This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
GM ANNOUNCES PLAN TO DOUBLE REVENUE
General Motors laid out ambitious plans during an investor presentation to grow revenue and its margins. The company said it’s aiming to double revenue from $140 billion today to about $280 billion and expand margins to 12 to 14 percent by 2030. It will do that by introducing new vehicles, including ICE and BEVs, new hardware and software platforms, commercializing its Cruise autonomous business, launching new startups and with its BrightDrop commercial van business.
GM UNVEILS ULTRA CRUISE HANDS-FREE DRIVER ASSIST SYSTEM
It also made several other big announcements, including unveiling a new hands-free driver assist system called Ultra Cruise, which at first will be able to handle 95% of all driving scenarios. Eventually, the technology will allow for hands-free driving on all public paved roads in the U.S. and Canada. It will first be introduced in a Cadillac vehicle in 2023 and will only be available in premium models. Its other hands-free driver assist system, Super Cruise, which only works on the highway, will be offered in its more mainstream models.
ELECTRIC SILVERADO TO DEBUT AT CES
And lastly, Chevy announced that it will reveal the electric Silverado at CES in January of 2022. It’s based on GM’s Ultium EV platform and has an estimated range of 400 miles. Other features include a fixed-glass roof and Four-Wheel-Steering. But that’s all Chevy is sharing for now.
MARK FIELDS NAMED HERTZ CEO
Former Ford CEO Mark Fields is returning to the auto industry. He was just named interim CEO of Hertz. But he’ll have his hands full with the rental car company emerging from bankruptcy only three months ago. Fields was let go at Ford in 2017 because the board was unhappy with the company’s profits and stock falling while he was CEO.
TESLA MOVING HEADQUARTERS TO TEXAS
During a call with shareholders, Elon Musk revealed that Tesla is moving its headquarters from California to Texas. It’s not too surprising of a move, last year Musk threatened to move the company due to COVID restrictions in California that disrupted production. Also, Tesla is building a new factory in Austin and it has a launch pad for SpaceX in Texas. But Tesla isn’t the first automaker to make the move, a few years back Toyota moved its U.S. headquarters from California to Texas.
TESLA NOW BUILDING MODEL Y WITH FRONT & REAR SINGLE CASTINGS
And in other Tesla news, it just achieved another first in the auto industry. Electrek reports the company is now producing the Model Y with two, large single castings for the front and back of the vehicle, becoming the first automaker to do so. Building vehicles with the mega-castings simplifies the manufacturing process by eliminating a number of welding robots and stamping machines and it saves money by not having to maintain them. The process also improves the vehicle’s NVH, makes it lighter and increases its range. The only downside is it could lead to expensive repairs if the vehicle gets in an accident. Tesla is aiming to produce the Model Y at its Gigafactories in Texas and Berlin using the new mega-castings by the end of the year.
ID.3 ELECTRIC BRINGING IN NEW CUSTOMERS FOR VOLKSWAGEN
And speaking of EVs, Volkswagen is gaining a lot of new customers thanks to its ID.3 electric. Since it launched last year, the company has received around 144,000 orders for the model in Europe and about half of them are new customers to the company. For comparison, it says other VW models bring in new customers about 36% of the time on average. Volkswagen made a huge bet on electric vehicles and it must be thrilled with the results so far.
MAZDA EXPANDS SUV LINE-UP WITH NEW NAMES
Mazda is shaking up its utility lineup. It’s adding a bunch of new models, including the CX-50, -60, -70, -80 and -90. That’s clearly going to put way too many crossovers and SUVs into its lineup and we expect a number will be renamed as one of the new vehicles or just dropped, but it’s unclear at the moment what those might be. However, it does look like the CX-5 will live on. All of the new models will be introduced over the next two years and the CX-50 will actually be the first model that gets produced at its joint plant with Toyota in Alabama. The CX-60 and upwards will be offered in a narrow or wide body type, depending on the market, and with two or three rows of seats. Powering the models will be a wide range of gas, diesel and electrified powertrains. And lastly, Mazda announced sometime around 2025 it’s going to introduce a product line that uses a dedicated EV platform.
