WEBVTT - The Connected Car Challenge: Part 1 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:12.240 Get in touch with technology with tex Stuff from Comen. 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:16.000 Welcome to Text Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland, and today, once 0:00:16.040 --> 0:00:20.960 again I am graced by the presence of our automotive genius, 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:24.000 Scott Benjamin Scott. Thanks for joining us on the show today. 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:27.480 I was going, Jonathan, I'm I'm honored to be welcome back. Yeah, 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:32.559 I am. I am trying to exert dominance because Scott 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:35.519 actually is way more knowledgeable in the area of cars 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:38.000 than I am. So I'm wearing my sunglasses to give 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:40.880 me this kind of sense of coolness and a loofness. 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:43.519 That's where you're in a tight shirt, your chest all 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:46.440 put's right. Yeah, I gotta make myself look big. Yeah 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:49.400 it's working. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks. I'm glad that I can. 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:53.599 I can dominate and then therefore maintain my my lead position. 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:56.760 But as always when I have a guest on, I 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:59.360 like to ask my guest if there are any particular 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:02.960 topics that trist them. And Scott, you picked an article 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:08.200 a list really, that appeared in Forbes Online and thought 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:12.240 maybe we should talk about and I couldn't agree more. Yeah, 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:13.920 it's say it's a topic that I think we're gonna 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:17.240 hear a lot more about in the future near future 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:20.720 as a matter of fact, um, connected cars. Yeah, and 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:24.040 not just connected cars. But this particular article is about 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:27.600 ten obstacles for connected cars. Because we've talked about connected 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:30.840 cars on car stuff on our show before and in 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:34.959 various ways. I mean kind of the slow progression up 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:37.360 to the point where we're actually calling them connected cars now, 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:40.000 because that's relatively new, right right, Because when you think 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:43.840 connected car, I mean that definition seems a little fuzzy 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:48.440 and vague, largely because we're still defining it. So you could, 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:50.640 if you wanted to be, you know, kind of technical, 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:53.480 you could say, oh, well, I've heard about entertainment systems 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:55.040 that you can have in a car that connect to 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:58.160 something like Pandora. Isn't that a connected car? But what 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:01.280 we're really talking about here, and it's it's something that's 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:04.160 not defined in that Forbes list. The Forbes list is 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:06.880 pretty bare bones when you get down to it. But 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:09.120 what we're really talking about here are cars that have 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:13.280 some sort of persistent Internet connection, and usually they also 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:16.920 have some sort of wireless local area network in the 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:21.960 car itself so that your devices can link into that network. Yeah, 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:24.760 that's right, and that network provides other benefits to the 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:27.240 driver and and right now, I mean you can get 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:30.560 vehicles that have elements of this right now. We're talking 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:33.320 about future developments that are coming down the line. And 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:34.760 you know, we'll get to all this as we go 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:38.040 through the top ten list. But um, which, by the way, 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:39.680 some of this we agree with and some of this 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:42.400 we don't. Yeah, some of these we question how they 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:44.920 could be labeled an obstacle. It makes me think that 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:48.720 this list was originally just a list about connected cars, 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:51.079 and that when they got to the point of trying 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:53.359 to come up with a headline to describe it, this 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:55.840 obstacles was the one that seemed like it was the 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:58.679 best fit because maybe there's like seven real obstacles and 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:01.359 the other three or just we're talking about connected cars. 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:03.800 So you know, some of the things that that you 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:05.720 know you may already see in cars. There are things 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:08.920 like automatic notification of crashes or um, you know, when 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:11.400 you're getting speeding alerts. You know, if you're you're in 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.560 a rural area and you're going a little too fast, 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:16.160 your car can actually tell you if you're going too 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:19.360 quickly for that road. Things that you know, navigation systems 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:21.000 have done in the past, you know, on their own, 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:22.920 but those are add in devices, things that you you 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:25.640 plug in. Now cars are doing that themselves, you know, 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:28.560 with the with the built in navigation devices, so um, 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:31.560 safety alerts, things like that. All all that stuff is 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:33.639 stuff that we can see right now that is part 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:36.280 of the connected car. But as you said, the definition 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:39.920 is constantly changing every time uh something new comes out 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:42.480 or some new advancement in UH in the design of 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:45.640 the vehicle or the architecture of the electrical system of 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:49.960 the vehicle. That's that's redefining what we consider a connected car. 