AD #2385 – Waymo Wants Partner for Europe, Musk Has Words for Doubters, Volvo & FedEx Test Autonomous Platooning
June 28th, 2018 at 11:41am
Runtime: 6:17
0:29 Musk Has Strong Words for Doubters
1:21 Waymo Wants “Large Number” of Cars for Europe
2:20 Volvo & FedEx Test Autonomous Platooning
2:53 FCA Reveals Mobility Services Strategy
4:33 Ford Early on CO2 Targets
5:11 June Gets Boost from Extra Selling Days
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On today’s show… Waymo wants some automaker to sell it a bunch of cars in Europe… Ford hits its goal of reducing CO2 emissions 8 years early… and Volvo and FedEx are testing platoons of autonomous trucks. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
This is Autoline Daily the show for enthusiasts of the automotive industry.
MUSK HAS STRONG WORDS FOR DOUBTERS
Will Tesla reach its goal of building 5,000 Model 3’s this week? The bulls say yes, the bears say no. But Elon Musk says anyone who doubts they can reach their goal is “in for a rude awakening.” And in a sign that it may be on the right track, Tesla says it will open up orders for all Model 3 reservation holders in, “the coming days.” The EV maker is also dropping the price on the Performance and Dual Motor versions of the Model 3. A loaded model of the original Performance cost $78,000. Now a slightly decontented version will cost $64,000 or $72,000 with Autopilot. A Dual Motor version will also be $1,000 less than before. But that makes us wonder, are we ever going to see a $35,000 Model 3?
WAYMO WANTS “LARGE NUMBER” OF CARS FOR EUROPE
Waymo is buying 62,000 Chrysler Pacifica’s and 20,000 Jaguar I-Pace’s to convert into autonomous cars. But all of them will only be used in the United States. Now, Waymo’s CEO, John Krafcik says the company needs “a large number” of cars for Europe. But he won’t say how many cars or which automakers he’s talking to. Krafcik also revealed that they won’t use the Waymo name in Europe because it’s not well known and will instead partner with a European car brand.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-waymo-europe/waymo-needs-large-number-of-cars-for-european-robo-taxis-ceo-idUSKBN1JO0KO
Volvo and FedEx just brought autonomous trucks one step closer to reality and that’s coming up next.
VOLVO & FEDEX TEST AUTONOMOUS PLATOONING
Volvo and FedEx are teaming up to help semi trucks save fuel and increase safety via autonomous platooning. During testing in North Carolina, three digitally-connected trucks have been driving together in a convoy. Only the lead truck has a driver, the other two simply follow: braking, turning and accelerating in sync with the lead truck. Volvo hopes that data collected during its North Carolina testing will help it persuade the federal government and other states to allow autonomous platoon testing.
FCA REVEALS MOBILITY SERVICES STRATEGY
Fiat-Chrysler revealed part of its strategy of how it’s going to play a role in Transportation As A Service, or TaaS, for short. FCA sees 6 different business opportunities including manufacturing autonomous components, high-def mapping, manufacturing vehicles, financing and insuring those vehicles, operating fleets of autonomous cars, and offering mobility services. But FCA believes that automakers and their captive finance arms will only play in two of those businesses: building cars with AV technology integrated into them, and then financing and selling insurance for those cars. Other OEMS, like General Motors and Ford, are looking to play a role in more of those business opportunities. But this is the first time we’ve heard that FCA plans to play any role at all in this emerging field.
Coming up next, Ford says it is way ahead of its target for slashing CO2 emissions.
Don’t forget to join us for Autoline After Hours this afternoon. We’ll take a deep dive into the development of the all-new volkswagen Jetta because we’ll have Daniel Shapiro, the Product Manager for the Jetta on the show. Also joining us is Mike Austin from Hagerty insurance. So join John and Gary for some of the best insights of what’s going on in the automotive industry.
FORD WAY EARLY ON CO2 TARGETS
In 2010, Ford set a goal of reducing its CO2 emissions from its factories by 30 percent per vehicle by 2025. But the company just announced it already met that goal. Ford says it reduced emissions by 3.4 million metric tons between 2010 and 2017 by making several changes to its plants and manufacturing processes. That includes installing LED lights and eliminating the need for a drying oven for the paint process in some factories. Ford’s sustainability plans for the future include using renewable energy and electrification.
JUNE GETS BOOST FROM EXTRA SELLING DAYS
Next week, automakers in the US market will report their sales for June. Ward’s forecasts that 1.5 million vehicles will be sold, up 3% from a year ago. And the SAAR will go back to 17 million units. But there is a caveat. There is one extra selling day and one extra weekend this June compared to last year. So when you adjust for that, Ward’s predicts that sales will be down 0.7% on a daily selling rate basis. We’re going to study those numbers when they come out to see if passenger car sales are still falling as fast as they were.
