AD #3346 – Tesla Autopilot More Dangerous Than Others; Gas Headed To $6/Gallon; Another Massive Recall At Ford
June 15th, 2022 at 11:53am
Listen to “AD #3346 – Tesla Autopilot More Dangerous Than Others; Gas Headed To $6/Gallon; Another Massive Recall At Ford” on Spreaker.
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Runtime: 9:28
0:08 Gas Headed To $6/Gallon
0:58 Lithium Prices to Drop. Or Not.
1:48 Another Massive Recall at Ford
2:31 Mustang Mach-E Recalled
3:48 Citroen Ami Ready for The Beach
4:13 Audi Designs Electric Rickshaw for India
5:02 Lynk & Co Drops Clay Models
6:45 Ford Puma Seats Get Blessing of Spinal Experts
7:20 Robo Chargers for EVs
7:57 Tesla Autopilot More Dangerous Than Others
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GAS HEADED TO $6/GALLON
Uh-oh. We sure hate to be the bearers of bad news but prices at the pump are going higher. Right now the average price of gasoline in the U.S. is just over $5 a gallon. But you better get ready for $6 a gallon as oil heads to $140 a barrel by the end of the year. And in Europe, gasoline and diesel already cost almost $8 a gallon. But here’s the funny part, and by funny we don’t mean “ha-ha,” we mean, “this is weird.” Traffic is just as heavy as it was before the pandemic. Despite sky high prices at the pump, people are driving just as much as they ever did. And this is true all over the world, from New York to London to Tokyo and Shanghai. And as long as demand stays high, prices at the pump are not going to simmer down.
LITHIUM PRICES TO DROP. OR NOT.
You’d think that all this would push more people into electric cars. And it is. But prices for EVs are going up as well, because of the skyrocketing cost of lithium, cobalt, copper and nickel. And now there’s a big argument in the commodities market over whether lithium prices will stay sky-high, or whether they’re about to crater. The investment companies Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse predict that as new sources of lithium come on stream, the price is going to drop. But lithium experts say that’s nonsense. They say prices may come down a bit, but not much. Bloomberg reports that if prices do not come down it’s going to cause the profit margins on electric cars to collapse and delay the adoption of EVs.
ANOTHER MASSIVE RECALL AT FORD
What’s going on at Ford? The company is really struggling with warranty and recall issues. It announced a recall of more than 2.9 million vehicles in the U.S. because of rollaway concerns. A damaged or missing shift cable bushing may prevent the vehicle from shifting into park, and the car may roll away. This includes Escapes, C-Maxs, Fusions, Transit Connects and Edges built between 2013 to 2021. Ford had a very similar roll-away recall back in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. This is the fifth recall Ford has issued over the problem since 2018.
MUSTANG MACH-E RECALLED
But it doesn’t stop there. Yesterday, Ford said it’s recalling 49,000 Mustang Mach-E’s in the U.S. because a part could overheat and lead to a potential loss of propulsion power. The company will fix it with a software update next month but dealers can’t deliver any new Mach-E’s until they get the fix. And today, Ford announced it is recalling more than 53,000 Ford Broncos from 2021 and 2022 because the passenger side rear door may be opened when the child safety lock is on. And last week NHTSA said it is investigating the SUV because of “catastrophic engine failures.”
CITROEN AMI READY FOR THE BEACH
Remember this beach buggy concept of the cute, little Citroen Ami? It was revealed in December of last year and must have proved popular enough that it’s now making a limited run based on that concept. Highlights include a unique body color, tube doors, canvas sunroof, roof spoiler and gold wheels. Only 50 examples will be made and sales kick off on June 21st.
AUDI DESIGNS ELECTRIC RICKSHAW FOR INDIA
Audi is known for its premium, luxury and sporty vehicles, so it might come as a surprise that it’s going to start testing rickshaws in India. But the reason for the test is to examine potential uses for second life batteries that are more demanding than a stationary storage system, which is how many second life batteries are used, but less demanding than a car. The batteries will come from e-tron test vehicles and Audi also developed solar charging stations, so they don’t have to use electricity that’s generated by burning coal. Another interesting aspect of its test is that it’s openly encouraging imitators. All the e-rickshaw data that is collected will be available on an open-source platform, so anyone could copy what it’s doing.