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:52.400 And this vehicle to vehicle communication that we're talking about, 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:55.960 that's that's just now in the in the infancy state. 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:58.640 I think we're not really there yet, but we're getting 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:01.080 there quickly. And it's kind of and the way we 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:05.240 described it on on car stuff is that, um, it's 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:07.320 almost like the phone, the phones, you know, Like I mean, 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:10.400 I can think seven eight years ago when I was 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:13.520 using a flip phone and that was relatively new technology 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:15.920 and we know we're just getting into smartphone area, you know, 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:19.240 territory at that point. But um, I think how quickly 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:22.039 things have developed past that point or since that point. 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:24.560 In just the last five six years. That's the way 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:27.360 cars are advancing. And I've got other stuff that I'm 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:29.120 gonna site here as we go along. There was there 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:32.400 was a particularly eye opening article in Popular Mechanics that 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:35.599 we've covered in detail on our other show, and I 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:38.560 will I'll mention elements of that as we go through. 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:41.880 But some fascinated stuff that that even for me and Ben, 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:43.560 you know, when we were we were going through this, 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:45.919 we we talked about this all the time, you know, 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:48.400 throughout the week, even not just on the show. Uh, 0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:50.800 some of the stuff was really eye opening. How quickly 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:53.640 things are happening. Yeah, and it reminds me a lot 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:56.599 of the discussion you and I had on the other 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:58.920 episode of Tech Stuff you joined me on about self 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:02.120 driving cars and how a lot of the elements that 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:05.760 are necessary to make a self driving car work are 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:09.480 finding their way into our vehicles today. Even though our 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:13.520 vehicles are not themselves autonomous right there, there's some autonomous 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:16.520 elements that are being worked in, whether it's something where 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:19.360 the car is still under full driver control, or it's 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:22.840 something where a computer takes over for like parking assists 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:26.000 to that kind of stuff. So it's very similar to that, 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:28.600 to that same sort of model, and without getting very 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:32.599 specific about it. Today there's even some some some more 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:35.359 news on that front as we go through this list today. 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:37.919 So um, I can tell you that, you know, based 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:40.200 on the other list, the the Popular Mechanics list, I 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:41.840 know we're kind of getting into two different things here, 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:45.320 but um, even based on what I read there, they're 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:47.760 talking about it's advancing even faster than what we had 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:50.520 talked about just a few weeks ago. It is amazing. 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:53.440 How I mean, that's the one drawback about doing any 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:57.239 sort of show about technology is that very quickly after 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:00.480 you record it, it becomes obsolete and you need to 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:03.520 do an update. Let's look into the actual list though, 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:07.440 So the Forbes list, it opens up with the statement 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:11.800 that cars take longer to design and build than smartphones, 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:14.479 so the development cycle is very different. So you might 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:18.400 say that if you look at smartphones in general, the 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:23.040 the innovation is is constant, right, You're constantly getting updates. 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:26.000 But even if you narrow it down to a specific 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:29.160 model of phone, you're still talking about essentially an annual 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:32.920 uh development cycle. You get a new iPhone every year. 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:35.119 I think we can all appreciate this I mean, how 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:37.560 often do you get, you know, the iPhone six and 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:40.000 then the six S comes out a month later. And 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:43.800 I'm bad at this naming, you know, devices, but you 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:45.920 understand exactly what I mean by when we get home, 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:48.280 the next one is on. You know, the television is 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:50.160 being the greatest thing, and that's what people are waiting 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:53.160 in line for tomorrow. Right in the United States, this 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:56.440 is particularly tricky, right because a lot of us get 0:06:56.440 --> 0:07:00.000 our phones subsidized, and we get a contract that goes 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:03.320 along with it. The contract baseline tends to be two years. 