Sam Abuelsamid 0:00 Coming up on episode 249 of wheel bearings who got the Audi Q five Sportback, the Hyundai Tucson and line and ionic five road trip and the Kia Evie six Tesla FSD can't recognize airplanes NITSA finally has a new administrator All that and more coming up net Unknown Speaker 0:30 this is episode 249 of wheel bearings. I am Sam Abuelsamid from Guidehouse insights. Nicole Wakelin 0:37 And I am Nicole Wakelin. From the FAST Women podcast, you just forgot where you're from. Roberto Baldwin 0:45 And I am Roberto Baldwin from Autoblog. A new one this week. Sam Abuelsamid 0:51 joining my stomping grounds. Roberto Baldwin 0:53 Yeah, they're good folks. They used to they used to syndicate a lot of my stuff. And I was at Engadget, over on the auto blog. And so I was like, oh, I should probably write something for him. So I pitched them and say, yeah, go write that thing. And I said, Yay. Sam Abuelsamid 1:06 All went all one big happy family over there to fit in blogs, Inc. Web blogs, Roberto Baldwin 1:10 Inc. Don't Don't get me started on weblog saying that I have a whole insane past with those people. Sam Abuelsamid 1:16 I'll bet yeah. All right. So let's start with you this week. Robbie, what have you been driving? Unknown Speaker 1:23 Oh, man. Are you ready? Yeah, Roberto Baldwin 1:25 I'm ready. I'm always I was born ready. Sam Abuelsamid 1:29 Ready for what we don't know. But ready for some ready? Roberto Baldwin 1:31 Yeah, I was born ready for other things. Not this. But here we go. So I was driving the 2022 Audi Q five Sportback. This is the Q five but it has the scupi swoopy. Back Sam Abuelsamid 1:45 instead of a square back like a traditional SUV. It's sliced off. Roberto Baldwin 1:49 Yeah. Here's, here's the weird thing. I've driven the Q five. I don't know last two, three generations. For some reason, just because it's got that little swoop. It feels really small when you like kind of get into it. Like, oh, this car is so much smaller than it. No, it's not. I mean, there's less cargo room because you have the little swoop because that's just what happens when you but it just for some reason, your brain tricks you into thinking you're driving a smaller vehicle, which is called delusion. It's an optical delusion. Exactly. Yeah, so it has it's actually I really liked it. Here's here's the thing though, so I liked it. It was fun to drive you know as 261 horsepower 270 pound feet of torque, you knew zero to 60 in 5.7 seconds, you know the regular type things. It's not quite as sporty as it's, I feel like it should be a little bit more sporty they're gonna put the word sport back in it's like almost there. And it's an Audi so it's like okay, well out these are already sporty, and then you throw the word sport back you should like it I don't know. I feel like it needs a little extra something something just just a scooch a scooch more extra something something I think for people who buy it because they like the way it looks and they're already happy with like Q five they're gonna be like oh, that's fine. But I think for for when you when you I don't know you had the word sport. A little something something. Yeah, it's the quatro it you know it's all it has all the regular Audi interior stuff out he's sort of the the, the tech division of the Volkswagen Group. They work on a lot of this sort of tech stuff MMI is still a really nice infotainment system. I still do not like where they put the stock before the drivers assistants. I've been complaining about this for a year on the left download on the left and I don't care how many hours I'm still like wait, how does this work again? And I will have an Audi for a week and I'll finally almost kind of remember how it works whereas everyone else's anyway it's on the it's the buttons on the on the well yeah, like oh these are easy to understand. I don't know why they I don't know. I mean you can you can move the media buttons I guess if you want it out of there but off the steering wheel but it's the you know everything else on the steering wheel it's not you know, you don't accidentally hit things like it's all laid out very nice. Except for that one thing the one thing that just bugs the hell out of me just Nicole Wakelin 4:20 one thing that you'll hate about the SDK Facebook Roberto Baldwin 4:23 this one here do you think you'll love it one thing you don't hate it cute five it has let me look at my numbers. Oh, it has combined MPG but 25 miles per gallon. Again, it's larger than I think I got about 24 of doing a you know a lot of Robbie driving which is Nicole Wakelin 4:52 not fuel efficient. Sam Abuelsamid 4:53 No. Yeah. It doesn't necessarily correspond to the way the EPA test drive cycles are done. Nicole Wakelin 5:00 Do you go wow, that was well phrased your political career is in the wings there. So Roberto Baldwin 5:06 it's like, when you do the when I drive EVs, I do a range test, which is just like, Okay, this is just like boring drive. It's the most boring part of any of the cars, I get his range testing. And then I do the driving test, which is like me driving like me. And those are two different things. You know what I mean? Because most people don't dry like I do on a regular basis. They just sort of like, Oh, I gotta get to work and we put the car and yeah, it's the same thing, you know? 24 That's pretty good. It's, you know, it's an expensive luxury car. It's very comfortable. I feel like Audi's for the past, like 10 years now, just sort of like, for a while they had a pretty bad reputation. I would I used to refer to their transmissions as made out of glass. Because everyone I knew who had an Audi had some sort of transmission issue at some point or another I'd like you know, that's, I think that's those those sorts of scary exploding transmission days are over. So that's good for that good for it for sort of bringing it or you know, coming back from the verge of just being starting cording the website starts at $50,100 According to my Moroni, it starts at $48,400 You know, it's quatro so you know it's going to take off you're not going to have a lot of we'll slip it's the vehicle I drove though it had the prestige package, which was $8,700 Nicole Wakelin 6:32 Oh my gosh, what do you get for $8,700 Unknown Speaker 6:36 you get proceeds Roberto Baldwin 6:41 you get the Audi phone box which I guess is just the charging thing you get the Big Bang and Olufsen surround sound 3d audio auto dimming Sirius XM for three months LED lights which can't really use yet in the United States Parking Assist Virtual Cockpit you know the all the little fancy shmancy active lane assist everything is packaged in one job Nicole Wakelin 7:04 there's a lot of stuff it's not Roberto Baldwin 7:07 needed we're seats heated and cooled front cup holder by the way I love that I every I think every car should have if you can heat my seat and cool my seat. I would really love if you could heat and cool my my cup holder. I thought Nicole Wakelin 7:21 it was like that was like when the first time I experienced heated seats. I thought I'm like this is stupid, who needs this and then once I use them I'm like oh my God. Without this Sam Abuelsamid 7:30 New Hampshire I'm shocked that you would ever think that but I never had Nicole Wakelin 7:33 had a car that had them so I'm like this is just a silly Frou Frou thing for the fancy people and then when I finally had a vehicle that had it like this is the most amazing invention ever. And then the cupholders that are heated and cooled are the same way and this is just so ridiculous and over the top who needs this and then it kept my coffee warm and I was like oh me me me me I need this and every car I have for the rest of my life. Roberto Baldwin 7:58 I did find a an air on the Monroney that well it might not be an air it has ventilated front eats so Nicole Wakelin 8:08 that maybe you missed a spot where you can put like your ice cream and it keeps cold ventilate your eats Roberto Baldwin 8:14 it's mentally it's my eats Nicole Wakelin 8:21 yeah overall you Roberto Baldwin 8:22 know it's a really it's a good car it's you know if you're looking for a luxury SUV that's not you know it's not to over the you know, it's not to fufu it's not a Mercedes it's not a BMW the Audi's anyone a little bit in you know, you want some some of that sportiness that Audi is known for that yeah the the sport and you don't mind losing some cargo room for a kind of a cooler looking version. I think when they first showed it off I was like Oh all right. But now when you have it for like we go yeah, this is the kind of look it just looks like a big big hatchback. What it does, it looks like a big nice hatchback. Okay, big nice hatchback. Big nice hatchback. And just Sam Abuelsamid 9:01 don't ever let people think of it as a hatchback No Roberto Baldwin 9:05 Don't Don't Don't say the word hatchback. I don't port Nicole Wakelin 9:07 back sounds cool hatchback. No surfboards Roberto Baldwin 9:10 back sounds cool. Yeah, I think sport back is it's a hot seat. You can even say hot sizzling sport. Sport back. Nicole Wakelin 9:18 Snazzy back I don't know. Roberto Baldwin 9:21 The destination charge was $1,095 so it's alright. You know Nicole Wakelin 9:27 that's less than that's less than my car that I have this week. Mine falling in that mines pricey I guess. Roberto Baldwin 9:36 Yeah, you know it No, they bring in everything that already has super comfortable ride it's really nice to try to drive around town throw it and throw it in dynamic put it in Sport you know you can keep up with with with most of the other vehicles on the road. One other thing I will say is that I was driving a series of performance EVs Like, I just felt like there's like one after the other performance EVs for a while. And then I got this, which I don't think is fair. There's such the you getting your push the you push down the accelerator. And also, it's not that Nicole Wakelin 10:16 it's not, it's not any immediate, Roberto Baldwin 10:18 and you're like, what's going on? And for a second, I was like, oh, what's wrong with? You remember, oh, that's gas cars. That's a gas powered vehicle. And it's not a you know, and it's not a manual. So I can't like control. You know, I can use the paddle shifters, but it's not the same especially Nicole Wakelin 10:33 that is, and it's funny because I think all of us know that there's a real difference in how an Eevee accelerates versus how a gas car accelerates. Even if it's a super powerful gas powered car. There's a very distinct difference in how they respond. But you still talk to like, regular folks are like, Oh, is it okay, driving an Eevee? You're like, Yes, yesterday, I get it. Sam Abuelsamid 10:53 This week, I was at the mama that's the Midwest automotive Media Association spring rally, which is held at Road America in Wisconsin. And we have the, that 70 cars there for us to jump in and out of. And one of the things we did on on the second day was an autocross that they actually do on the go kart course, that they have at Road America. And one of the cars they had available for the autocross was the BMW M 240. I that you had I think last week, Robbie, Oh, yeah. You know, which was lovely, except if you forget to put it in put the put it into sport mode and put the pop the transmission shifter over into sport mode. The transmissions just feel so lazy. I had been driving the I four m 50. earlier. And the acceleration of that thing compared to the M 240. I was like night and day. I mean, yeah. Unreal. Roberto Baldwin 11:53 I look forward to an m two. I to something m two, or something. Yeah, two series that they create. I'm looking forward to it two series. V EV because I think that's gonna be real fun. I think that's going to be a really fun car. Yeah, so whenever you're thinking you're like, oh, man, I really want to fast but I don't want one of those EVs. Sam Abuelsamid 12:18 Trust me, you want the Eevee Nicole Wakelin 12:20 you want to Eevee you do? You do you do but you do. Roberto Baldwin 12:23 I four and 50 is pretty, pretty. Pretty choice. Sam Abuelsamid 12:26 Yeah. Well, we we drove that one we had on the first day. It was only it was only available for street driving, not on the track. And it was raining the first day when I took it out. And on the the last section of the road loop and turn off onto the main road that goes back up and back into Road America. And so it's uphill in the rain. You know, from a standing start, and I had it going to let's just say it was not quite three digit speeds, you know, going up this hill very quickly. Roberto Baldwin 13:03 It's ng Yeah. That's yeah. Anyway. Q five Sportback. There you go. There it is. Done and done. Sam Abuelsamid 13:15 All right. Cool. What about you? Nicole Wakelin 13:17 Okay, continuing the theme for the last three weeks of my life. It is still Hyundai Palooza a different Hyundai this week. No, I did not get a job at Hyundai. I'm just getting all of their cars. So I have the thing. No, no. It is not I have the 2022 Hyundai Tucson and line all wheel drive. So the two sandwiches new which is actually love the exterior the cheese on the doors have these very angular design to the sheet metal. Like if you look at the picture you see these angles it looks really cool. I like how they designed the exterior this but the end line. This is not about performance with this one. It's about looking sporty, so there's it doesn't have more horsepower more this more that fancy handling fancy thing. It just looks cooler. That's basically the big difference between the rest of the Tucson lineup. It looks cool. Which there's nothing wrong with the car that if you're not someone who cares about sporty you just want to look cool, it looks cool, because you get a lot of extra inline stuff. You get special 19 inch wheels, the front and rear facia that I like this part. They specifically say the front grille, as opposed to that back grill that many cars have the front grille is a special inline grill. Sam Abuelsamid 14:30 Our Honda Civic does have sort of invitation grills on the back. Nicole Wakelin 14:34 What do they call it? A grill? No one called that oh, yeah, okay, but so the front grille, and then there's badging, it comes with a dual exhaust and it has a special inline spoiler on the outside so you get some stuff on the outside that makes it look different. On the inside. You get special seats, they are endline black sport seats with leather and cloth. They actually look really cool and the classroom has a texture to it, but I discovered because short season here in New Hampshire, and makes your legs look like you have like this weird waffle print. When you get out of the car, it's like, oh, that's not attractive. So it does leave a little imprint on your legs and shirts, whether there's neat red accents. In fact, on the dashboard, there's a sort of like on the passenger side, there's this section that has sort of like a black sort of fabric II thing on it has these little, like red lines, like Shoo, shoo, shoo, shoo. It looks really cool. It looks neat. Like everybody who sat down in the car noticed it, you get alloy pedals and scuff plates, and you get a special end line, leather wrap steering wheel and shift knob. So those are like the end line things. That's what makes this its own special trim. And then it also gets it because like I can run with this. It's like the middle of the Tucson lineup kind of sorta, but you get extra stuff like it's not specific to the headline, you can get other Tucsonans. But this one has the Bose audio the 10.25 inch digital instrument cluster, wireless charging and ambient lighting. Hey, has anybody ever either of you in your whole life had a wireless charger in a car that really really works? Well, I feel like they never worked on me. I take a corner and suddenly my phone is not charging. Sam Abuelsamid 16:07 Actually, Cadillac GM in general, they they typically have theirs set up so it's in a slot. And there's the little rubber sort of pillows in there. So when you slide it in, and it holds your phone in place. Nicole Wakelin 16:25 I feel like I always think it's charging him like how come I only have 1% battery charge. And I've been in the car for two hours. Like it never it like I go over a bump. And it's not even my phone case because yes, I took my phone case off and I still try it and I still have issues, but this one does have wireless charging. So that's sort of like the appearance stuff that makes it an inline. And some of the just cool extra like we put this on our Inline trim. But for performance, it's got what the rest of the gas vehicles in the Tucson line of habit has a 2.5 liter four cylinder engine, eight speed automatic 187 horsepower, 178 pound feet of torque, it can actually talk to 2000 pounds if you properly equip it. And for fuel economy, it gets 26 combined. I did a decent bit of driving in this and it was really like highway and country and I came up with about 25 So pretty close to what they said. And it had you know me my hubby and my two kiddos in there and a bunch of stuffs. This was $34,000 the only extra day 34 140 To be precise. The only extra on it for that price was $195 for carpeted floor mats and prices right time. What was the destination? Oh, Sam Abuelsamid 17:39 I'm gonna say 9511 95 Nicole Wakelin 17:43 Did you post se live in 95? I Roberto Baldwin 17:45 said 995 Nicole Wakelin 17:46 You just go low on purpose. That's not even fair. Roberto Baldwin 17:50 Oh, that's what I think it is. Is it? Is Nicole Wakelin 17:52 it? No, it's not. It's actually it's 1245. Sam wins, but you always go like, I'm just gonna go load to that. It's 1245. So which is Roberto Baldwin 18:03 my first though I didn't undercut him? He overcome me Nicole Wakelin 18:06 overnight. Yeah. Sam Abuelsamid 18:09 But I was I was also listening earlier. He was paying attention when you said whatever your your car had dealt with 1095 95 No. And Roberto Baldwin 18:20 you said yours was Nicole Wakelin 18:22 retired. See, because Sam was paying attention. Roberto Baldwin 18:26 I was I was just monologuing at that point. I'm not really listening. I'm like, ooh, it's my turn to talk. Nicole Wakelin 18:32 So yeah, so 1290 12 is it 1295 to 4512 45. So 1245 For Destination So, but 34 140 It's It's this little decent car. I like driving this. I mean, like I said, it's not you're not getting extra performance for going with the airline but it does have a little extra style. I do like how all the two sides have this very angular look especially to the doors. It doesn't look like every other little bulbous sleek little crossover slash SUV thing that's out there. It's fun to drive. It's nice. The acceleration is fine. It's a comfortable interior. It's it's it does a good job of being just a nice, affordable SUV. There's all wheel drive in there if you live in the northeast, which is great for me in the winter. And actually what's really funny is right now they're repaving our street in front of our house. So like I don't know why repaving it involves taking it down to the Earth's core first. So there's just like dirt and like you go up and it's like off roading. I'm like, Well, let's take you out there and see how you handle little. I'm like up and down and backward. My daughter takes the charger that we have out and she's like, I'm afraid to take it out. I'm like that might be a good call. Don't take it out today. Like the road is terrible. So it was kind of fun taking on all this dirt to get out of the neighborhood and it's fine. So it's it's a good choice and they feel like for the price for $34,000. You're getting card that looks good, that drives nicely. Hyundai's have a great reputation for quality. It gets decent fuel economy. I mean there's not there's I don't have complaints about that. This I like this. Sam Abuelsamid 20:00 It's just like a Santa Cruz with an enclosed rear end. Yes. Oh, yeah, exactly. Having a permanent cap on the back of the sentence is just Nicole Wakelin 20:08 stuck it on the back. Yeah. So I like this end you can get it as a hybrid and a plug in hybrid which I drove at the plug in hybrid at Hyundai Palooza last week in Tennessee. So you have very many choices. You can get the gas, you can get the hybrid, you could get the plug in hybrid. They're all good choices. They're all well priced Sam Abuelsamid 20:30 within their segment the hybrids with the inline package. Nicole Wakelin 20:33 I don't think you'd get a hybrid the inline I think the inline is exclusively I'm almost positive Wait, I'm gonna double check. I'm almost positive the headline is exclusively the gas engine. Oh, I don't have the right form. I think that's just gas. I think there's there's a very small trim lineup. Yeah, the plug in hybrid is SEL and limited. The hybrid is SEL convenience limited and blue. So you don't have an inline Yeah, the inline is just the gas engine. Okay, so won't long Yeah, and line is just because there's four gas trims for gas three hybrid and two plug in hybrid. So that's what your options are. Sam Abuelsamid 21:11 Excellent. Yeah. Yeah, I drove the the Tucson plug in about a month or so ago and was really impressed with it and it's it's quite a bit larger than the last generation Tucson was it's kind of gone up a size class. Yeah, the old one. Nicole Wakelin 21:29 It's very roomy, it feels very open like even when you push the front seats back you still have room for you know that six foot person front six foot person back you can do it, you don't feel squished it's we've loaded that thing full of all sorts of stuff for this holiday weekend that we're in we had like groceries and all sorts of balloons and everything shoved in there for all the parties you're having and it swells an incredible amount of cargo to so that's always good at so it's it's a versatile it's a versatile little choice and it's a good price and it's fun to drive. Sam Abuelsamid 22:00 My only real complaint about the Tucson is the infotainment system like the center stack the controls below the screen the display are all touch controls. There's no physical controls there it's all capacitive touch controls like for temperature and climate and and volume and everything else all touch so you have to look at it to those controls. I would always prefer to have at least you know at least some of those be physical controls Nicole Wakelin 22:33 no I'm with you on that I you know I like you know I love touchscreens but I love I like for the controls like that for HVAC stuff for volume it's nice to just be able to grab something and do that so yeah, that is definitely a downside. Roberto Baldwin 22:45 Just give us some touch controls people use little Nicole Wakelin 22:48 knobs and buttons they they've been around forever with good reason. Roberto Baldwin 22:53 Even think for things you have to use a lot like make that a touch control to turn my head to do stuff invisible Sam Abuelsamid 22:59 control physical Roberto Baldwin 22:59 control. Yeah, a physical thing I guess everything's a touch control I'm using my voice or my mind of Nicole Wakelin 23:09 course. Yeah, so I agree. Sam Abuelsamid 23:14 All right. Well I also had a Hyundai a different Hyundai than I was planning it's all Hyundai all the time. I was actually originally scheduled to have Kona and line so the smaller crossover with the inline package but the day before they had to swap that out because Hyundai needed that vehicle for something so they sent me the Hyundai ionic five instead the ionic five limited all wheel drive model which is upgrade Yeah, definitely. If you know the top of the line version of the ionic five and it was interesting because I already I also had for the following week. This past week. I had scheduled the Kia Evie six to use for a drive to Wisconsin for the the mama rally. So I had had the opportunity to go back to back for several days between the ionic five and Evie six which are mechanically electrically you know basically the same vehicle but very different styling different different feel to them. The ionic five has almost four inch longer wheelbase than the Kia and it also the roofline sits about three inches taller and of course you know the look is a very different look. You know the the Ionic has this kind of faceted look, you know, in some ways, you know some similarities to the the Tucson but going even a couple of steps beyond that, you know, with this kind of, you know, it looks like a design that would fit right in in Minecraft and I like it. I think it's a cool design. It's good to see you know, companies do something different And especially as they're going to EVs, you know, not just take their existing vehicles and close off the the oversized grille. And you know, call it a day, you know, they actually, you know, gave it some real thought and designed this thing, you know, knowing what do we need from an Eevee. So, with the ionic five being a little bit longer, a little bit taller, a little less shapely than the Kia and in terms of its its aerodynamics. It has slightly less range than the corresponding Kia with the same battery and motors in it. And I think where is it here is the the the ionic five, all wheel drive that the rear wheel drive version of the ionic the single motor rear drive version with the extended range batteries, three has a range of 303 miles. The ionic five is 256 miles. I didn't do a formal range test with it. But I did. I did go drive it around my typical loop couple of times and averaged about 3.4 miles per kilowatt hour, which is pretty good. It's actually the way it was a mix of freeways, suburban urban driving. And that that is slightly better than what the official EPA rating is, which actually works out to about three miles per kilowatt hour, because 34 kilowatt hours per 100 miles. So it works out to actually just slightly under three miles per kilowatt hour. And I got 3.4 with it. So that was that was it's quite impressive. It's quite efficient. Yeah, no, it does really well. I really liked driving it. It's a very roomy car. We took it, we drove it to Detroit, one more on Sunday morning for some pastries. And my wife really liked it as well, she she thought it was very comfortable. It's very quiet. The design is said both inside and outside is an interesting design. And it's got it actually has more physical controls than the than the ionic or than the the Tucson does. The highway drive assist feature that they have on here and on the Kia, which is their sort of level two, it's equivalent, roughly equivalent to Nissan's ProPILOT assist. Where it does combines the adaptive cruise control and Lane centering generally works really well. It's a hands on system though. So it's not like super cruise or blue cruise where you can take your hands off the wheel, you do have to keep your hands on the wheel. But it works really smoothly. And on the key I actually found that really useful, especially when I was driving back driving through rush hour traffic around Chicago. But I'll get to that in a minute. Yeah, I don't I don't really have any notable well actually, I have only one notable complaint about the Hyundai and the Kia this one is it Nicole Wakelin 28:13 another 50 things you love and one thing you'll hate. Sam Abuelsamid 28:16 And that is the trip planning capability. And I've done a story that's going to be on Forbes wheels about an Eevee road trip review with the Kia but you know if you're taking a long trip that is beyond the range of the of the Eevee you want to you're going to need to do a little bit of planning to figure out okay, where do I want to make my stops for charging, you know, so that you so that it's convenient, so it's not too far out of the way but it also doesn't. It doesn't necessarily add a whole lot of time to your trip you want to minimize that time you have to add to your trip. And for most Evie drivers you're going to charge at home. That's you know, and that's that's that's great. But if you do have to take a longer trip beyond the the range of the vehicle then you've got to you've got to think in advance of how you want to do this. And the system that they have in the Hyundai and the Kia when in the navigation when you if you put in a destination that is beyond the current range of the car. It will say you know you don't have enough range to get to this destination. You know pops up do you want to search for charging stations? Yes. Great. Search for charging stations. It could not find any of the charging stations that I knew were within really oh no are appropriate. Like I took the Kia to or the Hyundai to drive up to an event at the magnet headquarters in in Troy, Michigan. And coming back I didn't actually need to charge but you know I wanted to To see how the system worked. And so I put in a destination that was not my home that was beyond the currently available range. And there is an Electrify America station, a 10 minute walk from my house, it would have been perfect spot to stop charge. And if you when you go into the thing there, you can filter it by, you know, charging speed and networks. And, you know, do you want it nearby or along my route, and you pick along my route. And I knew that the station was like, literally 30 seconds off the freeway along my route. And yet, it could not find it. It didn't know it didn't pull it up first. Nicole Wakelin 30:44 Was it giving you another session that was somehow I'm trying to, like defend it was it Sam Abuelsamid 30:50 giving you it's showing me no stations along my route. So you're just Sol if I did, if I did nearby, it would show me all the stuff that was close right around me. And level two stations, which were not particularly useful for a long trip, right? So and I've talked to to Hyundai and Kia about this, and they're aware of it. And they're working on improving that. Hopefully, that will come as an over the air update at some point in the not too distant future. But right now, if you're driving one of these, and you're planning a road trip, you absolutely want to do your planning in advance and figure out where you want to make your stops before you go. Roberto Baldwin 31:29 This is one of the things that Tesla does so well. Yeah. Sam Abuelsamid 31:34 Ford Ford does it well to you know, in their system Roberto Baldwin 31:37 is really nice. Yeah. Nicole Wakelin 31:38 So is this just a known thing really? Like? Yeah, so our vehicles aren't really finding the closest chargers or they're omitting Sam Abuelsamid 31:45 the navigation system isn't? isn't finding the right, the chargers and the chargers that would actually be most useful for that trip? Nicole Wakelin 31:53 That seems like kind of a major thing for you know, a vehicle that needs those to get in and Roberto Baldwin 31:58 does a good job. But yeah, yeah, they all need just need to get get a Tesla Model, whatever. And the the thing, like if someone just to say to the team, make this happen, at this point, get the SDKs get the API's get everything you need from Evie, go from Electrify America from ChargePoint. And you need to figure this out. Sam Abuelsamid 32:17 Yeah. And, you know, before, you know, before I left on my trip this week, you know, I also did some, you know, I tried to use look at other solutions for EV trip planning. And I looked at several different sites. And right now I've got a tab open here with CHARGE hub, which is one of the systems out there. And I put in, you know, the the trip from my home to Road America. And you know, pick the options, you know, I want only DC fast charging and, you know, pick five chargers within 10 miles of my route. And it didn't, it's not showing me one of the one of the chargers that I actually stopped at which was actually more convenient. It's showing me a slower charger, that is closer to the limit of the range of the Eevee. Six. But it's only a 50 kilowatt charger, which meant I would have been sitting there for two hours charging. Roberto Baldwin 33:15 Yeah, I'm gonna tell a better route planner. It's an it's an app. It's a website, it works with CarPlay a better route planner, a, an automaker actually gave me when they had me driving their vehicle a very long distance or like someone on the teams like us a better route planner, Sam Abuelsamid 33:33 a better route, better route Roberto Baldwin 33:35 planner, you can put in the car, you can put in the state of charge before you leave and putting the state of charge you want when you get to where you're going. I'm surprised they have not been purchased. If you want to use it with CarPlay you have to pay there's like a subscription fee. But if you just go online, you can just use their website, you can just use their app a better route planner. Yeah, someone should just buy them Volkswagens should just give them a big pile of money and steel and steel everything that they've been doing. It's yeah. Sam Abuelsamid 34:00 Well, when I when I you know, well first let me finish off with the with the ionic five first. So the ionic five equipped as as I drove it, it was the limited all wheel drive. So off the top of the line version came to about $55,000 which is kind of pricey. I mean, it is still eligible for $7,500 tax credit. But it's it's on the pricey side. And so, you know, compared to say a Tucson plug in hybrid, which is got similar interior volume. That's about $15,000 More than the Tucson and, you know, might be I guess, I would suggest you know that if you're thinking about one of these, maybe consider the extended range rear wheel drive version instead, which you can get for under 50 grand, so it gets you down to closer to that same price point, as the Tucson you know, if you need the all wheel drive, you certainly going to, you know, it's an extra four grand, and you're gonna get some more performance. But it's, you know, it's quite a bit for for what you're getting. I mean, it is a nice, really nice vehicle. But, you know, this is this is the challenge still with pretty much all the EVs in the market, they are still pretty expensive. So, from that, let me transition to talk a little bit more about the Eevee six which I drove to Wisconsin. And again, same motor, same, same dual motor setup, 320 horsepower, 310 horsepower 274 miles of rated EPA range. And for you know, when I did set out on my trip, I knew that from from my starting point, it would not be able to it would not pull up the station, the EAA station I wanted to stop at and near Kalamazoo, Michigan. Instead, as I was driving, you know, very okay, as I started driving away from my home, maybe it will find it along my route. I was about 30 miles from my house, driving down i 94. And I tried it, I put in the destination and said, Okay, you know, find recharges along my route. Instead of pointing me to the one that was 70 miles in front of me along my route. It pointed, it directed me It tried to direct me to the EAA station near my house, which was 30 miles behind me. Nicole Wakelin 36:35 Oh my gosh, if you had no idea where you were, you'd be driving 30 Miles backwards for no reason. Sam Abuelsamid 36:40 Exactly. But the both Electrify America, Electrify America and ChargePoint actually have quite decent apps that both work with CarPlay and Android Auto. And so I was using the EAA app and Android Auto. And I went back to Google Maps and had my destination in my original destination in there, and then switched over to the EAA app, pulled up the, you know, the charging charging stations near me and hit the one in Kalamazoo and says navigate and it goes right in and adds that as a waypoint in Google Maps. So it works really nicely for that. Unfortunately, what it doesn't do when you're using it in Google Maps, and what you're using the app just on your phone, you can tap on any of the stations and find out you know, the availability of chargers, the speed and everything. And in the version that shows up in Android Auto, it doesn't show you that level of detail. So it only shows you it only shows you availability, it doesn't show you the speed or anything like that, but it will guide you to them. Same thing goes for charge point if you're using charge point. The when I got to the station in Kalamazoo, I pulled in their strength amazingly enough, there was actually another Eevee six, already charging. That's the first first time I've ever seen one in the wild. And it wasn't somebody heading to the rally. It was it was somebody somebody you know, just a regular person, like a regular person charging their Eevee Roberto Baldwin 38:16 section person tell me more human person. Sam Abuelsamid 38:18 So even though I left home with a full charge, and I didn't technically need to charge 100 miles away, I did that because knowing I would actually be stopping in for another charge in Chicago, because in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, they're the closest DC fast chargers are about 35 miles away. And those are Tesla superchargers. The closest CCS fast charger is 50 miles away in Milwaukee. And so what I did was I figured, okay, I'll start I'll top it off in in Kalamazoo, go to Chicago, top off again, and that will give me enough range to get from Chicago to Elkhart Lake and then back to Milwaukee on my trip back. And that worked out really well. And, you know, gave me a little bit of buffer since I was I wasn't particularly in the mood to see, you know, to drive the car all the way until the battery was completely depleted, and you know, then have to wait around for a flatbed. You know, I always liked myself some buffer and tried to pick the Chargers close to my route, and with the fastest speed so I'd have the minimal amount of downtime. So, it all worked out really well. When, when on my way back when I was in Milwaukee, I was at a 350 kilowatt charge station it was charging it almost to or to about 221 kilowatts, which is close to the peak of what the the the Hyundai's and Kias will do. And I added I went from 10 to 94% charge in like 30 minutes. Roberto Baldwin 39:58 was once it once it gets over two 100 You're just like, wow, like I get along. It's like a match. And then that last, like, you know, 10 20% you're like, This is physics. But that yeah, when it starts, it's like to hear you're like, Ooh, Nicole Wakelin 40:12 this is physics. Sam Abuelsamid 40:15 was funny when I got to that charged charger in Milwaukee, they were already two VW mid fours. They're being charged up. And they left a few minutes after I arrived. And then a couple of minutes after that, somebody pulled in in a Lucid Air, which is the first and I was chatting with the owner for a few minutes. He said he picked it up from the factory in Arizona six weeks ago. He's already put 7000 miles on it. Roberto Baldwin 40:44 Wow. loves it. Nicole Wakelin 40:45 He loves it. I bet he does. Yeah, Roberto Baldwin 40:47 it's a good it's a good car. Nicole Wakelin 40:49 I love that cars fit. It's pricey as heck. But man, is it a great car? Roberto Baldwin 40:53 Yeah, you feel the money you spent you're like, Okay, it's like an S class. You get in the s class. You're like, man, that's me driving. Oh 911 It's like yeah, 911 the S class you get in both those cars. You're like, oh, that's why there's Nicole Wakelin 41:06 cars you get in you're like this is just too expensive. I don't know why I would buy this other cars. This is so expensive. You take a seat. Oh, I get it down. Like definitely. Yeah, Sam Abuelsamid 41:14 he he said he previously owned a Tesla Model S said, you know, it never felt like $100,000 car. And this definitely does. The Lucid Nicole Wakelin 41:26 feels entirely different than it really does feel like a luxury car. Not like a luxury Evie. Not like a future. Evie. It just feels like a luxury vehicle in every way. It's beautiful. Sam Abuelsamid 41:40 So overall, the trip, put on 834 miles, US 245 kilowatt hours of electricity, and got about 3.4 miles per kilowatt hour. And considering that this was almost entirely highway driving with the adaptive cruise said it's 75 miles an hour. I'd say that was pretty good. It was like four, which is really good. It's 30 miles an hour on the freeway, it's better better than the EPA range rating. And so I think realistically, you know if in more typical, you know, mixed driving, even though this thing's ready to 274 I would expect you could easily get over 300 Oh, yeah. On a charge. That's really good. Yeah, Roberto Baldwin 42:28 during the drive program, we were driving around Clear Lake and I was just kind of driving through town you first drive and I looked down. And at that point, it was getting five miles per kilowatt. Yes. Like just like no big deal, kind of Yeah, that's what I'm getting. I'm like, just driving around. I'm like, and then once we got in the back roads and on the freeway went down, but just kind of cruising around town, you're like, geez, this is nice. Sam Abuelsamid 42:52 So So for anybody wants to do a road trip with an Eevee it's absolutely doable. Most places in the US now, you know, but you do need to do a little planning ahead and figure out where you're going to stop me because a lot of the DC fast chargers and the non Tesla DC fast chargers that are out there are only 50 kilowatts, like around Chicago along the the I 94 and 294. They have these these Oasis rest areas where they've got some restaurants and gas stations and stuff. And most of these now have Evie chargers, but they're all 50 kilowatt chargers. And so I wasn't gonna waste my time at those. Yeah, I went to bother. I went to a station that was across, you know, fashion outlet mall parking garage across the freeway from O'Hare Airport. And it worked out great. By any fashion. I did not buy any fish. Roberto Baldwin 43:57 I'll tell you a better route planner, check it out. I will do that put in your state of charge. You can put in a state charge you want when you get where you're going. You sit in your car. Yeah, Nicole Wakelin 44:05 it's just playing with the district talking like this really is really cool. I like opened it up on my phone. I'm like I'm looking at this. This is really neat. Roberto Baldwin 44:11 It's very much built by engineers. When you look at it like okay, this is it's not super, super user friendly. Sometimes you're like, wait, what? Wait, wait, wait, what do I do I how do I find my route again? But like once you figure it out, you're like, oh, man, this is this stuff. Sam Abuelsamid 44:27 Well, I will definitely try that one for the next trip. All right. Let's get into some other topics. Let's start off with that with Tesla. About I don't know, a month and a half or so ago, there was a an item that popped up on a bunch of websites. With a little video clip somebody filmed a Tesla being used by the owner in summoned mode, which is the thing that in theory at least is supposed to allow you to you know, if you're you know have your cars in the parking lot you can Open up your phone and have your Tesla drive itself to where you are. And some guy was, you know, showing off some in mode, I guess to his friends or something at a local private airport. And the car ran right into the back of a Cirrus vision jet $3 million jet didn't didn't even seem to flinch didn't seem to notice that it was there. And so I had written an email to the hosts of another podcast I listened to called airplane geeks about it because one of the hosts, there's an instructor and flight instructor and spends a lot of time flying serves aircraft, I thought they'd find it amusing. And the following week, somebody else wrote in a Tesla owner who took his car to local airport just to see what would happen. And he actually pulled up behind an airplane. And he had, you know how to in the FSD mode. And he took a picture of the screen where it shows you what the car thinks it's seeing what the car sensors think they're seeing. And around the plane, there were three orange cones. And the plane was there directly in front of the car. And yet, the Tesla saw the cones but did not see the plane there at all. Which is clearly to me a demonstration of how fundamentally wrong Tesla's approach to self driving is. Because they, they're relying only on cameras, and using end to end AI without any kind of deterministic or rules based software algorithms. And that means that you've got to train the system to recognize everything. Which you know, there's going to be a lot of stuff that when you're on when you're driving around, you don't necessarily need to know exactly what it is. But you do have to recognize that there is something there in front of you, that you probably don't want to run into. Nicole Wakelin 47:01 Do not hit objects with them or not, do not put out objects. Sam Abuelsamid 47:06 Yeah, so thing there. Nicole Wakelin 47:08 Yeah, here's the thing, go round the thing. What is it? Don't know, but go around it anyway. Sam Abuelsamid 47:12 Yeah, even if you don't recognize what it is, that's fine. Just assume assume that it's something you don't want to hit, and either stop or, you know, go around. So I will post the, the the photo that this guy sent in showing that showing the screen and his Tesla, not not seeing that there was an airplane even there in front of him. And the show notes. Roberto Baldwin 47:39 That's that's because people tow planes and gliders like where I'm from, there's a glider port there. And so people are towing their gliders up there. And I guess the test would probably see the license plate and some other stuff and maybe the tow trailer. What if it didn't what the person just like, Oh, I forgot to put the license plate in the back of my trailer. If there's a plane there, it's white, because most planes are white. So now I can't see it. And it is like conch. Yeah. Nicole Wakelin 48:05 How's that? Go? Calm? Just conch. Sam Abuelsamid 48:12 All right. Next up, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finally has a new administrator for the first time in five years, Roberto Baldwin 48:19 I finally got a boss. Sam Abuelsamid 48:23 During the prior administration in Washington, the previous president who shall remain unnamed, did not even bother to nominate anybody for the job because that administration didn't actually believe in rules or regulations. So they didn't even bother to nominate somebody to fill that position. The current president did nominate Steven Cliff last year and early in 2021. And now, the Senate has finally confirmed Mr. Cliff as the new administrator of NITSA. So we'll see if maybe some things start to happen now. Roberto Baldwin 48:59 Maybe they'll do their job. That would be nice. Right to regulations and some rules. Yeah. TSB is not happy with new new new they are not I've been the NTSB. I was at a an event talking about a crash and I get the end of it. They just spent a good 2030 minutes just just just railing for nightly for not doing their jobs like you have a job and you're not doing it Nicole Wakelin 49:24 not missing. Sam Abuelsamid 49:28 All right. Next up rivian reviens had some challenges actually building their vehicles since they started production last fall. So I guess apparently, they're their head of production. It has decided to leave. Not quite sure if it was his decision or or rj scaringe. The CEOs decision, but where's the Charlie Charlie malarkey. As who was previously there, head of manufacturing has left the building. And reviens got a new CEO Chief Operating Officer coming in starting on Tuesday. And it's a former magnet executive Frank Klein, who will be taking over as Chief Operating Officer. Roberto Baldwin 50:18 I mean, that's a good hire. Yeah, Magna, they know how to build things. