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Runtime: 10:47
0:00 Ford Develops Its Own Compute Platform
1:51 Volvo Gets 800-Volt Architecture & Gigacastings
2:44 Robotaxis Won’t Replace Personal Cars
3:20 Chinese Vehicles Boost UK Car Sales
5:17 China Could Restrict Rare Earths to Japan
6:08 Foreign Automakers Join China’s Price War
6:56 GM Posts Sales Increase in China
7:23 Gigastamping Cheaper Than Gigacasting
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
FORD DEVELOPS ITS OWN COMPUTE PLATFORM
Ford is giving its customers their own personal AI assistant. The feature will first be available through the Ford and Lincoln apps in the first half of this year. It gives the example of standing in front of a stack of wood at a home improvement store, but not knowing how much will fit in your vehicle. Ford says you’d be able to snap a picture of the wood, ask the AI assistant how much will fit in your F-150 and it would spit out the answer for you. An AI assistant specifically for commercial customers will also be coming soon too. And then in 2027 the company says the assistant will be integrated directly into Ford and Lincoln vehicles. In order to support that functionality, Ford has developed its own in-house high-performance compute center. The computer will first debut in the company’s new Universal EV architecture and will control all the functions for the infotainment, the driver assistance systems, the audio and networking. Not only is it faster than previous computers, it can handle more complex tasks. And by developing it in-house Ford says it’s significantly cheaper to produce and nearly half the size. The new EV architecture will also come with new hardware and software that allows for hands-free driving. That feature arrives in 2027 as well and then in 2028 Ford plans to launch a Level 3 eyes-off system. The company claims it spent 30% less for the system developing it in-house, rather than buying it from a supplier. And it says that will be part of the reason it will be able to offer all this technology on its mainstream cars, not just luxury models.
VOLVO GETS 800-VOLT PLATFORM & GIGACASTINGS
Volvo is getting some significant upgrades to its EVs thanks to parent company Geely. While the new EX60 will be fully revealed on the 21st, it’s providing a few interesting details now. The model will be based on Geely’s SPA3 platform, which features an 800-volt electrical architecture that allows for things like much faster charging. The EX60 will be able to add up to 340 kilometers or 211 miles of range in 10 minutes of charging and will have an overall range of 810 kilometers or just over 500 miles of range. Thanks to new chips from NVIDIA it can handle four times the operations as the EX90 and will be the first Volvo made with mega castings, each one capable of replacing hundreds of stamped panels.
ROBOTAXIS WON’T REPLACE PERSONAL CARS THIS DECADE
Some people believe that robotaxis will replace personal vehicles in the next couple of years, but the former CEO of Waymo thinks that’s “silly.” John Krafcik, now a board member at Rivian, does not believe that transition will happen this decade. He thinks robotaxis are a great option in addition to personal transportation, especially since kids can now get a ride without their parents. But he also thinks the technology behind robotaxis, like lidar, is making personal vehicles safer and that will help drive down the costs of those shared components.
CHINESE VEHICLES BOOST UK CAR SALES
Thanks to the growing popularity of Chinese vehicles, car sales in the UK last year topped 2 million units for the first time since the pandemic. According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders, automakers sold 2.02 million vehicles, up 3.5% from 2024 with Chinese automakers accounting for just under 10% of total sales. While the MG HS was the only Chinese model to crack the top ten in sales last year, three Chinese models were in the top ten in December, the MG ZS, Jaecoo 7 and the MG HS. The Chinese EVs also helped boost fully-electric sales by a quarter. Pure EVs accounted for 23% of the UK car market last year, which was up from 2024 but below the government mandate of 28%. And automakers also had to rely heavily on incentives to grow EV sales. Automakers offered more than £5 billion last year in EV discounts, which is equivalent to about £11,000 per EV registered.
CHINA COULD RESTRICT RARE EARTH EXPORTS TO JAPAN
Uh-oh, this should have Japanese automakers worried. According to the state-run newspaper China Daily, China is likely to restrict exports of rare earth metals to Japan over a diplomatic dispute between the two countries. Japan relies on China for 60% of its rare earth imports but the country depends on China for virtually all the types of metals needed for EV motor production and those are the types China is currently threatening to restrict. Analysts estimate that just a three-month restriction would cost Japanese businesses $4.2 billion. Last year, China, which dominates the global supply of rare earths, curbed exports over a trade dispute with the U.S. and that forced several automakers to halt production because of parts shortages.