A programming note here. Autoline will be off all next week as the entire crew takes a well deserved summer break, but we’ll be back on July 9th. And that’s it for today, thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.
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Comments (27)
June 28th, 2018 at 12:11 pm
So, maybe GM had it right when they went to quarterly reporting. When one day (or one less) skews the figures enough that news reporting has fodder for evaluation (that really doesn’t make much difference), the quelling effect of quarterly sales seems more reasonable and accurate.
June 28th, 2018 at 12:26 pm
A 35K model 3 will be like trying to find a Pontiac Solstice for under 20K when they were new. Lutz crowed about the low price, but I never ever saw one even close to 20K on a dealer’s lot. Most were well appointed and had price tags to match. So unless you special ordered a strip down model there was not much chance of seeing one for under 22K These will be the same I have a feeling. Unless companies go back to the days of allowing individual options to be ordered and not packages cars at the or near the base price will be like finding a unicorn .
June 28th, 2018 at 12:26 pm
Perhaps Tesla had it right when it had quarterly reporting years ago.
June 28th, 2018 at 12:32 pm
#2. You could order a zero option Solstice and get it in 6-8 weeks. A friend did that. Dealers didn’t stock them that way, though.
June 28th, 2018 at 12:32 pm
If Waymo is using Chrysler Minivans in North America, wouldn’t it be looking for Fiat Panda’s or larger vehicle for Europe?
June 28th, 2018 at 12:44 pm
Interesting to think about all these autonomous vehicles coming on the used car market. After they take off all the sensors, a car will look like a used cop car with all the wiring holes. At least the steering wheel and pedals will have been lightly used.
With Waymo already using the Jaguar I-PACE, it seems logical, since it’s made in Europe, for them to use it there too.
June 28th, 2018 at 12:49 pm
I’m still not in favor of large trucks and their platooning. We need trucks to deliver everyday goods, but on the highways, they can be very annoying and running in long lines, this can make it worse. My big question is what happens when the lead gets separated from the driverless trucks by cars merging in between the platoon? That IS going to happen. How unsafe is that going to be? Or will the lead truck disrupt traffic to get hooked back up with the platoon vehicle?
I think the concept is a good idea, but until all cars are AV, not a good idea.
And Elon is looking to have the last word, again. I’m not sure how he’s going to justify the 5,000+ car a week claim when all tracking has him around 3,000. (And congrats to him for 3,000; I didn’t think we’d see that this soon.) Is he going to claim this by doing his normal burst builds where he’ll where he’ll cars for a couple of hours and amortize the results to come out to 5,000 cars a week? IMO, His tent operation to me is going to be a warranty/lemon law nightmare. How are the cars being assembled in a non-clean room setting? There has to be a ton of dust getting in these cars during assembly, and dust and electrics don’t normally complement one another.
June 28th, 2018 at 12:52 pm
To answer the question on the $35k model 3. No. its as possible as that “zero down $99 a month new car ad you see on tv.
Waymo is known in America? If it wasn’t for this show I’m not sure I would ever have heard of them.
June 28th, 2018 at 1:42 pm
@7 I agree about the trucks, it seems like they are trying to re invent the train when we could just use a train.
June 28th, 2018 at 1:57 pm
Elon Musk keeps changing what he says. If you go on his original statements. Now if you see a decontented model. And they reach “goal” many months after the original promise. … do they even hear themselves. In a court of law “ the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” It’s important to remember that omission is the same as lying when done intentionally.
June 28th, 2018 at 2:14 pm
“Musk Has Strong Words for Doubters” Let’s do a reality check and see who has the better track record; I’m afraid that the doubters are so far ahead (in reality) that Musk’s strong words have no basis (in fact). And when or if they do, they will certainly not be timely (unless you are on Musk-time).
June 28th, 2018 at 2:50 pm
9 Trains are, by far, the most efficient way to carry heavy cargo long distances. It too bad the U.S. has so little infrastructure.
June 28th, 2018 at 2:52 pm
If Model 3 production has reached 3000/week, they are doing a lot better than I would have expected a few months ago. Time will tell about the quality.
June 28th, 2018 at 3:01 pm
13) Kit, if you haven’t seen this, this is the Bloomberg Model 3 Estimator. It’s been up since early August I believe. Production jumps up 500 units average today.
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-tesla-tracker/
The big tell will be if Tesla is building additional Model 3s at the expense of S & X production just to reach for model 3 goals.