LYNK & CO DROPS CLAY MODELS
The speed of vehicle development has increased, so much so, we were surprised to learn that Lynk & Co’s new concept, called The Next Day, was made without a single clay model. Instead it was done with cast models and virtual reality. The vehicle is meant to show off the company’s future design direction. It’s a very angular, yet sporty design and reportedly features a plug-in hybrid powertrain. Suicide doors that also hinge slightly upward provide a large opening for passengers to enter the vehicle. The interior is highlighted by lounge seats, a steering wheel and display screen that retract when the vehicle is in autonomous mode and an AR Head Up Display that covers up a good portion of the windshield. For a quick reminder, Lynk & Co sells vehicles mainly in China, but also in Europe, and is owned by Geely.
FORD PUMA SEATS GET BLESSING OF SPINAL EXPERTS
While performance vehicles are fun to drive, the seats in those types of vehicles can be stiff and uncomfortable. That’s why Ford has developed an in-house 14-way adjustable seat that was approved by a top spinal health organization. The new seats are available on the ST versions of the Fiesta, Focus and Puma compact crossover in Europe. And Ford’s performance variants across the pond are pretty popular. ST and ST Line versions accounted for 44% of Fiesta, Focus and Puma sales in Europe last year.
ROBO CHARGERS FOR EVs
Instead of installing stationary EV chargers at parking lots or garages, a company called EV Safe Charge has developed a mobile robotic charger, called Ziggy, to offer on-demand charging as a service. You use an app to book a charge, which guides you to the parking facility. Ziggy will then automatically save a space for you and alert you where to meet it, once you do, you swap spots with Ziggy, which then parks behind your car. You then confirm activation and plug-in the charger and when it’s finished charging, the app will alert you.
TESLA AUTOPILOT MORE DANGEROUS THAN OTHERS
Tesla claims that customers using Autopilot get into far fewer crashes than other cars. But the Associated Press says NHTSA is about to release a report that shows they’re actually involved in proportionately more crashes. The AP was allowed to review data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that shows Tesla’s crash rate per 1,000 vehicles is substantially higher than crashes with cars from other automakers. NHTSA started investigating Autopilot when Teslas began crashing into emergency vehicles and other vehicles that were stopped on the side of the road. Even though Tesla says drivers have to remain alert and ready to take over at any moment, NHTSA says drivers may not be able to intervene quickly enough to avoid an accident. Some safety experts criticize Tesla because it does not use a driver monitoring system and relies only on vision for its system. NHTSA will release its data any day now.
But that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for tuning in.
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Comments (30)
June 15th, 2022 at 12:04 pm
Does anyone know why the 2.7 turbo engines in Broncos are blowing up? They’ve been using them in pickups and other vehicles for years, with decent reliability, as far as I know.
June 15th, 2022 at 12:09 pm
“Gas heading to $6 a gallon”; anyone see any shortages? No rationing, no lines, just high prices. I can see some higher prices but over double in less than three years has a certain ‘taint’ to it.
1, Guess on what’s up with the 2.7 Bronco; maybe assembly line procedure dictates an incorrect sequence (of some sort). But that’s pure conjecture on my part.
June 15th, 2022 at 12:29 pm
I read there may have been a supplier issue with Valves for to 2.7 ecoboost engines. Although it is the same engine as the F150 2.7 they my have been batched with a slightly different option for the Bronco and it is an unfortunate coincidence for Bornco oweners.
June 15th, 2022 at 12:29 pm
I read there may have been a supplier issue with Valves for to 2.7 ecoboost engines. Although it is the same engine as the F150 2.7 they my have been batched with a slightly different option for the Bronco and it is an unfortunate coincidence for Bornco oweners.
June 15th, 2022 at 12:30 pm
I guess getting rid of Hinrichs was not the solution to Ford’s quality issues. They need to form a rollaway team to kill this issue once and for all. This seems like one of those 3 cent savings issues that ends up costing hundreds of millions of dollars in recalls later. When will they learn?
June 15th, 2022 at 12:32 pm
Lynk & Co: Sean, I was in Amsterdam two weeks ago and saw quite a few of those. At the airport parking I saw a nice vehicle what looked to me like a Lamborghini Urus so I walked up to it to check it out. It actually was a Lynk & Co and I was told that Lynk & Co has a low price point and is selling well in the Netherlands.
