AD #3523 – Tesla Dropping Ultrasonic Sensors; New Mustang Goes Graphics Crazy; GM Cuts $2 Billion Worth of Employees
March 10th, 2023 at 11:58am
Listen to “AD #3523 – Tesla Dropping Ultrasonic Sensors; New Mustang Goes Graphics Crazy; GM Cuts $2 Billion Worth of Employees” on Spreaker.
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Runtime: 10:59
0:08 GM to Slash $2 Billion Worth of Employees
0:58 Nissan Ariya Production Stumbles
2:02 Stellantis Uses Flexible Work Hours to Retain Female Execs
3:21 Attention Gamers, BMW Wants You!
3:51 7th-Gen Mustang Goes Graphics Crazy
5:30 Ford Launches E-Transit School Buses
6:02 Alfa & Maserati Get Stella Large
7:37 BMW Profits Jump
8:33 CATL Profits Soar
9:21 Tesla Dropping Ultrasonic Sensors
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GM TO SLASH $2 BILLION WORTH OF EMPLOYEES
On Tuesday Jerome Powell, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, announced he may have to raise interest rates even higher than they already are to try and slow the economy down. And Mary Barra heard the warning loud and clear. Yesterday, General Motors announced it’s offering buyouts to nearly all of its white-collar workforce. The offer is completely voluntary and goes to salaried workers who have been with the company for at least five years and all global executives who have worked at GM for two years. GM will take a pre-tax charge of $1.5 billion to pay for the buyouts, but it expects to save $2 billion a year after that. GM says the cost cuts will help it “remain nimble in an increasingly competitive market.”
NISSAN ARIYA PRODUCTION STUMBLES
Not only does it look like there are tough economic times ahead, automakers are still struggling to launch their EVs. Nissan tooled up a plant in Japan to make 400 Ariya EVs a day, but it only sold 201 of them in the U.S. market last year. One problem is that Nissan is trying to build EV, PHEV and ICE vehicles on the same line in a new high-tech plant, but it seems to be choking on the complexity. And it’s not just Nissan. Reuters reports that Tesla is struggling to ramp up production of its 4680 batteries and it says this is a key reason why the Cybertruck has been delayed. Tesla considered using 2170 batteries or even 4680 iron phosphate batteries as a back-up plan, but it decided to wait until the 4680 NMC batteries were ready. Even so, analysts expect Tesla to overcome its problems, while Nissan just had its credit rating reduced to junk status.
STELLANTIS USES FLEXIBLE WORK HOURS TO RETAIN FEMALE EXECS
Ever since pandemic lockdowns ended, there’s been a big debate in corporate boardrooms over whether to allow employees to continue working from home, or demanding they come back to the office. But Stellantis says there’s one big benefit to remote and hybrid options…it helps attract and retain female talent, especially in leadership positions. In an interview with Bloomberg, Stellantis’ head of Human Resources says women now account for 27% of its top jobs, up from 24% the year before. And it’s aiming to increase that to 30% by 2025. Four of Stellantis’ 14 brands are run by women.
ATTENTION GAMERS, BMW WANTS YOU!
As vehicles become more automated, entertaining passengers will become more important. BMW is partnering with a company called AirConsole to launch a competition to develop in-car games. The two companies will pick four winners, who will receive 5,000 euros each to develop a prototype. If they like the prototype, AirConsole will fully fund the development of the game. Developers can submit their ideas now until the beginning of June through an official website.
7TH GEN MUSTANG GOES GRAPHICS CRAZY
Ford tapped into the video game world for the all-new 7th-gen Mustang. Its digital displays run on Ford’s Sync 4 system, but it uses a real-time 3D creation tool, called Unreal Engine, which is typically used in video games, to make some of the graphics more dynamic. For example, when making changes to the vehicle settings, rather than a static image, a picture of the Mustang pops up that not only can you move around in all directions, the system you’re making a change to is highlighted and will change color when moving through the different modes. Ford also wanted to make improvements for owners that like to go to the track and drag strip. All the extra gauge settings, like battery voltage, oil pressure, engine temp and more, have been broken out from the instrument cluster and moved to the driver-facing center screen. And not only can owners record laps times, but also 0-30, 0-60, 0-100, 8-th mile and quarter-mile times as well as have staging lights, like you’re at the drag strip, that appear in the instrument cluster. But perhaps the feature that most people are interested in is the ability to make the gauges look like the old Fox Body Mustang that ran from 1987 until 1993. There’s also a “Normal” look, “Sport,” “Track,” and “Calm,” but there’s nothing quite like the nostalgic green glow you get when you turn on the headlights. Ford said it made these changes to attract a younger customer to the Mustang.