HYUNDAI FILES PATENT FOR FUTURISTIC STEERING WHEEL
Automakers are starting to re-imagine the steering wheel. Tesla, of course, has its yoke steering wheel in the Model S and X. Last month, GM Design showed off a futuristic wheel or what it calls a steering pad, which features a screen in the middle of the yoke-like wheel. And now Hyundai has filed a patent in Germany for a wheel with the display screen in it. It’s still a traditional round wheel but the instrument cluster is moved from the dash to the wheel instead. The idea is to make it easier to see the display screen which a regular wheel can obstruct in most vehicles. If you’re wondering about the airbag, it’s still inside the wheel but Hyundai says it can deploy without damaging the screen because they’re spaced apart in separate mounts. Who knows if it will actually make it into production but Hyundai’s luxury brand Genesis recently revealed a new concept called the Mint that’s equipped with a similar wheel.
FORD REVEALS EXPEDITION TIMBERLINE OFF-GRID CONCEPT
Ford recently unveiled the off-road focused version of the updated Expedition, called the Timberline and now it’s showing just how far you could take that setup. The Expedition Timberline Off-Grid Concept sure looks ready for the floor of SEMA where it will be on display November 2-5, but first debuts today at the Overland Expo in Virginia. It’s fitted with FOX Performance shocks with remote reservoirs front and rear, 35-inch tires, underbody protection, a ton of lighting accessories, its own matching trailer to store extra gear, roof-top tent and awning and even a custom bed in the back. The aftermarket business is huge, bringing in billions of dollars every year, and that’s what Ford is hoping to tap into by showing off a vehicle like this.
NEW LEXUS LX TO DEBUT NEXT WEEK
And one last quick report before I sign off. Lexus teased the all-new LX SUV, which will debut next week October 14th.
But that brings us to the end of this week. Thanks for joining us and have a great weekend.
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Comments (34)
October 8th, 2021 at 12:14 pm
Where is the chalice that GM is drinking from I could use some of that juice!
October 8th, 2021 at 12:16 pm
Hyundai’s idea of putting the instruments in the steering really makes sense NOT Do you really want to force drivers to look farther away from the road? I guess it’s the anti-HUD.
October 8th, 2021 at 12:44 pm
Not sure why Megacasts end pieces would be a repair issue as most major collisions are written off by the insurance Co.,even minor looking ones involving what looks like a gentle tap damages most of the front end sensors and airbags and front of the engine components, thus needing very expensive repairs, that the insurance Co write cars off, you in Autoline discussed and mentioned it about 2 years ago, it was the Genesis brand from my memory.
October 8th, 2021 at 1:02 pm
Further more about collisions , where there is a way there can be things to go about it, my Friend has a 8 bay collision shop, he has customers bring in Salvage cars, everything from rollovers to front or rear collisions, I bought a salvaged rearender ,he replaced a qtr panel, trunk,rear bumper and axle of a 2004 Honda Civic,back in 2005, I got it Certified and Legal , but was registered as ” Branded”- a classification that the car is fit for the road, but is greatly diminished in resale value, as a CarFacts search will reveal it as such.
Today’s cars have so much Hi Tech and expensive sensors that any accident makes repairing them very expensive, try pricing out Mercedes and Audi LED headlights, those on the S Class Benz or Audis with adaptive headlight function,an Audi owner was shocked, the pair on her car was $6,000 Canadian $ /set
October 8th, 2021 at 1:07 pm
New age steering devices replacing wheels feels like automakers trying to appear to be futuristic. In reality, the steering wheel is just fine as is and these yokes are a joke because they are harder to use than a wheel. If they were better, they would have caught on a long time ago. There is a reason that old line about reinventing the wheel has remained so relevant for so long.
Besides, if AVs with no human driver or steering controls are really going to take over soon, why bother redesigning the steering wheel now?
October 8th, 2021 at 1:24 pm
#5 GM vet, so the GM Bolt concept with no steering wheel is a bad idea?, maybe go tell Mary Barra.
October 8th, 2021 at 1:55 pm
There is a reason that steering wheels for road vehicles have been round, or nearly round for the 100+ years since they replaced tillers. There have been a few squared off wheels, like in a 1960 Plymouth, but they soon reverted to round.
https://flic.kr/p/dPL6Tp
I should soon find out what I think of a not-quite-round wheel in my Corvette.