June 15th, 2022 at 12:41 pm
I am not surprised that Lynk & Co did not use a clay model for a concept car. Since it won’t be produced, it doesn’t seem necessary. Your headline says they are dropping clay models. But the story did not address that. So, did they announce that they will no longer use clay models in developing future production vehicles? This is confusing.
June 15th, 2022 at 12:45 pm
Sean, on the Tesla Autopilot story, are the Tesla Autopilot data being compared to other automaker’s autonomous driving technology or just all other automobiles? The story doesn’t state it one way or the other. I would not be surprised at all if Tesla’s system did not work as safely as the systems of other automakers. However, it would be really shocking if Autopilot cars had more crashes per 100,000 miles than ordinary cars from other makers!
June 15th, 2022 at 12:48 pm
The whole Ziggy robocharger concept seems like a great solution for parking garages. Especially when people want to leave their car for more than a day, like at an airport. And, it should eliminate the issue of non-EVs parking in or blocking EV charging spots. What a clever idea!
June 15th, 2022 at 1:01 pm
ford is rushing to be first in EVs and it is hurting the whole companies quality
June 15th, 2022 at 1:06 pm
People still need to go to work, school get groceries and such so yea why would they expect traffic to go down? Maybe view weekend or holiday congestion and see if its dropped. We are at the mercy of gas prices to go where we need to go. Until we all switch to electric and then we will be at the mercy of your electric company and whatever they want to charge.
June 15th, 2022 at 1:19 pm
So expect a few heads to roll in the quality department at Ford. They had better get a handle on things quickly.
That Ziggy charger is just the kind of thing that will help to improve charging flexibility and make EV ownership easier. I like the idea because it doesn’t require designated spots that might not get used in an otherwise packed parking garage. Avoids the problem of non EVs parking in a charging spot and doesn’t give EVs premium parking like handicap spots. Could also help with folks towing trailers.
However I have seen enough videos of people leaving gas pumps with the nozzle still in the filler so hopefully no one tries to leave the parking garage with a portable charger attached.
June 15th, 2022 at 1:25 pm
#11 The good news, at least in Michigan and many other states, is that our electric companies are utilities that are regulated by the state. Price increases have to be applied for by the companies and approved by the state regulatory board. Our prices for natural gas and electricity do not fluctuate the way gasoline prices do. That predictability will be appealing to many consumers.
All bets are off in Texas.
June 15th, 2022 at 1:25 pm
1 Sounds like a combination of two problems for the Bronco Engines. Valves and oil pan design.
https://fordauthority.com/2022/06/ford-bronco-2-7l-v6-ecoboost-engine-failures-explained-exclusive/
June 15th, 2022 at 1:49 pm
About Tesla Autopilot, “NHTSA will release its data any day now.” I will have an opinion once the NHTSA releases its data any day now.
Jumping the gun using a rumor report is never a good journalistic practice.
June 15th, 2022 at 1:58 pm
#2 the oil companies are getting us ready for $4 a gallon gas permanently by putting it up o $6 the drivers will be happy it is back down to $4
June 15th, 2022 at 2:16 pm
and what is the reason $140 a barrel oil? Is someone holding back production? Everyone wants to use the excuse that well Europe has even higher gas prices than we do. So what? Because they are willing or forced to pay that why should we accept it ? They also have a lot of social programs that maybe being funded from tax on fuel that we don’t get. Compare apples to apples. What we should ask is why do some states pay way more for fuel than others that isn’t tax related.
June 15th, 2022 at 2:24 pm
people are still driving because many of us have to work regardless of prices. many of us can’t work from home. After being under house arrest for almost 2 years many people are like hell with it I’m going on vacation no matter what even if it means eating Ramen noodles all month or not paying the utilities. At some point if this continues people will run out their credit limits and will only be able afford the gas to get to work to buy more gas. It now costs me $10 a day to get to and from work. from 2017-2020 it cost me between $4.50 and $6.00 a day.So this is costing me over a grand more just to be able to work. Some have it much worse than that.
June 15th, 2022 at 2:48 pm
@GM Veteran – It’s comparing Level 2 ADAS crashes amongst all automakers.
