lot harder because iOS and Android works so
Speaker 1: differently that the layout the display for certain apps could
Speaker 1: be very different, which means that if you have one phone,
Speaker 1: it might be an ideal experience, but if you have
Speaker 1: the other phone, it might not be so ideal. So
Speaker 1: these are tough questions. Do you do you say, all right,
Speaker 1: if you have an iPhone, this system works perfectly. If
Speaker 1: you have an Android phone, you should get an iPhone?
Speaker 1: Like do you do that or do you say? Listen,
Speaker 1: no one's gonna be totally happy. But no matter what
Speaker 1: phone you have, it's gonna work with the system to
Speaker 1: some degree. I mean, it's it's a tough question. This
Speaker 1: next one, number seven. I think we can spend about
Speaker 1: ten seconds on this happen. And then because we're already
Speaker 1: touching on off, just this last discussion, it's already touched
Speaker 1: on stuff from number eight that I want to get
Speaker 1: into quick. So, um, this is who will pay for
Speaker 1: connected car services? Um, well, again, this just goes right
Speaker 1: back to the bundled services, subscriptions things like that. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know what more we can really say about it.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you the driver pace to pay, and you
Speaker 1: know that that is rolled down to us no matter what. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: whether whether it's rolled down into a sticker price where
Speaker 1: somehow there's been a negotiation between the auto manufacturer and
Speaker 1: the carrier saying listen, we're gonna build in x amount
Speaker 1: into the sticker price of this car. You guys get
Speaker 1: that amount and then in return you have perpetual service
Speaker 1: for that cars system, and then there's no subscription. I
Speaker 1: don't think that world is going to happen. I think
Speaker 1: the world that's gonna happen is that there will always
Speaker 1: be some form of subscription service and you will have
Speaker 1: a monthly bill, whether that's something that's added onto your
Speaker 1: smartphone or it's separate. I think that's what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: All Right. I'm totally unco comfortable with the idea of
Speaker 1: subscription service from my car. And unfortunately, when you think
Speaker 1: about a connected car, you have to imagine that a
Speaker 1: lot of these services are going to be key to
Speaker 1: the operation of that vehicle in some way. I'm going
Speaker 1: to be checking out the used car lots. Yeah, for
Speaker 1: a long long time from now, we'll see Scott will
Speaker 1: be driving around the student baker that Fozzy Bear had
Speaker 1: in the mouth of movie Fight the Power. All right,
Speaker 1: So this is the one that I will have a
Speaker 1: question for you on this. But this is number eight.
Speaker 1: How many apps should overloaded drivers be able to access?
Speaker 1: And this is exactly what we were talking about, how
Speaker 1: but it's more of more of a question of like
Speaker 1: what's the limit because people are already distracted. There's so
Speaker 1: much going on while people are driving, and uh, I
Speaker 1: know everybody has a different threshold for this. I understand that.
Speaker 1: I know there's some people and now they shouldn't, But
Speaker 1: I know some people feel comfortable looking at their phone
Speaker 1: and texting while they're driving. They shouldn't do it, obviously,
Speaker 1: but some people say, I can do that, no problem.
Speaker 1: I haven't had a problem yet, not that I recommend
Speaker 1: or condone it or anything, but I understand and that
Speaker 1: some people are better at that than others. Other people
Speaker 1: can't even look in the rear view mirror without swerving
Speaker 1: out of their lane. That's just the way it is.