October 8th, 2021 at 2:47 pm
Plaid owner Markus Brownlee said after getting used to Yoke he will not go back to round steering wheel if it was offered,was a matter of training muscle memory, we are creatures of habit, and I’m sure the Plaid used to set the ‘ring record had a Yoke, I will check video in YouTube.
October 8th, 2021 at 2:53 pm
#7 comparing a 60s Plymouth that had no ADAS ABS and all kinds of sensors and safety equip and whatsoever and handing of a barge is kind of lame, maybe we’ll go back to drum brakes and body on frame technology, bias ply tires too.
October 8th, 2021 at 3:11 pm
9 What, exactly, does the shape of a steering wheel have to do with safety equipment? Nothing.
8 Yes, the yoke would be fine for driving the ‘Ring for time, where you’d never turn the thing more than a quarter turn in either direction, and are running full out, full concentration. For turning a tight corner in town, or on a 10 hour road trip where you might want to move your hands around, a wheel would be better. That’s why cars have used them for about 120 years.
October 8th, 2021 at 4:47 pm
Airplanes have yokes for a long time. A 1946 Cessna 140 has them, and a B-17 has yoke-like half steering wheels, the bottom half. Of course, a lot of airplanes have had sticks for aileron and elevator. Competition airobatics planes, like Extra 330 still use sticks. No, sticks would not be good for driving cars.
October 8th, 2021 at 6:30 pm
Here’s CR’s thoughts on the yoke. Yeah, there are CR haters here, but their car testers are, in fact, actual “car guys ”
“Tesla Model S Steering Yoke – Consumer Reports” https://www.consumerreports.org/cars-driving/tesla-steering-yoke-little-benefit-potential-safety-pitfalls-a1034204120/
October 8th, 2021 at 6:58 pm
#10 -12, The ‘ring has some 75 turns ,some say closer to 100, anyway it is 33 and 40 left and right and carousels and hairpins, it is the most demanding track on earth,and is where storied makes hone their skills.CR? They are the best,in testing Toasters and vacuum cleaners,washers and dryers too,wonder what they think of GM and Ford products,lastime I looked only Toyota was worth buying according to them, not sure if they would recommend the GM Bolt today, Yeah, Bolts might be the best EV out there ,good luck finding parking with 50 feet ” Social Distancing ” in mind,
First GM car I had was a Buick GN,weird car,one winter the electric radiator fan ran all nite killing the battery, happened twice, imagine the car thinking the engine is overheating and key off, nobody in the car,try to go to work in the morning, not even a click of the solenoid, 2nd car was an uncles Celebrity,2.5 Iron Duke motor,what a joke of a car,even had a friend who owned a Knight Rider Firebird, that was even more weird, a 2 dr sports car with a 2.5 Iron Duke motor , again, driving it felt like it had a boat anchor tied to its butt.
October 8th, 2021 at 9:32 pm
13 You don’t seem to “get it” at all. The slowest turn of the Nürburgring is about 50 mph in a fast road car. To do that turn, you’d turn the wheel maybe a quarter turn. That is not remotely like normal street driving where you might turn the wheel a whole turn or more for a turn on a city street, or when parallel parking. A yoke does not work well for that, while it would be fine for those 50 mph, and 120 mph turns on the ‘Ring.
…and what does any of that have to do with GM cars of 35 years ago?
October 8th, 2021 at 9:41 pm
13 As car as CR, they appreciate performance cars, and give the Porsche Boxster and new Corvette high “road test scores,” but downgrade their overall scores because they don’t have forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection. If you actually read their reviews, they are useful, both for an enthusiast, and a soccer mom. You can separate out what you consider important.
October 9th, 2021 at 6:28 am
Yokes in planes, fine; they don’t need a lot of pivot (as previously said, more than 90 degrees from center), the same goes for some race cars (F1 as an example). Steering wheels provide a more seamless degree of turning when a maximum steering is required and also provides multiple hand positions when driving, which in my opinion, would help with elimination of fatigue on longer trips. Your hand position is limited with a yoke, 3 and 9 and 4 and 8; add 2 and 10 (and probably not recommended but I find myself using, right hand at 12). The wheel; more versatile for driving. Even the C8′s squared off wheel can be used as I described and provide a nice view of the instruments; now that’s a better design.