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:05.720 So if you have a two year contract but your 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:09.479 specific model of phone updates every year, you always feel 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:12.120 like you're behind. Now I'm an Android user, and it's 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:14.760 even worse for me because there's a new Android phone 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:18.200 out multiple times a month, so I can't if I 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:21.000 settle with one model, I do that knowing that it's 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:24.720 going to be outpaced multiple times before I can upgrade again. 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:26.960 And I suppose it's similar in that, you know, Let's 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:29.800 say that you have a particular make of vehicle, you know, 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:32.040 so there's a general Motors will make a certain type 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:35.280 of vehicle and they will update it every year. Of course, Yeah, 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:37.360 still call it the same thing. There's gonna be the 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:39.720 two thousand twelve modle year, the two thirteen, and the 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:42.200 thirteen is likely going to have more features and functions 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:45.880 than the twelve, but they won't do a dramatic redesign, 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:47.960 and you know for several years. I mean it maybe 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:50.760 ten years away or whatever. But they're constantly working on 0:07:50.840 --> 0:07:54.520 new products. Well, this article says that car manufacturers work 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:57.440 on five year cycles. Now I'm going to say that 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:00.160 it's probably a little bit less than that. Typically, know 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:03.320 that they've a while ago, you know, like maybe a 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:05.480 couple of decades ago, you know, they were working on 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:07.440 cycles that were seven years long. You know, they would 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:09.720 start out with the sketches on the drawing board. You 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:11.840 know that even the napkin, and you work up from 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:14.800 there with the clay models, etcetera. Well, cad drawings and 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:17.000 things like that have advanced to the point where that's 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:19.280 shortened that you know, the amount of time, the lead 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:22.200 up time I guess we'd be printing really cut it 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:24.840 way back, because now if your prototype didn't work, you 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:27.520 could just redesign it and print a new one exactly right. 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:29.840 So the cycles are getting much much shorter. But I'm 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:32.720 gonna say that five year cycles. That's if that's average, 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:34.760 I would believe it. I know that some are working 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:37.720 faster than others. So I've got this note here, and 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:40.360 this comes from that other popular mechanics article, and there's 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:42.120 a couple of these that will drop in here. But 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:44.320 I'm I think I'm about to blow your much Jonathan 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:46.640 pit Me. Yeah, you alluded to this before we came 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:48.520 in here, and you said, you know what, I'm going 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:50.360 to save this for the podcast, and I'm going to 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:52.320 I'm gonna ask you a question. Now. This is um, 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:56.240 this is McLaren. Alright, we're talking about So McLaren makes supercars, 0:08:56.240 --> 0:09:00.200 they make Formula one cars, they make you know, million 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:03.520 dollar cars, I mean close to it anyways. Al Right, 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:06.720 so McLaren has been in this in the supercar world 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:09.280 since about nineteen nine two. They made a car called 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:13.040 the F one about nine again, it was a million 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:15.760 dollar car. They made like, you know, a hundred plus cars, 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:17.959 not really that many of low production. These are the 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:20.600 ones that are like handmade, that's that's right. And now 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:23.240 it's one of the many that are handmade. Right. But 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:25.960 since they've kind of been out of the game, but 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:28.760 then they came back again, and I want to say 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:30.760 it was around two I'll find the number here, but 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:32.400 I think it was around two thousand eleven when they 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:34.600 came back. Uh. Yeah, they jumped back in with the 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:37.440 model called the twelve seed supercar again, so the car 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:39.520 for the streets. But they had been building Formula one 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:41.719 technology all along, and they've got something that they call 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:45.360 a skunk work. And the skunk Works are outside of London, 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:49.920 and that's kind of their uh experimental area, tough secret 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:53.679 research and development. Lucky skunk Works is probably the most famous, 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:55.920 but there are several companies that do this still thing. Yeah, 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:57.960 exactly right, and this is Formula one for them, right, 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:00.240 They're interested in Formula one technology and they build road 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:02.960 cars there as well. I'm gonna ask you this question. Okay, 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:07.480 so they they develop new technology and test new technology there. 