Speaker 1: But when I think about this, I think about all
Speaker 1: the stuff that's been added to a driver's kind of
Speaker 1: uh not response. It's not really responsibility, it's they're they're
Speaker 1: electing to do this stuff. So, um, when I was younger,
Speaker 1: I mean not not much younger, I mean maybe even
Speaker 1: ten years ago. Now I think about it, Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: there were so many other types of distraction. Of course
Speaker 1: summer included now, but like kids in the car or
Speaker 1: even adult passengers too in some cases, No, I know
Speaker 1: if your adults. Suits certainly fall into the distraction category,
Speaker 1: eating in the car, things like that makeup application in
Speaker 1: the morning. Here's one. How long has it been since
Speaker 1: you've seen anybody reading a newspaper in a car? Because
Speaker 1: that used to be common to see somebody with a
Speaker 1: newspaper or a novel in front of them. Took a
Speaker 1: cab in New York City, no kidding, but but I
Speaker 1: mean that was that was kind of the level of
Speaker 1: and and now, of course they're gonna look at a
Speaker 1: kindle or they're gonna have their phone out and they're
Speaker 1: gonna be reading that way. But how long has it
Speaker 1: been since he was seeing somebody with a newspaper? I mean,
Speaker 1: that's not that's that's that's true. I don't know. It's
Speaker 1: it's something that the side of the times, I guess maybe,
Speaker 1: or shaving. I've seen people shaving while they're driving. I've
Speaker 1: heard of it. Yeah, I've never seen it. Electric shape,
Speaker 1: I don't think so. Yeah, someone in the back seat
Speaker 1: actually giving them the shape their driver car driver side
Speaker 1: uh seat is reclined back like yeah, yeah, the hot
Speaker 1: towel and everything. Okay, no, nothing like that. But my
Speaker 1: question to you is this now they're talking about what
Speaker 1: will there be a limit of the number of apps
Speaker 1: that you can you can access? And I don't even
Speaker 1: know if that's the answer, because some apps are more
Speaker 1: distracting than others. But but my question for you is
Speaker 1: do you feel that drivers are already at their limit
Speaker 1: now or do you think that they could actually function
Speaker 1: well if they were given even more distractions where they
Speaker 1: kind of just adapt. Would they evolved to the point
Speaker 1: where yeah, I can take on one or two more things,
Speaker 1: and then later yeah I can take on one or
Speaker 1: two more things and just keep going like that. I
Speaker 1: think it all depends on the implementation. So for example,
Speaker 1: if you're acted car can do things like start an
Speaker 1: internet radio station, pull up a navigation uh a navigation
Speaker 1: program to tell you where to go, and then also
Speaker 1: occasionally give you notifications. But let's say that the only
Speaker 1: thing that you are actually able to see is the
Speaker 1: navigation and that the radio stuff is in the background,
Speaker 1: and that the notifications are all audio, so that you're
Speaker 1: hearing the the notification but you're not reading it. I
Speaker 1: think that would be one way of getting around this,
Speaker 1: where you're not creating even more of a distracting environment.
Speaker 1: I think there are other ways that you could if
Speaker 1: it were like a typical smartphone, where you might have
Speaker 1: an app open and a notification comes out over on
Speaker 1: top of that and and blocks your view and as
Speaker 1: you read something that would be really dangerous. Um, the
Speaker 1: number thing is interesting to me because not just for
Speaker 1: the number of apps that could potentially distract the person.
Speaker 1: I think you could. Again, if you're running it in
Speaker 1: such a way where a lot of stuff is running
Speaker 1: in the background, that's not as big a deal. But
Speaker 1: the number is also interesting because if it gives you
Speaker 1: unlimited ability to download apps to your to your car,
Speaker 1: whether it's through your phone or it's something through a
Speaker 1: native system on the car itself, that's a security issue.
Speaker 1: It's a vulnerability. It should decides that number. Is it five,
Speaker 1: is it ten? Is it a hundred? I mean, what
Speaker 1: is it? And even even if you've decided a number,
Speaker 1: if someone has designed a poorly made app, or maybe
Speaker 1: they've done it on purpose where it creates a security
Speaker 1: vulnerability to your car's computer system, that's a big problem.