October 9th, 2021 at 8:58 am
this forum is full of dinosaurs, and legacy auto fans, and resistant to change and new thinking and old former workers of Detroit, Union supporters too, even today such thinking is prevalent, Detroit and its workers are stuck in yesterday, is that is one Legacy auto is doomed to fail specially Detroit audits Stealerships, please welcome the Chinese, they will school old auto as Sandy Munro says, dont worry about Tesla , they are too small the Chinese Tsunami comes first a drop, then waves. Good luck Detroit, or is that Tennessee and Kentucky where there are no Unions.
October 9th, 2021 at 9:23 am
Recently there was an article claiming someone plans to make electric drivetrains and motor into a commodity. A recent technical article announced:
“The performance of a compact motor inverter is limited by thermal losses. Poor thermal performance creates hotpots, shortens inverter lifetime and reduces motor current. The conventional solution to thermal problems is to attach a heatsink – hardly compatible with the desire to create a small motor driver design. The BridgeSwitch IC family are high-voltage Integrated Half-Bridge (IHB) motor driver ICs that increase switching efficiency to 99.2%. ….”
A single supplier will be great for ‘catalog engineering.’ However, performance and efficiency will always go with the vertical integrated engineering team.
October 9th, 2021 at 9:31 am
John McElroy is interviewed in Spreaker by ZOZOGO CEO Michael Dunne .Where is the Global auto Industry going and which company will take us there the fastest?
Wining in Asia: A ZOZOGO podcast
A very interesting interview
Listen to the whole thing,
Then come back to make a comment.
October 9th, 2021 at 10:16 am
John McElroy, thanks for letting Michael Dunne interview you, and yes I wonder what it is going take to open States like Michigan to let Tesla operate there, ” Only in America” as they say, That should have been resolved years ago.
GM colluding with MADA / NADA , nothing but protectionism basically, let the SC fix that.
October 9th, 2021 at 11:57 am
18 Yeah, a perfect motor controller would generate no heat. Fast switching improves controller efficiency, but motors don’t like it. Anyway, improvements will continue to be made, but EV powertrains and controllers are already very efficient. The big area for breakthoughs remains batteries.
October 9th, 2021 at 4:31 pm
As I have said in the past, the perfect control for a vehicle is the joystick, and for all you joystick haters and doubters look no further than the off-road amphibious vehicle Fat Truck at fattruck.com, it has a joystick for acceleration and directional control and couldn’t be simpler to use, it even does 25 mph and doesn’t have any problem being controlled by the joystick. And just like variable effort power steering, a joystick could change it’s feel and resistance the faster you go. So open up your minds haters and doubters and consider a joystick for future vehicle control, today’s electronics can easily make joysticks a thing of beauty for vehicle control.
October 9th, 2021 at 4:43 pm
Well, joysticks are good for controlling model airplanes, but they don’t encounter potholes, like would cause you to accidently move over two lanes if driving a car with a joystick.
October 9th, 2021 at 5:26 pm
I prefer feet steering and hand braking/acceleration. No steering shaft to heart and unambiguous velocity control. Best of all, scrubbing the legacy drivers who can’t adapt.
October 9th, 2021 at 6:10 pm
This article explains pretty well why joysticks are not likely to replace steering wheels, and pedals in road cars.
“Why you’ll never drive your car with a joystick – Ars Technica” https://arstechnica.com/cars/2014/06/why-youll-never-drive-your-car-with-a-joystick/?amp=1
The relevant part is about the first quarter of thr article.
October 9th, 2021 at 6:12 pm
25 cont. Precision is the operative word, as to why joysticks won’t replace steering wheels.
October 10th, 2021 at 6:43 am
I’m not enamored of yokes in street-legal cars – it’s a safety issue to me. Not even offering a steering wheel as an option might fly for now.
Regarding Tesla’s presently unique, giant front and rear castings, they integrate lower-speed crash-absorbers. I wouldn’t want to keep a vehicle where the deformation had propagated farther.