FORD LAUNCHES E-TRANSIT SCHOOL BUSES
Speaking of Ford, it wants kids to ride to school on electric power. It revealed a short, school bus version of the E-Transit at a trade show for work trucks. Ford claims that it’s the first full line manufacturer to offer a Type A school bus package on an electric platform. It will also use the E-Transit platform to provide delivery vehicles for the U.S. Postal Service, so, like the ICE version, we expect to see a number of vehicle types off the E-Transit.
ALFA & MASERATI GET STELLA LARGE
Stellantis says it’s going to start building EVs in Italy. Its Cassino plant, which currently makes SUVs for Alfa Romeo and Maserati, “will add production of vehicles, to be shared at a later date, based on the flexible, BEV-centric STLA Large platform.” The reason we quoted that is because we think there’s a couple of things to unpackage. It says the plant will be “shared.” That to us means it could build both EV and ICE vehicles at the same time. Also, that’s the first time we’ve seen its STLA Large referred to as “BEV-centric.” Does that mean the platform could handle other powertrain types, like PHEV? And that would make a lot of sense if the plant is going to make both EVs and ICEs. Oh, in case you’re wondering, Stellantis has already shown a couple of vehicles that use the STLA Large platform. That includes the Dodge Charger Daytona SRT and Peugeot Inception Concept.
BMW PROFITS JUMP
BMW reported its earnings for last year and while its numbers are pretty good, some analysts were disappointed that it didn’t do as well as Mercedes-Benz. BMW sold about 2.4 million cars, down nearly 5%, even though Rolls Royce was up almost 8%, and motorcycles were up 4%. Total revenues for the company jumped 28% to €142 billion and profits exploded. Earnings before interest and taxes from selling BMWs, Minis and Rolls Royce’s shot up 60%. Motorcycle EBIT jumped 18%. Put it all together and the total net profit for the company shot up 49% to €18.5 billion. It sure makes me scratch my head why analysts are disappointed in these numbers. Most anyone else would say these results are spectacular.
CATL PROFITS SOAR
But CATL also reported last year’s earnings and they sure show that the EV side of the industry is where the real growth is. Its revenue shot up 152% to $47 billion and its net profit jumped 93% to $4.4 billion. It also generated a net cash flow of nearly $9 billion, which will provide it with plenty of money for future expansion. CATL has enough capacity to make 390 gigawatt hours of batteries right now and has another 152 GWh under construction. Put it all together and that’s about enough capacity for 5.4 million EVs with 100 kWh battery packs.
TESLA DROPPING ULTRASONIC SENSORS
Last year, Tesla announced it would stop equipping Model 3 and Ys with ultrasonic sensors and would only rely on cameras or what it calls Tesla Vision for all of its advanced driver assistance functions. Tesla plans to do the same with the Model S and X this year. Car News China reports that a Chinese regulator just revealed that made-in-China Model Ys are not equipped with any ultrasonic sensors. Some functions will be temporarily unavailable without the sensors, including Park Assist, Autopark, Summon and Smart Summon. But Tesla says once those features meet performance standards with just cameras, it will restore them with over-the-air updates. We’d like to hear from the Tesla community. What happens when it’s snowing outside? How are those cameras going to work when there’s snow on the lens?
But that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for making Autoline a part of your day and I hope you have a great weekend.
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Comments (35)
March 10th, 2023 at 12:31 pm
Dont need to be a Tesla owner to know that a camera wont work when its covered in snow, ice. Maybe another reason Tesla is taking Cybertruck to 48V. Might have to add small heaters to all the camera lens to keep operational.
That IRA is doing wonders for the economy as gm looks to cut 2B worth of employees. Gm knows higher interest rates will slow sales.
March 10th, 2023 at 12:40 pm
By offering buyouts to nearly all of their salary work force, I’d think GM could end up losing a lot of the wrong ones. As they sell more EVs, they won’t need as many production supervisors, etc., but I’d think they’d still need technical and design people. Why not offer buyouts selectively, to people less needed?
March 10th, 2023 at 1:18 pm
Great question Kit. They always seem to make offers this way, and it seems to me that the HR staff simply isn’t up to determining where selective buyouts should be targeted, or that they might be sued for bias in those selections. Despite their large legal staff, GM has been lawsuit-shy for many decades now. It seems to prevent them from making the best decisions in many types of situations.
You can be dismissed immediately for theft or fraud, but it takes years to fire an employee for incompetence.