Speaker 1: And that kind of goes back again. We sort of
Speaker 1: talked about that in the self driving car episode, about
Speaker 1: this idea of a car that can can accept incoming
Speaker 1: communication from the outside world. That's a security thing that
Speaker 1: you've got to you've got to consider it. And so
Speaker 1: that's a that's an unanswered question. So I see that
Speaker 1: as a true obstacle. That's problem. That's a big problem.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's insurmountable. I think it's something that
Speaker 1: we can certainly uh figure out. But it's one of
Speaker 1: those things that I hope gets figured out in the
Speaker 1: R and D lab before it ever becomes a a
Speaker 1: you know, standard in consumer vehicles. You hope there's not
Speaker 1: some automotive board at General Motors or something with people
Speaker 1: that really have never downloaded an app that have decided, well,
Speaker 1: we're gonna limit at ten, because that seems like a
Speaker 1: right nun. Now, I know there's a there's a boardroom
Speaker 1: that has a bunch of people. I mean I've worked
Speaker 1: for I've worked for people who had me print out
Speaker 1: their emails, So I know that those folks are out there,
Speaker 1: and I know what you're saying, and I mean it'll
Speaker 1: be just a mix of the two. I think that's
Speaker 1: probably what's gonna happen. Yep, yep, agreed. So uh, the
Speaker 1: next one, I don't know if we could actually talk
Speaker 1: intelligently about this. Yeah, maybe we we Well, it seems
Speaker 1: like we've maybe just briefly talked about this in passing
Speaker 1: in the hallway maybe or something. Number nine is all
Speaker 1: about self driving cars, which is interesting because connecting car
Speaker 1: does not necessarily have to have anything to do with
Speaker 1: self driving, although we are, like we said, seeing more
Speaker 1: and more of those elements that that are necessary for
Speaker 1: a self driving car make their way into our vehicles.
Speaker 1: But says self driving cars will arrive, but not right now,
Speaker 1: and Forbes argues that we'll see more driver assist options
Speaker 1: that developing cars that but that a truly autonomous self
Speaker 1: driving car isn't in the cards yet. I think, Scott,
Speaker 1: I think you and I both agree that that's true.
Speaker 1: I don't see that as an obstacle for connected cars though, No,
Speaker 1: I don't see as an obstacle either. I think again,
Speaker 1: this is one of the facilitators I guess that you're
Speaker 1: trying to build towards that, and I don't see it
Speaker 1: as any kind of obstacle. Really, Yeah, I think I
Speaker 1: think there are a lot of different UH disciplines involved
Speaker 1: in creating connected cars and self driving cars that are
Speaker 1: ultimately converging on what is the car of the future.
Speaker 1: But they're they're independent as well. They're not they're not
Speaker 1: so closely related that if one falls behind the other,
Speaker 1: one also falls behind. You know what this is bringing
Speaker 1: bring up two points and this maybe this may lead
Speaker 1: into my Elon Musk bit here. But um, since we've
Speaker 1: last talked, since we had there are our autonomous car episode,
Speaker 1: and that's not long ago. Um, this this Popular Science
Speaker 1: article came out and again it was a real you know,
Speaker 1: eyebrow razor for me because there's some amazing stuff in there.
Speaker 1: But they're talking about even moving up autonomous vehicles, truly
Speaker 1: autonomous vehicles, even a lot closer than we we said
Speaker 1: in that episode. So uh, you know, there's the Google Car,
Speaker 1: which I think we talked about. That was a car
Speaker 1: that was designed in Detroit, but you know, built in Detroit,
Speaker 1: but then it goes to Mountain View to be outfitted
Speaker 1: with all the Google driving technology. Self driving technology doesn't
Speaker 1: have steering wheel, doesn't have pedals anything like that. Um,
Speaker 1: pretty futuristic. We'll see how that goes. But it's right
Speaker 1: now just being developed in or tested in um more
Speaker 1: like a test track area. Really it's a security area. Um,
Speaker 1: not on the city streets. Like there are other self
Speaker 1: driving vehicles, are right, the ones that are just a
Speaker 1: converted by the way. The bad news about those cars
Speaker 1: that that stuff that they outfit it with the gear,
Speaker 1: it's like seventy five dollars per vehicle. Yeah, often the
Speaker 1: gear is way more expensive than the car. It's that
Speaker 1: plus the price of the car. So that's expensive. See
Speaker 1: one of those when I was out in California, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was pretty cool. Well I was visiting the Google campus,
Speaker 1: so okay, yeah, a little better chance than right, And
Speaker 1: it's like fishing a barrel, all right. Um, And then
Speaker 1: Nissan is talking about doing an autonomous leaf. Mercedes Benz
Speaker 1: is now saying the end of the decade and I
Speaker 1: don't remember if we said that or not for the
Speaker 1: intelligent drive system. Um, of course, Toyota, BMW, GM, they
Speaker 1: all have something in the works. And then of course
Speaker 1: GM's uh semi automated connected car would be the super
Speaker 1: Cruise system and that's coming out in the Cadillac and
Speaker 1: I think we mentioned that one. But they are saying
Speaker 1: that the development time of all this is going to
Speaker 1: be really really pushed up. Would you say it's accelerated.