Incidentally, the party over at Tesla’s Giga Berlin (…Brandenburg) has resulted in a treasure trove of new pics. Relevant to the above:
https://twitter.com/alex_avoigt/status/1446949413646123014
https://twitter.com/AustinTeslaClub/status/1446822399446503424
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FBPvP65WYAcNh_U?format=jpg&name=large
As for Mazda, I’m glad they’re going with the wonderful trend towards inline sixes. Even better, they have also announced a Wankel hybrid.
gm clearly lacks focus. Why not triple revenue? Anything’s possible if you forget about execution, the competition, and prospective customers.
Chip Shortage – Dragging on and on. It seems that the cheap little chips built on old processes are some of the main culprits (aside from sending “everything” to Malaysia for finishing). Their designs belong to lots of different companies – maybe standing up a new, jointly owned contract manufacturer might help in the medium term?
Waiting around for supply to improve smacks of Toyota’s urge to jump over the EV cliff.
October 10th, 2021 at 9:47 am
#27 Todays sensors and airbags and parts of the ICE cost a lot of money, what looks like a minor fender bender can cost half what the car cost imparts and labour,John McElroy mentioned this about a year ago ,he was talking about the Genesis brand.
Recently an Audi owner here in Toronto was shocked that replacement lights for her Audi which has Adaptive Matrix headlights cost $6000.
October 10th, 2021 at 11:23 am
28 A few years ago, my sister’s Subaru Forester T-boned a Nissan Altima that turned left in front of her. The air bags deployed in the Subaru, but it was not a particularly high speed crash, because the driver of the Altima was barely hurt, though a passenger might have been, had there been a passenger. Anyway, the ~2 year old Subaru was totaled, given the front end damage, and the extensive cost of fixing the interior and replacing the air bags. It doesn’t take that much to total a car, even an almost new one.
October 10th, 2021 at 11:39 am
27 Even though Toyota is not getting into BEVs in a big way, they need to be lining up suppliers for batteries, and materials for motors. They will need to have EVs soon for certain markets, like northern Europe and the US. They can probably keep selling the current Hilux pickup in some markets for another 20 years.
October 10th, 2021 at 2:33 pm
#28 Kit I bought totaled 2006 Subaru Forester in 2007 for $8500 + tax so around almost $11,000, bought parts from a wrecking yard ,radiator,rad support,front beam,front bumpers, hood,two airbags, seatbelts, for around $3000, paid my friend, the body shop guy $3,500 to fix it,another $500 to get it Certified, ,it had only 6700 Kms when i bought it. This car was worth $24,000 new @ that tim so i saved maybe around $5,000 or so, hindsight i wouldn’t do it again as the car had to be registerd ” branded” and resale would be half compared to a ” clean title ” car, same to a 2004 Honda Civic i bought 2 years before that,that car was totaled ,I was hit from behind and pushed into a couple of cars in front in a multiple car collision,about 10 cars involved, the insurance didn’t want to pay Black Book value of the car.The money settlement paid for the 2006 Subaru, not buying wrecked cars anymore, simply not worth it,and these were simple cars not much in the way of sensors or expensive lights, not even HID ones. my Friend still in the Bznz fixing wrecks , many of his customers keep the cars until its dead. He does good bznz doing simple older cars like restorations and rusty ones.
October 11th, 2021 at 9:45 am
With all the electronic controls and autonomy advances, I think instead of a big round steering wheel that “disappears” into the dash, tillers, or joysticks, how about a small steering wheel knob like the Ford Pro-Trailer backup wheel. Instead of it being on the dash, put in on the center console for comfortable, one handed steering. It could eliminate the pedals, too, if it moved forward and back for speed (kind of combining the wheel, pedals, joystick, & tiller aspects into the one knob/wheel.
How about a plug & play option, to have a choice of different steering control options? That might be getting too difficult to clear the “safety hurdles”, but I’m sure they could do it.
October 11th, 2021 at 10:28 am
32 A small steering wheel, and one finger throttle/brake works well for racing r/c cars.
October 11th, 2021 at 12:40 pm
#33 drone pilots and James Bond have done it already.