March 10th, 2023 at 1:35 pm
Sean, camera system likely won’t work reliably in snow, frost, mud, dust, salt spray or when covered with bugs or chipped by a stone on a dirt road. It’s not just that the vision may be blocked. It’s also what the image processor thinks when it sees a giant squashed butterfly on the lens.
March 10th, 2023 at 2:01 pm
No sensor works when covered by snow and ice, even radar where the water molecules totally block the signal. I am most impressed with the EyeSight system in our Subaru. If I can see out the windshield, I have the safety features and driving assists. If the sun is low and directly ahead I will lose function for about 5 minutes. It’s good enough in bad weather that I choose for safety reasons not to use it.
March 10th, 2023 at 2:12 pm
well so much for wanting to be treated equal if female employees want to be allowed to work from home. I have big issue with anyone “working” from home. I just call it what it is , Bullsh*t. For the entire duration of the plannedmic I had to drag my ass to work for a 40 + hour week with a 45 mile round trip. When our office denizens got to work from home and some still do 3 days a week a home when they live 5 minutes from the plant. It affects my job as I can’t get the information I need when they screw up the jobs I’m supposed to build for them . We were told message them in teams and they’ll get back to you in less than 15 minutes, what a crock . If they answered at all it was hours later. So if they weren’t at their laptop “working” what the hell were they doing. I say if you want the job , get your ass up , get dressed and bring yourself in and do what you’re getting paid for.
March 10th, 2023 at 2:25 pm
@5 – …. And they can work from home before/after the normal business hours.
March 10th, 2023 at 2:26 pm
Oops, meant 6
March 10th, 2023 at 2:43 pm
6 TOTALLY AGREE !!! I retired as an anesthesiologist at 64, because of this government driven blind faith in ‘interweb’ technology. I had to go to my hands on job every day, arriving at 06:15, leaving late afternoon or early evening, on top of night shifts. No work from home for me. Yet I would see anesthesia staff in the room hamstrung by government mandated computer recording systems, electronic heath records (EHR – thanks Obama), and staff trying to troubleshoot an anesthesia crisis looking at the monitors instead of the actual patient. On night call, nursing staff video call a ‘neurologist team’ to care for patients having a suspected stroke. Internal medicine doctors would call in orders from home without ever coming to hands on assess a patient, even in the ICU. Terrible care, but ‘cheaper’. Guess who did all the actual night work, when the inevitable crisis occurred through neglect. Yours truly. Sorry for the rant, but save us from the tech infatuation.
March 10th, 2023 at 2:57 pm
6 If they are supposed to message you back within 15 minutes and don’t, they should be warned, and if they still refuse to, they should be fired. Isn’t doing your job a requirement there?
March 10th, 2023 at 3:12 pm
9 It seemed that in some ways, the medical business is years, or decades behind the rest of the world. Just 3 years ago I had to fax a bunch of forms needed before a surgery. No emailed files allowed. Fax is a technology left over from about 120 years ago.
As far as electronic health records, you think records should still be kept on reams of paper, and a person’s records Xeroxed and mailed if a patient is referred to a specialist? Yes, I certainly understand your frustration with having to spend long days, when others who should be with patients are “working” by video from home.
I’m long since retired, but the nature of my work supporting operation of a semiconductor fab would have required me to be there.
March 10th, 2023 at 3:32 pm
The comments today are as good as the show was.
March 10th, 2023 at 3:35 pm
I dont have so much of a problem with jobs that can be done from home being done from home. I just found the article to be sexist in that Stelantis is using remote and hybrid options to attract and retain female talent, especially in leadership positions. So for years and years men made the sacrifice to work the hours and be in the office to support the time it takes to be in those leadership positions. But now they want to attract females into those positions so allow them to also be at home more. Wow I think many of men that probably passed on promotions and taking those positions would also reconsider had they known the flexibility that is going to be given now.
To me if you want the position than make the sacrifice and be there. But I guess if they are flexable across the board than its fair. But I doubt they will continue to see an increase of Females in the boardroom.
March 10th, 2023 at 4:36 pm
There is a world of difference between North American working expectations and Europe. Stellantis is a European led company. It’s just different.
March 10th, 2023 at 4:37 pm
Can we buyout “Jerome Powell, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve”?
The irony is the most valuable employees, the innovators, will already have leads and can take the buy-out for the hours they donated to an ungrateful company and brainless Federal Reserve Board. BTW, Tesla is hiring.
So when do interest rates factor in as an inflation driver?
Last night, my Tesla Full Self Driving drove us through Las Vegas rush hour traffic flawlessly. Everything from Vegas streets, road work, police stops, and the six lane interstate highway. The only scary parts were the other drivers of dented cars with missing quarter panels and bumper covers.
March 10th, 2023 at 4:38 pm
11 EHR is ok for an office, not an operating room with anesthesia care, where time is critical, seconds to minutes. No time to navigate ridiculous billing oriented menus. In the pre-op interview occasionally they are useful, but not routinely. I can get all the information I need from talking to and examining the patient. Who would ‘ve thought?
March 10th, 2023 at 5:24 pm
#2.) While the buy outs may be described as being available to all salaried employees, I believe they mostly are directed to the Detroit Michigan world headquarters and Warren tech center. GM has other styling, engineering and design centers all over the country and throughout the world and, according to the local news here in Michigan, those outside of the state are not expected to be impacted much, if at all.
I think we may be missing a little of the context in the report today about woman working from home and Stellantis. Sean’s lead into the story had to do with the in office, work from home or hybrid dilemma that some businesses find themselves in. It didn’t seem to me that Stellantis was using this as a scheme or tactic to attract female executives and women in leadership roles, but some of those individuals in those positions saw this as an unforeseen, unintended consequence and was making the best of this situation. For all intents and purposes, it would seem that Stellantis applauds them taking advantage of this situation, but, at the same time, this is something the men there could benefit from too! Yet, just because they can work from home, does not mean doing so will be easy, trust me! My wife works from home three days a week and our daughter, who will be 21, is CONSTANTLY interrupting her while she’s working, even though she knows she shouldn’t. Even though her mother is stern with her, she then pouts until a mother gets off and then come the water works about mostly nothing! So I can only imagine if these women had younger children and are seeking the mother’s undivided attention while she’s working and will not take ‘not right now, mommy is working’ for an answer, that can be challenging! So, yes, I have those who work diligently from home like my wife, who is one of the best workers of those in her unit with the hybrid set up, who is constantly receiving’that-a-boys’ from her boss and getting awards for her work performance despite the constant interruptions. Then you have those who have you shaking your head and wondering why leadership hasn’t gotten read of those who lack interest in doing the job that they are being paid to do, when they’re working from home!
March 10th, 2023 at 6:35 pm
15 Raising interest rates is not a new way of attempting to curb inflation. See “Alan Greenspan.”
March 10th, 2023 at 7:41 pm
10 You would hope so , but god forbid they upset them and the leave. We build units and then wait for days for the PMs to inspect them. If I didn’t do my job for days they’d can my ass and rightly so. But these primadonnas can do whatever the hell they want and get away with it. I no longer rush to get a “hot job” done only for it to sit for days or even a week before they take 15 minutes to inspect it so we can ship it. My boss is pissed , but is powerless to be able to get anything done about it.
March 11th, 2023 at 9:36 am
Folks, don’t question Tesla’s ability to do the impossible. Are they not the leader of EV’s? Could it be Tesla has been the leaders because they’ve had very little competition? So now the Tesla hype is wearing out since the competition has jumped in. With that said, it will be even harder for Elon to manipulate the stock with his exaggerations. Sorry, but that’s the way I see it. I’m sure the die hard fans will see it differently.
March 12th, 2023 at 8:24 am
Good to see Ford slowly diversify its offerings around the E-Transit. Here in the heart of Europe, I’ve seen billboard ads for business leases at a great price.
Also, a big thumbs up for the retro instruments mode.
It would be nice to delve a little deeper into GM’s (gm’s?) employee buyout. Do they see a further simplification of R&D, and streamlining of their offerings ahead?
March 12th, 2023 at 11:58 am
It will be interesting to see how many Mustangs are sold, after both of its competitors go way in the 2024 model year. I just found that Challenger outsold Mustang in 2022, 55,245 to 44,332. All of those “special editions” have helped Challenger, but maybe calling that electric lifted hatchback a Mustang hurt sales of Mustang. I’m still thinking Dodge is a little premature in dropping Charger and Challenger.
March 12th, 2023 at 12:03 pm
Camaro was a distant third in sales among “pony cars,” selling 24,652 in 2022. Being the best of the bunch in performance didn’t make up for the kind of juvenile styling, poor visibility, and so-so interior. Two friends have them, though, both with the V6/automatic powertrain, and they like the cars.