Speaker 1: What's it's accelerated? The punt a little bit of one
Speaker 1: well one where we were worked, hey on one glass thing,
Speaker 1: and I don't know where to put this, so maybe
Speaker 1: this is where it goes um elon musk you know,
Speaker 1: Tesla motors and you know we've talked about that too, right,
Speaker 1: the cars as a platform. And again, I know we've
Speaker 1: talked about platforms throughout here. So I'm trying to find
Speaker 1: a spot to put this in because this is impressive
Speaker 1: to me, the overall plan that he has. And I
Speaker 1: don't think a lot of people will really know what
Speaker 1: the overall goal was because recently, you know, he opened
Speaker 1: up all of his patents relating to the Tesla electric
Speaker 1: car technology for anybody to use, right, and said, you're
Speaker 1: able to you know, anybody can use all of my stuff.
Speaker 1: It's fine. This is the only way that we're gonna
Speaker 1: get rapid innovation is by creating this this open source
Speaker 1: development type of system. Right. So he's allowing that, and
Speaker 1: everybody says, well, that's fantastic, what a what a what
Speaker 1: a benevolent gesture? You know, this is amazing that you're
Speaker 1: doing this. But it's a very very savvy business decision
Speaker 1: that he's made here because, um, you know, not only
Speaker 1: does it make his product grow that much faster, you know,
Speaker 1: he can focus on other things as well. And he's
Speaker 1: also you know, with with the Tesla S Model S. Um,
Speaker 1: he's actually gained capital enough to build that giga factory
Speaker 1: that he's talking about Nevada. I'm sure you've talked about
Speaker 1: or maybe read about that, right. Um, there's the factory
Speaker 1: that's mainly uh, focused on building things like batteries, his
Speaker 1: electric car batteries, right, and it's this this huge facility
Speaker 1: in Nevada. Um. But here's the thing. Traditional automakers are
Speaker 1: are kind of like doing this by piece mail. Sure,
Speaker 1: they're they're you know working. Of course, they got the
Speaker 1: volt and they've got the leaf, and they've got other
Speaker 1: it might be one model in the fleet of cars
Speaker 1: that they offer exactly right. So they've got these little
Speaker 1: bits and pieces. But the thing is they're lacking infrastructure.
Speaker 1: He is behind the scenes and not really behind the scenes,
Speaker 1: but he's got charging stations, he's got you know, these
Speaker 1: this battery factory that's coming out. He's got this platform
Speaker 1: with the Model S that's very successful. Essentially what you're
Speaker 1: saying is he's defining the standard, and then everyone else
Speaker 1: will end up following his standard. He has set you're precisely,
Speaker 1: and it's not only that they're following it, but he
Speaker 1: owns it. He's going to lease it to other manufacturers.
Speaker 1: So when you're seeing a Chevy Vault and you know
Speaker 1: they're gonna advance a little bit, but they're not really
Speaker 1: focused on just that. He's focused just on electric vehicles,
Speaker 1: on on the Tesla and with the infrastructure that he's
Speaker 1: building with these charging stations and the battery swaps and
Speaker 1: everything else. No other auto manufacturers doing that. If he
Speaker 1: can develop an infrastructure that they buy into and say
Speaker 1: that's the way we want to go, this guy is
Speaker 1: going to be a multi trillionaire. He's gonna rule the world.
Speaker 1: Well he could. He could define what the standard is
Speaker 1: for multiple things, like if you if you extend this
Speaker 1: to the connected car, and he identifies the quote unquote
Speaker 1: ideal approach, whether it's truly ideal or not. If he
Speaker 1: does that, then you know there's there's a double edged
Speaker 1: sword here. One edge of it is that everything becomes
Speaker 1: much more simple because the options are all reduced down
Speaker 1: to a single kind of implementation. The other side of that, obviously,
Speaker 1: is that you don't have the choice that you would
Speaker 1: have if there were multiple implementations of the connected car.
Speaker 1: But Scott, I don't know if you're familiar with this.
Speaker 1: Are you familiar with the idea that if you present
Speaker 1: someone twenty options, they have a lot more trouble picking
Speaker 1: one if you give them three options, even if their
Speaker 1: favorites on that list of twenty aren't on that list
Speaker 1: of three, they feel better about making that choice of
Speaker 1: three than they do with twenty. You know where I
Speaker 1: think this came up in our conversations. You and I've
Speaker 1: talked about this. Yeah, it's a kind of an embarrassing example,
Speaker 1: righte factory. Yeah, you go to you go to the
Speaker 1: cheesecake factory and it's a four page menu. It's a
Speaker 1: little hard to decide, and then when you get something,
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, maybe I should have tried the you
Speaker 1: know whatever. But if you go someplace where there's you know,
Speaker 1: eight things on the menu, and you might think, well,
Speaker 1: there's only a couple of things here I want to
Speaker 1: try any you probably feel better about your choice because
Speaker 1: you don't have as much You know that that post
Speaker 1: decision regrets how that psychology absolutely is true for automobiles
Speaker 1: as well. And and and honestly, you know, if this works
Speaker 1: out for him, if this if this platform idea, if
Speaker 1: they start, if other big manufacturers start to buy his
Speaker 1: platform and say, yeah, we want our vehicle to be
Speaker 1: built on your chassis with your batteries, it's unbelievable how
Speaker 1: much money this guy is gonna make with this. It
Speaker 1: was such a great decision to allow everybody else to
Speaker 1: build on his platform. Scott, the guy has got to
Speaker 1: get to Mars somehow, and he will. It's not going
Speaker 1: to be cheap, and he will. I just thought that
Speaker 1: was brilliant, a brilliant move, and I think we're getting
Speaker 1: towards the end here. Yeah, here's here. The last one
Speaker 1: I think is really another non entry on this list.
Speaker 1: In fact, I don't understand how this is an obstacle.
Speaker 1: The tenth one was a connected lifestyle is a given
Speaker 1: that connected cars are a necessity because the factors like
Speaker 1: you have an emerging demand for safer vehicles, so you
Speaker 1: have you know, you have that demand for things like
Speaker 1: that ecoal system we talked about earlier, and also that
Speaker 1: we have a population of people who are used to
Speaker 1: being connected all the time and they don't want to
Speaker 1: give that up just because they happen to be getting
Speaker 1: behind the wheel of car. Honestly, I don't know how
Speaker 1: to even respond to this. I mean, it's it's not
Speaker 1: a challenge. It's not a challenge. But I can tell
Speaker 1: you a challenge in just a minute if you want.
