AD #2412 – Autonomy Could Save You Thousands, More Details on All-New Chevy Silverado, Lidar’s First Casualty

On today’s show…Kia shows a cone of silence so you can listen to music as loud as you want and not bother anyone else inside the car…the all-new Chevrolet Silverado is a lot lighter even though it’s mostly made of steel…and autonomous ride sharing could save you thousands of dollars a year. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.

This is Autoline Daily the show for enthusiasts of the automotive industry.

LIDAR’S FIRST CASUALTY
Autonomous cars promise to revolutionize the auto industry. But we’re already starting to see casualties in the high-tech field. Quanergy Systems, which is a Silicon Valley startup that’s developing solid state LIDAR, was a promising up and coming company just a few years ago. In 2014, it partnered with Mercedes. But earlier this year, Mercedes decided to switch to Velodyne’s LIDAR system, which feature the spinning do-hickey’s on top of the car. And now Bloomberg reports Quanergy is looking at other applications outside the automotive industry. There are at least 50 different companies working on LIDAR, and we expect to see most of them go belly up because the auto industry probably only needs about 5 of them at the most.

FORD DOMINATES AT MIS
Ford has always done well at the NASCAR races at Michigan International Speedway, and it did it again this weekend. Kevin Harvick won the race in his Ford Fusion, followed by Brad Keselowski in second in another Fusion. In fact, there were 6 Ford Fusions in the top 10. Kyle Busch, who leads the driver’s championship finished third in his Toyota Camry.

RICHARD RAWLINGS STUFFS HELLCAT INTO THE WALL
Speaking of racing, Dodge revived the idea of drag racing on Woodward Avenue as a prelude to the Dream Cruise, the classic car extravaganza that takes place every August on Woodward Avenue just north of Detroit. Dodge, along with Motor Trend’s Roadkill Garage TV show and M1, the car club that features private garages and a race track, organize the event. They block off a part of Woodward Avenue and invite racers and personalities to race there. Richard Rawlings, the star of the TV show “Fast N’ Loud” faced off against NHRA Top Fuel racer Leah Pritchett, and Rawlings promptly put his Dodge Hellcat into the wall.  

Still to come…GM’s former head of R&D says you can save thousands of dollars by giving up your car and buying your mobility instead.

KIA ASKS, “CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?”
Kia is showing off the next-gen version of its Separated Sound Zone technology. The system allows each passenger in the vehicle to listen to different music without using headphones. The speakers feature technology that reduces or increases audio sound waves, which negates the overlapping of sounds heard in each seats, similar to noise cancellation systems. Not only is this perfect for families on a road trip but it’s also a great feature for ride sharing, so a passenger can listen to whatever he or she wants. Kia says the feature is another one or two years away before it will show up in its vehicles.

AUTONOMY COULD SAVE YOU THOUSANDS
When it comes to ride hailing services like Uber and Lyft, the driver is the most expensive part of the business. So how cheap could rides be if autonomous cars eliminated the driver? Larry Burns, the former head of R&D at General Motors did a cost analysis. The AAA says it costs 60 cents a mile for private individuals, like you and me, to operate a car. That includes the cost of the car, plus the insurance, fuel and maintenance. But Larry Burns says with an autonomous car, that will drop to only 20 cents a mile. That’s based on two people sharing that car. Burns estimates the autonomous technology will add $5,000 to the cost of a vehicle and he knows what he’s talking about. Larry Burns is a consultant to Waymo. He also says most drivers will be able to save $5,600 a year by giving up owning a car and using autonomous ride sharing instead.

Coming up next, we’ve got a lot more details on the all-new Chevrolet Silverado, and we’ll tell you about that right after this.

MORE DETAILS ON ALL-NEW CHEVY SILVERADO
Last week we got to drive the all-new Chevrolet Silverado and today we can tell you what it’s like to drive it. But first an overview. Thanks to a careful diet of different grade steels and aluminum, the Silverado is now 450 pounds lighter. That considerably improves its responsiveness and agility. It simply accelerates, brakes, and rides and handles better. In fact, GM has once again achieved what they call “driving smaller than it is.” Even though this is a big truck, it drives as if it feels smaller. It still rides like a truck, but exhibits far less of the body jiggle that is typical of body-on-frame pickups. That lighter weight increases the payload 14%, which is also thanks to your choice of three different bed sizes that are 3.5” wider and 1.5” deeper. General Motors is launching this truck with two V8s, a 5.3 liter and a 6.2 liter. Later on, it has a 2.7 liter turbo-four coming and after that an inline 6-cylinder diesel. But we haven’t had the chance to test drive them yet. GM has four assembly plants making these trucks, but it’s converting them to make the new truck one at a time. The lead plant, which is shipping trucks to dealers right now is in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It will be followed by plants in Flint, Michigan, Silao, Mexico and Oshawa, Canada. As those other plants come online, we’ll see the full model and powertrain offerings become available.

Don’t forget to join us for Autoline After Hours This Thursday when we’ll have Craig Erlich from the exhibition house George P. Johnson talking about changes going on in the world of auto shows. That’s this Thursday on After Hours.

But with that we wrap up today’s report. Thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.