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:10.200 How often do you think that they test and develop 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:15.320 new technology out of this skunk works facility? Oh? Okay, Well, 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:18.160 all right. If you're talking about a company that is 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:24.000 uh largely concerned with designing cars to compete in and 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:27.400 win races, I would imagine who have to be Let's say, 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:30.080 I'm gonna I'm gonna go super conservative. I'm gonna say 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:34.040 eighteen months. Eighteen months, is your guest. Right, here's where 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:37.080 your mind is about to be blong, all right. McLaren, 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:40.880 the vaunted maker of supercars and Formula one racers, long 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:44.080 been known for nimble development. Right at this skunk works 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:47.360 outside of London, developers strive to engineer and test a 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:55.840 new piece of technology every twenty minutes. That that's incredibly 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:58.440 aggressive twenty minutes. Now. When I read that, I could 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:00.760 not believe it. I mean, it's it's predible how quickly 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:02.600 they do. They say that a new race car can 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:05.839 differ by as much as from the race car they 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:10.080 fielded the previous year. That's how fast, and you only 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:14.439 have similarity to the previous model. Is is phenomenal exactly 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:16.600 right now. They're also building, you know, these road cars, 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:17.960 so I'm sure that a lot of that is the 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:20.880 Formula one technology, right However, they've been introducing a new 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:25.080 car every year for every model years since two thousand eleven, 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:27.680 so they're quickly building these cars fast like this. And 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:30.599 the way they do it is that they have completely 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:33.640 stopped starting with the CAD set up and all that. 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:36.320 They didn't even start there. They start with a human 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:38.640 in a simulator and that's how they begin the whole 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:42.080 process and they get feedback from that and it's so fast. 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:44.200 I mean, it's just the the most rapid way to 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:46.520 do the whole thing, and they make adjustments as they 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:48.680 go and that's how they're able to do it so quickly. 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:51.760 And the thing is they say they don't waste millions 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:56.280 on prototyping. This guy, Jeff McGrath from from McClaren Applied Technology, 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:59.160 sees the vice president there and he says that we 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:01.360 can design the car is the future before we even 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:04.120 begin machining parts. So they don't even prototype parts. They 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:07.000 start with the simulator and a person and that's how 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:09.120 they are able to quickly do this. Now it's not 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:12.160 just for these million dollars supercars, which is exciting news 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:14.760 for all of us because I'm not in this this 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:17.960 arena to buy a car, but it's exciting for you 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:21.160 and I because it's not just for these million dollars supercars. 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:24.600 It's He says that I hope this time next year 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:26.800 will be free to name some of the passenger car 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:30.280 companies that are using our technology. So he's saying we're 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:32.600 sharing this, we can't really talk about it right now. 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:36.840 So some of these these big manufacturers, like I'm gonna guess, um, 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:39.040 you know, the big three here in the United States, maybe, 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:43.080 um who knows Pougeot or Mercedes or whoever they're they're 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:46.199 probably working with them, and they're developing technology just that quickly. 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:49.559 We're gonna see advances and cars way faster than we 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:52.600 ever had before, starting right now. So that gap that 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:55.640 is listed as an obstacle may not really be an 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:58.400 obstacle for well, it might not be an obstacle now, 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:02.480 and it certainly won't be an obstacle perpetually. I think. 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:06.280 Also another objection I have to that particular item, not 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:09.680 really objection, but maybe maybe a note a criticism perhaps 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:13.800 is that it doesn't really take into account the aftermarket either, 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:18.120 And the aftermarket could develop much more quickly because you 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:20.880 know you've you've got once you know the constraints you 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:23.000 have to work in for whatever model of car you're 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:27.400 developing your stuff for, Uh, you can really innovate very quickly. 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:31.120 And so some of these connected cars systems may not 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:35.280 be fully integrated with the entire vehicle. They could be 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:38.360 a kind of like a module, like an entertainment system 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:40.400 that you could take out and you would still get 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:42.719 a lot of the functionality you would get in a 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:45.760 car that was built to be a connected vehicle from 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:50.040 the start. Not everything, obviously, anything that that ties directly 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:52.400 into the car systems will probably be a little more problematic, 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:56.960 but at least like the entertainment, navigation, uh, WiFi access, 0:13:57.000 --> 0:13:58.800 that kind of stuff, you could build that in. It 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:02.320 reminds me a little bit of open source technology, the 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:04.679 way that that that whole thing works out. I mean, 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:06.240 I'm sure you're way better at this than I am, 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:08.280 but open source the way I understand it is that 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:11.320 you know, you take someone's base idea and you build 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:13.679 on that and they allow you to because that's how 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:15.920 you get this rapid development of ideas, right, I mean 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:19.920 quickly um evolves. Yeah, it's the idea is that by 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:23.480 opening it up to the crowd, you allow for much 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:25.920 more rapid innovation. There's there's a guy here and I've 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:27.960 got a note, another note, and I promise we won't 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:29.800 go as along on the next few as we do 0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:31.440 with that one, because that one I was excited about. 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:33.200 But um, there's a note here that I want I 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:35.560 want to talk about Ellen Musk at some point. So 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:37.920 when it feels right to talk about open sourcing again, 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:39.720 just tell me, and that's when I'll hit you with 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:43.280 this other thing from ellenor Ellen Sean, I shouldn't say Ellen. 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:49.520 It's Ellen, Yes, the genius behind Tesla and SpaceX. Uh, 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:52.320 someone that we've chatted about several times on this podcast, 0:14:52.480 --> 0:15:00.440 and I'm sure we'll continue to talk about it. Well, 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:02.520 let's talk about the second thing on the list, which 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:06.600 was that new safety laws will dictate connectivity. This was 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:08.720 one of the items that the way it was worded 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:10.960 on the list made me question of whether or not 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:13.160 it was an obstacle. I guess it could be, depending 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:18.280 on your point of view. Uh. Specifically, they they elaborated 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:21.560 on this point by saying that in two thousand and fifteen, 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:24.440 all cars in Europe will have to be equipped with 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:27.800 a system that is named E call E C A 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:32.520 l L, which alerts emergency vehicles to crashes and location data. 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:34.840 So if you're in a really bad crash you're not 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:38.720 necessarily responsive, it will automatically send out essentially a kind 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:42.200 of a distress call, and so emergency vehicles can respond 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:46.320 to the emergency fantastic. Yeah. Now they say that this 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:49.960 will that they consider this an obstacle to the connected car. 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:52.480 I think of this as a driver to the connected car, 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:55.160 not a driver behind the right the steering wheel, but 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:58.560 something that is driving us towards this connected car. Because 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:02.320 it's a requirement, it's a mandate. It's something that you know, 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:05.200 like GMS on Star will already do. But that's an 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:07.600 add on feature. I mean, it's it's built in the cars, 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:11.200 I understand. But it's a subscription service, right, so I 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:12.880 understand what you're saying. I think it. I think it 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:15.040 is more of a driver than anything else. There's also 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:18.160 another thing called B call that is going to be 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:21.120 be prevalent in new cars, and that's that's for breakdown. 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:24.800 So so E call for emergencies, BE call for breakdowns 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:27.440 makes sense, right. But the cool thing about BE call 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:29.560 is that if you do break down, there's an automatic 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:32.040 service call that's made with details about where you are 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:34.960 and what part of the vehicles having trouble, what exactly 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:36.320 is happening, you know, can it be fixed on the 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:38.560 side of the road or does it require a tow truck? 