March 13th, 2023 at 7:37 am
22 I agree that Dodge should hold onto the Challenger Charger lines a few more years. I mean the tooling has to money in the bank at this point. I suspect they figured they were at a point where they either did a refresh or discontinue the cars. Like you pointed out though with the Camaro out of the mix sales may have picked up. Mustang may or may not be splitting its sales between Mustang and the Mach-e. I’m still not sure if that is the same demographic. But once those cars are all gone the choices will be pretty limited. I believe that leaves the Corvette as the only domestic convertible. I wonder how long Audi, BMW and others will maintain the drop top. Certainly, a dying option. I guess cause it’s hard to talk on the phone with the top down no one wants them anymore.
March 13th, 2023 at 8:58 am
22 There will be a convertible version of the new Mustang.
I’ve had two convertibles, and rarely put the top down, once the novelty wore off. Too much noise, both wind and from other sources. I’ve never had the roof panel off of my Corvettes.
I see Mustang convertibles here in the Florida beach town, mostly rentals to vacationers.
March 13th, 2023 at 9:03 am
“I guess cause it’s hard to talk on the phone with the top down no one wants them anymore”
One of the more depressing thoughts. I can’t think of a convertible, never mind a roadster, I’ve not had fun in. That includes everything from driving the tiny Daihatsu Copen, to riding along in a Eldorado with the 7.2l [?] V8, and some prewar classic whose name I’ve sadly forgotten.
Still can’t go wrong with an MX-5.
March 13th, 2023 at 9:16 am
25) I own a convertible. The top is up on highways, down in town. Works well when speeds are below 55MPH. I also like to drive the convertible in the morning or later afternoon. The top is generally up around noon when the sun is at its peak.
A manual Targa roof would never be used by me as it is not convenient enough. I would buy a Porsche with a powered Targa roof though and use it just like my convertible is used now. I actually think the Targa top is the better way to go than a full convertible.
March 13th, 2023 at 9:17 am
26 The last convertible I had was a 1986 VW. It was a Golf Mk 1. It was fun, and I had it about 20 years.
I’m surprised there are as many convertibles as there are in the US market, most of them expensive, and very low volume. BMW sells 3 or 4 different convertibles, more if you include Mini and Rolls-Royce, but they sell zero station wagons in the US.
Miata is probably the top selling convertible in the US, with only 6,172 sold in 2022.
March 13th, 2023 at 9:19 am
With regards to the electronic health records, when it first started almost a decade ago, it was a bit of a mess. I too could list instances where a specific doctor would “diagnose” the patients more based on the chart than by hands-on evaluation (though he probably was that way even before the EHRs) and it was the xray techs that would find what the doctor missed. The EHR was supposed to save on paper, but we were printing out all the electronic orders, so it was just causing an extra step.
Things are much more efficient today, at least with larger health systems that have embraced and moved forward with the EHRs.
We use MyChart, which is available in all the app stores and most of the healthcare providers in Atlanta support it. It works well in that your health records are available across any provider you go to (with access to MyChart), though when initially setting it up, sometimes it is hard to upload prior history.
March 13th, 2023 at 10:46 am
28 Mustang was the leader in convertibles but yeah, they may have lost it to Mazda.
the 1950-1960s were obviously the heyday of Convertibles. The leader is the 1958 Bela air Impala at 83,330. the 1962 Impala sold 82,659.
The best Camaro ever did was 1965 they sold 25,141.
Ford’s best seller was the 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 at 77,728 The best the Mustang ever did was in 1965 when it sold 73,112.
Other good sellers were the 63, Pontiac Bonneville, 1947 Buick super. 65-66 Cadillac DeVille, 1967 Olds Delta 88.
March 13th, 2023 at 10:50 am
Kind of funny that the best year for the Mustang and Camaro was the same year 1965.
March 13th, 2023 at 10:52 am
30,31 Camaro didn’t exist until 1967 model year.
March 13th, 2023 at 11:22 am
32 Yep My mistake (typo) best selling convertible Camaro was 1967.
Got all that info from this article. https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2019/05/01/best-selling-american-convertibles-the-drop-top-automobiles-that-americans-bought-the-most-of#:~:text=For%20the%20record%2C%20the%20bestselling%20Camaro%20convertible%20was,17%2C762.%20Ford%3A%201957%20Fairlane%20500%20–%2077%2C728%20produced
March 13th, 2023 at 11:47 am
33 Interesting article. I had one of them, a ’70 Challenger. It was pretty much a rust bucket when I bought it in the early 80s, but was a great looking car. I’d like to have one now, in decent condition.
March 13th, 2023 at 1:35 pm
I’ve had to turn off the prox sensors on my Ram all winter due to ice, snow, mud, etc. They were constantly dinging as I drove alone down the highway.