June 15th, 2022 at 3:01 pm
14 Interesting. I wonder if the “sucking air” is mainly people doing hard core off roading with the Broncos?
19 Thanks, Sean. That’s what I suspected, but good to have it confirmed.
June 15th, 2022 at 3:35 pm
17 The non-tax related difference in gas prices among US states are largely related to proximity to oil supplies and refineries. In addition to distance, those big hills make it a lot more expensive to get gas from Texas to Oregon, than to Kansas.
June 15th, 2022 at 5:35 pm
I thought gas prices in Europe were previously at the price point we are at now. I would be interested to see how their 8.00 per gallon compares as a percentage increase to the price in the US. I have a feeling there are political pressures and planned ‘blunders’ over the last 1 1/2 year to account for many of our troubles.
June 15th, 2022 at 6:23 pm
#19 Thanks Sean! That makes the most sense. And still, Tesla (Musk) insists their system is best and doesn’t need lidar. Its unfortunate for the innocent people that have been injured or killed because they have irresponsibly under-engineered the Autopilot system.
It is surprising to me that NHTSA allowed any manufacturer to sell a vehicle equipped with an autonomous driving system lower than Level 4. A human/computer hybrid system is a really bad concept when people’s lives are at stake.
June 15th, 2022 at 7:11 pm
22 Gas taxes in Europe are $4+/gallon, while average tax in the US is ~$0.55/gallon. Therefore, the percentage pump price increase in the US is much higher, but the dollars/Euros per gallon/liter increase is similar.
June 15th, 2022 at 10:48 pm
The web link is to the NHTSA announcement of “NHTSA Releases Initial Data on Safety Performance of Advanced Vehicle Technologies.” It has links to the original reports.
Let’s read them before making uninformed comments. BTW, I have about 69,000 miles on my AutoPilot equipped Tesla Model 3 that makes driving much, much easier.
June 16th, 2022 at 3:04 am
The Lynk & Co 01 was the Netherland’s 4th/5th best-selling vehicle in April/May. I was pretty astonished when I saw that a while ago.
For anyone wanting to work off good and relevant data with regards to US and world energy,
http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/
should be indispensable. Ideally visit regularly. I’ve been going there for years. One example:
http://www.eia DOT gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=46657
I have to think there are still better solutions for charging EVs. Wireless efficiency is improving. While CA passed one million EVs sold in February.
June 16th, 2022 at 5:05 am
About AutoPilot, Autoline should retract “More Dangerous” because NHTSA DOT HS 813 325, June 2022 clearly sates “. . . the Summary Incident Report Data should not be assumed to be statistically representative of all crashes.”
This is because some manufacturers do not automate and include telemetry of crash data. Many inferior systems may fail to report a crash.
In the report, “. . . it is feasible that some Level 2 ADAS-equipped vehicle crashes are not included in the Summary Incident Report Data because the reporting entity was not aware of them.” In engineering (and quality reporting,) garbage in means garbage out.
The web link is to DOT HS 813 325, NHTSA, June 2022.
June 16th, 2022 at 5:24 am
It would be accurate to state ‘Tesla automated telemetry reports more crashes than those without out automation or fewer cars.’ As DOT HS 813 325 clearly states it is wrong to infer a rate, much less a “Dangerous” rate of crashes. If a crash is not reported, it still occurred but manually may not be counted.
Worse, we have no metrics on how many cars are actually using or have an Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS.) Several manufacturers like GM and Toyota have had policies that ONLY top trim, expensive models can get an ADAS. In contrast, Tesla makes AutoPilot standard on all models with telemetry and automated backup.
June 16th, 2022 at 9:22 am
Why is it Tesla seems to get away with so many safety problems whereas many other auto companies would not? Tesla got big through lies and the manipulation 0f the market. Technology wise, they had nothing over GM. GM was first with an EV and they decided to play it safe and wait later to corner the market which I think they about ready to do.
Alright, Tesla fans, let me have it. It’s ttoo bad you know nothing what GM has been doing for the last 6 years. All you know is Tesla, Tesla, Tesla and Tesla.
June 16th, 2022 at 9:26 am
25-27 There wouldn’t be enough of any kind of crash data on Teslas, especially fatalities, to be statistically significant, with a total of only ~2M on the road, world-wide. Fatality rates for vehicles with tens of millions on the road, like F-150, have a very wide confidence limits.
https://www.iihs.org/ratings/driver-death-rates-by-make-and-model
Data for “autopilot” would be very vague, even for non-fatal crashes.