June 28th, 2018 at 3:18 pm
If this concept of truck platooning is to become a reality and to avoid traffic produced problems, restricting these trucks to operating in off hours might make sense. As an example the hours between 10pm and 5am when most highways are lightly used would avoid so many traffic issues. On highways where there are traffic lights or stop signs how will they handle those challenges. There are many dual lane highways that have traffic signals. I also see needing more areas or depots where the platoon separates and picks up the driver to pilot the driverless trucks in the platoon to travel to their destinations. How will effect independent owner/operator trucks? Will they become a much smaller group? How will the Teamsters union view this possible reduction of drivers? There is a lot to this concept to unfold.
June 28th, 2018 at 3:30 pm
12 Trains are vastly more efficient. Here in the northeast there are many local rail lines to small towns but they are rarely used. I live in a town next to a very large industrial park where manufacturing,production and distribution is done. It has rail service with several spurs but it is also has I295, the NJ Turnpike and I95 all within 5 miles. The rails are lightly used. I guess its logistics and time issues that make trucks the better choice.
June 28th, 2018 at 4:08 pm
14 Thanks. I saw that a while back, but not recently. I’ll bookmark it.
16 The place I’ve seen a lot of trains, long ones at frequent intervals, was near I-80 in southern Wyoming. I was at a model airplane field, probably about 1/2 mile from the railroad. I don’t know what the cargo was, but there would be a lot of stuff going east from west coast ports.
June 28th, 2018 at 4:16 pm
17 East West is the domain for rail..my son and his family live in Hastings Nebraska and the rail traffic is high as it has many running through Hastings including those used by Union Pacific, Burlington Northern, and Amtrak rail lines. You have to like train horn noise to live there.
June 28th, 2018 at 4:17 pm
Sean, Please tell us what we REALLY want to know. If tariffs succeeded completely and ALL US sold cars were made in the US, what cars would we be missing? Is there any type of vehicle that would be completely gone? (ie commuter cars, most sports cars) Would some domestic or foreign makes be reduced to almost nothing> (ie Mazda)
June 28th, 2018 at 4:20 pm
Sean,
Also, what models will still be available in Canada and Mexico? Is it just commuter cars and pickup trucks there?
June 28th, 2018 at 5:15 pm
19 We’d be missing two of my cars, Mini and Prius. I wouldn’t be sure there’d be enough volume to build plants here for either one.
June 28th, 2018 at 5:20 pm
Something that would expand the number of car models in Canada, would be standardization of safety and emissions rules with the EU. If the rules were the same, there’d be no reason not to sell Peugeots, Skodas, Renaults, and other cars in Canada, or the U.S., except for trade wars.
June 28th, 2018 at 8:23 pm
Regarding Volvo & FedEx’s Platooning project: It is no big deal. Before I retired in 2009 as an Engineering manager in the worlds largest construction equipment company (you can guess) the army was trying to find a way to make it safer to operate convoys in Iraq, given the problems of roadside bombs. Many drivers of trucks were getting injured and killed, along with the loss of equipment and supplies. The concept was called “leader-follower,” and involved having a heavily armored lead vehicle followed by a string of autonomous trucks trailing behind the leader. The project was first attempted by an aerospace firm (I won’t mention its name), and they could not get their concept to work. When we heard about this, we realized that the work we had already done on autonomous mining vehicles assured us that we could provide a solution to the military with high confidence. We approved a budget to put together a proposal at our cost, trying to do our part to support the war effort. Unfortunately, the aerospace company had done such a poor job with their attempt at the project, that the army officers in the war zone became convinced that it simply could not be done. We never could get a sit-down with the military to show what we could do. It was frustrating, because we were sure we could pull it off with our existing technology.
June 29th, 2018 at 11:39 am
Infiniti’s new variable compression ratio engine is apparently a joke. CR just tested it, and it got 2 mpg worse overall mileage, and 7 mpg worse highway mileage than a BMW X3 with its plain vanilla 2.0 turbo. The Infiniti was slightly quicker, but not significantly so. The Audi Q5 also gets better mpg, and is quicker than the Infiniti. It looks like we have another case of complexity for complexity’s sake.
June 29th, 2018 at 11:47 am
24 continued…
The Infiniti tested, the QX50, the X3, and the Q5 are all within 80 pounds of the same weight.
June 29th, 2018 at 12:14 pm
In a nut shell… Falcon Heavy missed it’s orbit target, crashed a returnable booster into the ocean, but a far less price than the government so that makes it a blazing success? Too many fires are associated with Tesla. And after months of promises of 5000/ week target still not happening from a company that to date is not profitable. And this man still makes headlines? why?
June 29th, 2018 at 1:19 pm
If there’s so much demand for the Model 3, why cut prices?