Speaker 1: But I mean, but to me, of course, the connected
Speaker 1: lifestyles are given. I mean, that's the way we're going.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's it's clear that it's not going
Speaker 1: to go backwards, right, I mean, we're not gonna we're
Speaker 1: not going to devolve into you know, going back to
Speaker 1: the flip phones that I mentioned before, um or the
Speaker 1: bag phones or whatever. You're not gonna go backwards. And
Speaker 1: you know, as far as technology is concerned, and cars
Speaker 1: are not going to do anything the same, Um, they're
Speaker 1: going to continue to advance. I mean, look at look
Speaker 1: at the inside. That's I believe that's the inside of
Speaker 1: Tesla that we're looking at their photo. That's mostly screen.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's mostly touch screen inside this vehicle. It's
Speaker 1: it's like you're again you're it's like you're getting into
Speaker 1: a spaceship or something. It's it's totally different from the
Speaker 1: experience that you had in a car just five years ago. Um,
Speaker 1: it's it's advancing very quickly. And uh, then I guess
Speaker 1: we should have just embrace it. Um, I mean it's
Speaker 1: coming whether we want it or not. It is a fact.
Speaker 1: And I again, I don't think of that as a
Speaker 1: The list was called ten obstacles to a connected car.
Speaker 1: There's no way that saying that connectivity is a necessity
Speaker 1: is an obstacle. But again, it's probably one of those
Speaker 1: things where the list was written already and then someone
Speaker 1: had to figure out what the name is. Possibly we
Speaker 1: don't mean to be disparaging to the article right now.
Speaker 1: I mean it's a good it's a good list. It's
Speaker 1: a good uh you know, thought starter. And obviously we've
Speaker 1: had an incredible conversation on it. So it's certainly I
Speaker 1: think was a well. Uh it was, it was put
Speaker 1: together well, it had interesting descriptions on each one. Um.
Speaker 1: I just think the headline was misleading. Thinkably, I've written
Speaker 1: a few misleading headlines in myself. Well, I have to
Speaker 1: do what you have to do, so I'll tell you
Speaker 1: the one obstacle that I do think is that that
Speaker 1: wasn't on the list. Well, it wasn't, it wasn't. I mean,
Speaker 1: we're talking about autonomous cars and autonomous features. I've read
Speaker 1: this in a boy again from this article. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just gonna tell you the name of
Speaker 1: this article because I think it's fascinating. It's from a
Speaker 1: popular mechanics mechanics article and it's called ten ways the
Speaker 1: car is becoming more than a vehicle. And it's from
Speaker 1: early October of this year. So from and in that
Speaker 1: article they stated that by autonomous features, now that's just
Speaker 1: the stuff that allows us to uh, you know, go
Speaker 1: hands free and um, you know, the carl park itself, etcetera.
Speaker 1: Autonomous features alone will add about seven thousand dollars to
Speaker 1: a typical car sticker price. Can you believe that seven
Speaker 1: thousand dollars just for the autonomous features alone. And we're
Speaker 1: already talking about you know, a basic, um standard typical
Speaker 1: sedan here in the United States is something like it's
Speaker 1: close to thirty two. That's way way out of line
Speaker 1: with where it should be as far as inflation goes.
Speaker 1: I've I've done the numbers, and we can have another
Speaker 1: whole conversation about that. But um, it should be according
Speaker 1: to my calculation, Jonathan, about ten thousand dollars less a
Speaker 1: lot of that's a huge that's a huge cap on
Speaker 1: top of it if everything remains constant from you know,
Speaker 1: like I'm going back to the night seventies or whatever.
Speaker 1: But but I know that the reason is because of
Speaker 1: advanced features like this, I mean, all the technology, electronics,
Speaker 1: et cetera. But in add seven thousand to a typical car,
Speaker 1: I mean that's incredible to me. Yeah, that puts out
Speaker 1: the reach for a lot of people. So so ultimately
Speaker 1: the biggest challenge of the connected car could be the
Speaker 1: price tag, definitely, because we're talking about very advanced, complicated
Speaker 1: electronics and and the engineering and you know, just the
Speaker 1: R and D that goes into creating that. The automakers
Speaker 1: are of course going to have to roll that cost
Speaker 1: over to us, right. Well, yeah, I mean you can't
Speaker 1: expect any business to just eat the R and D costs.