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:40.920 You know, are interested to call you into town or 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:43.520 or back home or wherever you have to go. So yeah, 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:46.640 I think that's um, you know, along the lines of these, 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:49.640 you know, the next step after that would be like 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:53.080 a concier concierge service. It's tough for me to say, 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:55.760 but you know someone that's at a call center that 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:58.240 can actually help you find, um, you know, stuff that's 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:00.360 not critical like you know, these emergency call you know, 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:03.080 emergencies or breakdowns, but more like if you want a 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:06.120 restaurant or a hotel or a pharmacy, and you can 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:07.760 call at will and say, you know, I've got a 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:09.960 subscription to this for you know, six months or a 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:13.400 year or whatever, and I'm looking for a local restaurant 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:16.560 to serves Chinese food. Um, what do you recommend? Yeah, 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:18.199 that reminds me of the time with my wife and 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:21.159 I took a really long road trip and we didn't 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:25.159 have a hotel arranged because we didn't know where we 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:26.960 were going to be by the time it was time 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:28.760 to turn in. So that would have been a very 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:30.920 useful service in that in that case. Yes, you know, 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:32.520 at the touch of a button, you can get all 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:34.680 of that. I mean, this this E call, the be call, 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:37.840 the you know, the the possible concierge service, that type 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:40.320 of thing. I mean, all that I do see as 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:42.679 being part of this whole connected car thing because you 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:44.119 have to have connections in order to be able to 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:46.879 make that work, right, right, That's that's what That's what 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:50.040 the the on Star service relies on. Right now, why 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:52.960 not build that into other makes and models of vehicles 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:55.080 as well? Yeah, And I think when I think of 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:58.840 safety laws being an obstacle to connectivity, I think more 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:01.439 on the opposite side of this, not so much something 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:03.720 that is required to send out a message, but rather 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:08.480 what about the potential for driver distraction? So, in other words, 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:11.040 there might be laws that come out. We we often 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:13.600 see this in technology, right, We see where the technology 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:17.480 outpaces the law happens all the time, where we developed 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:21.400 these really cool tools or toys or whatever that just 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:24.320 when when laws were made, it didn't take that into 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:27.520 account because it wasn't a thing when the law was formed. 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:30.760 And then you suddenly realize, oh wait, this thing is 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:34.320 just different enough from everything else that we need to 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:37.159 figure out how the law applies in this case. So 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:40.800 if we have connected cars that have potential distractions to drivers, 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:44.240 I could see safety laws coming in that would affect 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:47.160 whether or not a car could be connected. But that's 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:50.000 a that's a different angle than what was in the list, 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:52.200 And you're jump ahead on the list because there's there's 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:55.480 a bit about distracted drivers later on. I've got a 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:58.200 specific question for you as we get to that too. Excellent. Well, 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:00.199 I look forward to being asked that question. I bet 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:02.400 you do. The next one, and this one, I think 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:04.800 is probably where an open source discussion can probably come 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:08.680 in as well. The carmakers need mobile partners, which means 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:11.800 that auto manufacturers obviously they're not the same company that 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:15.400 provides this connectivity service, right, And yeah, this is gonna 0:19:15.400 --> 0:19:19.200 be strange, Yeah, because someone's got to be in charge 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:23.400 of delivering the connection to that automobile. If you've got 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:28.480 a cell phone receiver essentially built into your car, that 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:31.760 has to be working with some carrier somewhere. Yeah, this 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:33.800 is this is really weird to me because we're talking 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:36.879 about car subscriptions now at this point, and of course 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:38.920 we all know you know that that there's the the 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:41.679 satellite radio subscriptions are on Star or something like that, Right, 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:44.200 I understand all that, But we're talking about like being 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:48.680 able to bundle phone calls, streaming, music, navigation all into one, 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:51.399 one service where they'll be able to charge you X 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:53.960 number dollars per month. And let's say that you know 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:56.280