FOREIGN AUTOMAKERS JOIN CHINA’S PRICE WAR
And sticking with China, the government is having a tough time trying to put a stop to the price war. Now foreign automakers are slashing prices and offering incentives to boost sales. BMW cut prices on 31 models with the i7 electric sedan getting the biggest cut, a whopping $42,000. Volkswagen and General Motors are also offering new discounts. Automakers continue to slash prices because the growth of sales is slowing and they’re struggling with overcapacity. The Chinese government is worried the price war could hurt its supply chain by forcing automakers to switch to cheaper and lower quality parts. So, China issued new rules to try and curb the price cuts but so far they really haven’t been effective.
GM POSTS SALES INCREASE IN CHINA
With those discounts and new products that are tailored to the Chinese market, foreign automakers are starting to slowly turn things around. For example, GM and its joint venture partners sold nearly 1.9 million vehicles in China last year, an increase of 2.3%. While that doesn’t seem like a huge jump, it is a big turnaround from 2024 when sales were down 14%.
GIGASTAMPING CHEAPER THAN GIGACASTING
As we highlighted in the Volvo story, a number of automakers have adopted gigacastings after Tesla popularized their use. But Automotive News reports that other European automakers are turning to a less expensive process called gigastamping. Gigacasting involves pouring liquid aluminum into a high-pressure die-casting machine to produce a single large part, potentially replacing hundreds of pieces. Gigastamping involves pre-welding pieces that can then be stamped into a single part, which eliminates 20 to 25 components. While that’s not as much as gigacasting, the gigastamping process is less complex and allows for the use of steel, which is cheaper. And by using a less expensive process, it’s also helping automakers offset the high cost of EV batteries.
Don’t forget to tune into Autoline After Hours this afternoon. While John is still at CES, co-host Gary Vasilash is bringing in a panel to talk about 2025, what’s ahead for 2026 and some of the cool tech coming out at CES. And be sure to check out our coverage from Las Vegas. We have several interviews posted on our website and YouTube channel about the new technology on display at the show.
But that’s a wrap for Autoline Daily. Thanks for tuning in.
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It looks like “name recognition” helps sell Chinese cars in the UK, with two of the three Chinese cars in the top ten being MG. I’m guessing nearly everyone in the UK knows that todays MGs are Chinese, unlike a lot of Americans who don’t know that Buick Envision and Lincoln Nautilus are Chinese.
Sean, when you mention “check out our coverage from Las Vegas”, it might be a good idea to tell people exactly where they can find it. . People who watch Autoline Daily YouTube would need to know what to search for “Autoline CES 2026” or go to https://www.autoline.tv/on-the-road/. Long time viewers know where to go, but new viewers might not.
The Ford compute program seems like one of the dumbest things Ford has wasted time and money on lately. The smart owners know their truck can hold 1000 pounds if it’s a half-ton easy enough to figure. The not so smart guys will just load it until it’s almost out of suspension travel. Those guys will most likely continue to operate that way. So likely no one is going to use this app. Besides when going to get a load of sand or top soil the rule of thumb has been 1/2 ton is 1 yard. However that doesn’t account for moisture content.
Lambo,
Agree with that. I suspect that they must be using it for more centralized computing beyond the gee-whiz things that they are publishing. I also suspect that they will be data mining and selling data from that. If you are always asking it for how much wood can the truck hold. Well, they know what type of wood you are buying, where you are buying it from, how frequently you buy it etc… This becomes valuable information for various advertisers and even insurance carriers that may raise your rates if you are hauling wood daily as they would classify you as a commercial operator. Data mining is the new pot of gold OEMs are chasing.
Lambo, I agree about Ford’s thing being silly, but the minimum payload capacity of today’s “half ton” big pickups is more like 1500 pounds, and they can be ordered with suspension packages that will take that to well over a ton.
Along those lines of data mining, my wife got me a dash cam for Christmas. I thought it was great, came with a separate rear cam, as well as the front cam that can view the road ahead and also record you (2 in 1 cam). It can also alert you of overspeed, excessive acceleration, and “emergency/accident”, which all coordinates with their phone app. The more I weighed the pros & cons, I’m a little hesitant to install it, because I’m sure they are selling this data to all the insurance companies. I previously had the Life360 app that tracks you and your family members. The road outside my subdivision is a 4 lane road with a 55 MPH speed limit and an acceleration lane like getting on a highway (but flat). Every time I left my house, I was dinged for “excessive acceleration” just getting up to speed. I uninstalled the app as soon as I found out it was created and owned by a car insurance company. This dashcam video may come in handy in case of any future fender bender where someone may hit me, but I’m sure this constant babysitting will end up raising my rates before anything helpful comes of it.
Lamb2015/MERKUR —
Motortrend also had an article on this app and what it mentioned was, the vehicle owner could do more then just indicate, say, how much wood. You could take a picture of an item like a large flat screen TV and ask the app ‘will it fit’ in the vehicle. The app will analyze.the photo and tell if it can and how to get it in! The same is true, supposedly, with bags of mulch, wood and other items. So, if your a weekend warrior and plan to DIY, armed with a downloaded YouTube video of Ask This Old House, or your spouse or parents press you into serves to build or repair something, the question of: ‘will all your materials fit in my vehicle’ might be one less obstacle you may need to deal with.
And article mentioned that the motor that Ford was going to put in its midsize (?) EV pickups was going to be the cheapest to build from their closest competitor, that included Chinese vehicles. What stood out to me was that they didn’t say was the most efficient, but only that it would be the cheapest to build! It’s my hope they may do more in clarifying and explaining this during the auto show or during CES. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
As a father of now 4 adult children, I could see the attraction of robo taxis to parents of small children that need to be driven everywhere.
Ukendolt,
Life360 is an app that shares data with Allstate and other insurance companies via a service provider Arity. The Gasbuddy app also does the same. Another App sharing with Arity is called My Radar(which is a weather app). Arity may be partnered with other apps but it is hard to know which ones.
It seems that all these apps are using location sharing service from your phone and sending that in real time to Arity. Arity then creates a driving risk profile based on the data from those apps and sells that to the insurance companies.
The key thing to do is turn off all location sharing with any app that is not required. Google maps and Waze seem to be safe, at least for now. I would use the dash cam that you were given, just turn off the location sharing to that app and it will not track you. I suspect without location sharing it will still function as a dash cam, but you may lose some of the added features which are truly not that necessary anyhow.
https://www.thestreet.com/automotive/car-insurance-companies-quietly-use-these-apps-to-hike-your-rates
If you want to know if something will fit in a vehicle, you can ask ChatGPT. I asked “will a 46 inch samsung tv in the box fit in a 2024 prius.” They gave details of the dimensions of the box, depending on specific TV model, the width of the hatch opening, the length of the cargo area with the back seat folded, and concluded that yes, it will fit.
As far as “data mining” on my driving, I have it with AARP Hartford insurance, and it saves me ~37% over the “base” rate. Thinking the base rate might be inflated, I recently got quotes from Geico, Allstate, and the much advertised USAA. My current rate is less than any of them. I may check some others, but I don’t expect to find much lower rates. It monitors speeding, hard braking, and distraction in the form of playing with your phone while driving. It allows 9 mph over before dinging for speeding. I don’t know the actual criteria for hard braking, but the only time I see that is if something happens in front of me that I have to brake for, or if I almost miss a turn in an area I’m not familiar with. I never get dinged for “distraction.” It would be a complex app, using GPS, accelerometers in the phone, and a way to detect any use of most apps while driving. When using google maps for navigation, I set it up before driving off. The main time I get dinged for speeding is on the interstate. I rarely go more than 9 over in lower speed limit areas.
I found an independent insurance agency who works with Home Owners Insurance. They were the cheapest of everyone by a lot. Nobody could even come close. Even allstate with their app based pricing could not come close to it. They are definitely old school and are not bothered with trying to track me everywhere I go using a lower price point as the carrot. Just simple honest old school insurance based on my published state driving record. They do my cars and home which gave massive discounts. Even though I am not an aggressive driver, I am not a fan of tracking by people who are eager to make me pay more for any reason whether that reason is tiny or not. Of course I have a fleet of cars so finding the right one that isn’t trying to track me with the sole intention of nickel and diming me is paramount. I am glad I found that company. My entire family switched to them and all have been happy ever since.
MERKUR, I’ll get a quote for Home Owners. I’ll post how it comes out.
Thanks for the advice, Merkur. I will try the dashcam with location sharing off. I have a friend who has the tracker for insurance, and he says it helps, but I’m still against doing that. I normally drive exactly 10MPH over the speed limit, and that seems to keep up with the normal flow of traffic. I could drop it by one MPH, but it would be tough to stay under 9-over around here, and there is that necessary “excessive acceleration” I mentioned every time I leave my neighborhood.
I have Geico, and have a discount for the home bundled through them (even though the home policy is actually Traveler’s). I have tried shopping around, but there is some discount grandfathered in that must not be available anymore, because the others say they can’t come close to that rate. I haven’t tried AARP though, My boys are about to hit driving age, so I’m anticipating the rates shooting up then!