Speaker 1: Of course not. They won't be in business and they
Speaker 1: would just be selling the same thing over and over
Speaker 1: again because there be to afford making anything new. But
Speaker 1: now maybe maybe, just maybe, and I don't know, I
Speaker 1: don't see it happening this way recently. But but maybe
Speaker 1: the cost will come down as production levels go up.
Speaker 1: As numbers go up, it becomes cheaper to build that product,
Speaker 1: and maybe they'll come down, But we haven't seen that.
Speaker 1: It seems like the last of teen years. Well, especially
Speaker 1: when you look at things like like smartphones. Right the
Speaker 1: smartphone price for a brand new smartphone stays fairly consistent.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're looking at the base price of one,
Speaker 1: if you're not getting a subsidized model, it has been
Speaker 1: remained fairly consistent. And the part of that is that
Speaker 1: even though the there are improvements in manufacturing, we are,
Speaker 1: they're still getting more sophisticated over time, and that sophistication
Speaker 1: keeps that price being pretty steady. So we're not seeing
Speaker 1: prices fall. I mean, you could get a cheaper phone
Speaker 1: that's an older one or or less sophisticated one, but
Speaker 1: I think that's gonna be I think you're right. I
Speaker 1: think that's gonna be a real issue. By the way,
Speaker 1: if you guys want to check out the article we've
Speaker 1: been talking about this whole time, the Forbes one, that
Speaker 1: one's called ten Obstacles for Connected Cars. It's at Forbes
Speaker 1: dot com. You can check that out. It is, like
Speaker 1: I said, it's a great list, and we've gone through
Speaker 1: point by point to kind of discuss it. But of
Speaker 1: course Forbes makes their own points in there that you
Speaker 1: might want to check out and see the pictures they
Speaker 1: put together to that that illustrate their ideas. Give yourself
Speaker 1: at least a minute and have to read it because
Speaker 1: it is quite lengthy. Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's a
Speaker 1: quick read, but it was definitely great fodder of our podcast.
Speaker 1: So I appreciate it. And Scott, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for agreeing to be on again. I appreciate being asked again.
Speaker 1: It was it was a privilege because honestly, this is
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. We come in here to do
Speaker 1: this because it's kind of a new take on things.
Speaker 1: You know, Ben and I have our own kind of
Speaker 1: rhythm going, and you and I have a different kind
Speaker 1: of rhythm going. This is fun. I like doing this.
Speaker 1: This is what it's like for me for every every episode. Now, well,
Speaker 1: I I really really do appreciate it. So thanks for
Speaker 1: asking me. So Scott, where can people find you? Boy?
Speaker 1: Car Stuff Show dot com. It's it's probably the best
Speaker 1: place to go. That's our that's our stuff site. We're
Speaker 1: on Facebook, Car Stuff hs W and um Twitter or Facebook,
Speaker 1: you know the same. Yeah, And and you and Ben
Speaker 1: have been doing some great work, like the videos you
Speaker 1: guys do. I know you guys are working super hard
Speaker 1: whenever they have one of the big car gatherings that
Speaker 1: are near here where we're our offices at, working out
Speaker 1: on the weekend, putting in those extra hours and and
Speaker 1: it's really paying off. Those videos are great. I appreciate
Speaker 1: it's been fun, and yeah, it's a little bit extra work,
Speaker 1: but but it's it's a lot of fun. And I
Speaker 1: hope people are checking it out. Yeah, because if you
Speaker 1: want to see some really amazing, exotic, beautiful cars, things
Speaker 1: that you're probably not regularly going to see on the street,
Speaker 1: you need to check out that video series. As for
Speaker 1: tech Stuff, if you have any suggestions for future topics
Speaker 1: or guests or interview subjects, anything at all. You just
Speaker 1: have a comment about this episode, send it to me
Speaker 1: my email addresses tech stuff at how stuff works dot com,
Speaker 1: or drop me a line on Facebook, Twitter or Tumbler.
Speaker 1: The handle at all three is tech Stuff h s W.
Speaker 1: And we'll talk to you again. Really some For more
Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics. Does it have
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