A fantastic special show. We spend ninety minutes dissecting the Tesla earnings call with Kacey Green, Patrick Connor, Matthew Klippenstein and special guest Montana Skeptic. Details and arguments abound. It’s a contentious but very fascinating look at the most talked about car company on the planet.
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This week the group discuss how a distributed power grid in South Australia could be leading the way of the future, electric Jeeps, the place for public transit in the of a pandemic and Munro’s Model Y teardown, not in that order.
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1) EV sales reach 8% market share in Switzerland
2) A look back at the Tesla Power Pack system in South Australia
3) A new electric motorcycle in the UK
4) The affects throughout the EV world from the coronavirus
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electric, EV, LE, motorcycle, Tesla
audio only,What Drives Us episode
1) The Union of Concerned Scientists have completed their study and concluded that ride sharing (such as Uber and Lyft) introduce almost 70% more pollutants than the rides they are replacing. Not only the rides they are replacing but taking people off mass transit.
2) A study of vehicles interacting with pedestrians at a crosswalk showed that there is a direct correlation between how aggressive the vehicle is towards the pedestrians and how much that vehicle costs. So yeah, rich drivers are bigger jerks and the data backs it up!
3) The coronavirus is impacting the supply lines of vehicle manufacturing along with other appliance manufacturing. Couple this with Ford’s continuously declining stock price and market share and we’re starting to wonder whether Ford can avoid a bankruptcy or total liquidation.
4) Continuing our discussion about Tesla’s Buffalo, NY, factory, the state of New York is looking to sell some manufacturing equipment it had purchased for Tesla but was never used.
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Car, concept, connected, Efficiency, EV, first, Ford, gigafactory, Hyundai, insurance, LE, LED, new york, oil, rv, solar, Tesla, Vehicles
audio only,Special Guest,What Drives Us episode
1) Special Guest Edward Neidermeyer joins the panel to discuss his recent appearance on Bloomberg TV regarding Tesla. We also discuss autonomy (of course, in relation to Tesla).
2) Mark gives his report on attending the Toronto Auto Show.
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It all started so calmly. Russell just finished filming his review of the Lexus ES300h and promised to have that posted within a week or so. That transitioned to his and Tony’s very different opinions of the Lexus UX250h (spoiler, Tony’s right). From there, it went South: Mark mentioned the Tesla Earning Call. Paul questioned their profitability. Tony got hung up on the term Autopilot and the phrase “Full Self Drive”. Patrick insists that not enough people have read the official FAA definition of Autopilot and we try to figure where Tesla is in Autonomous Driving (Levels 1 – 5).
Fortunately, we ran out of time and had to call it a night before any punches were thrown.
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autonomous, autopilot, EV, Full Self Drive, LE, Lexus, oil, review, Tesla
In this week’s show:
1) The current NTSB requirements for black box data is woefully short of all the data required to determine the actual situation of a modern-day crash. Manufacturers are not required to hand over additional data. Should owners be able to pull the data themselves to turn over to the police? Should they be able to pull data from a used car prior to purchasing it?
2) Tesla’s stock has soared recently to the point that the company is now valuated higher than GM and Ford, combined! It doesn’t help that Ford and GM have seen their own valuations dropping in the recent months.
3) The Boring Company’s 0.8 mile tunnel is completed under Las Vegas between convention centers. It’s likely not going to reach 140mph like previously advertised, it might use skates to move cars or not. Details are few and far between.
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autonomous, batteries, battery, boring company, bus, Car, CBC, Charging, concept, Convenience, Cyber Truck, Cybertruck, Diesel, Eco, Efficiency, electric, elon, elon musk, Employees, epa, EV, eVolution, FICA, Ford, FSD, fuel cell, Full Self Drive, General Motors, gm, Government, Gratification, hybrid, ID.3, id3, Incentives, las vegas, LE, Lexus, LimePod, lyft, Micromobility, mobility, Model S, model X, motorcycle, nissan, Oregon, Plug-in, porsche, Portland, Range Anxiety, RAV-4, RAV4, review, robots, rv, RVing, Software, solar, Starlink, tax, Tax Credit, Technology, Tesla, the boring company, Toyota, Tracking, TriMet, trump, tunnel, update, Updates, volkswagen
This week:
1) States face roadblocks on path to lower tailpipe emissions.
2) BMW remains committed to ICE cars for at least 30 more years.
3) The Prius is no longer Toyota’s top-selling hybrid.
4) Sony shocks CES by unveiling a car.
5) The Fisker Ocean might actually be areal thing.
6) Tesla’s Gigafactory 4 has to tread lightly in the forest.
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autonomous, batteries, battery, BMW, bus, Car, CBC, Charging, concept, Convenience, Cyber Truck, Cybertruck, Diesel, dieselgate, Eco, Efficiency, electric, elon, elon musk, emissions, Employees, epa, EV, eVolution, FICA, FSD, fuel cell, Full Self Drive, General Motors, gigafactory, gm, Government, Gratification, hybrid, ID.3, id3, Incentives, LE, Lexus, LimePod, lyft, Micromobility, mobility, Model S, model X, motorcycle, nissan, Oregon, Plug-in, porsche, Portland, Prius, Range Anxiety, RAV-4, RAV4, review, robots, rv, RVing, Software, solar, Starlink, tax, Tax Credit, Technology, Tesla, Toyota, Tracking, TriMet, trump, update, Updates, volkswagen, VW, What Drives Us
audio only,What Drives Us episode
1) Tony reviewed the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. Be sure to check out his two separate reviews:
Ride-along review: https://youtu.be/ed4CUB73QWE
Walk-around review: https://youtu.be/hty_KFkWZMY
2) At the beginning of the 2010s, Lithium-Ion batteries were projected to herald in the era of the electric vehicle. We discuss accessibility of battery components and the drop in prices.
3) Volkswagen has released conceptual animations of very cute little battery charging robots. You park your car anywhere in a parking garage and the robots will not only bring a mobile battery pack, the pack will plug itself into your car.
4) December saw a flurry of Tesla software updates. We pick them apart.
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autonomous, batteries, battery, bus, Car, CBC, Charging, concept, Convenience, Cyber Truck, Cybertruck, Diesel, Eco, Efficiency, electric, elon, elon musk, Employees, epa, EV, eVolution, FICA, FSD, fuel cell, Full Self Drive, General Motors, gm, Government, Gratification, hybrid, ID.3, id3, Incentives, LE, Lexus, LimePod, lyft, Micromobility, mobility, Model S, model X, motorcycle, nissan, Oregon, Plug-in, porsche, Portland, Range Anxiety, RAV-4, RAV4, RAV4 Hybrid, review, robots, rv, RVing, Software, solar, Starlink, tax, Tax Credit, Technology, Tesla, Toyota, Tracking, TriMet, trump, update, Updates, volkswagen, What Drives Us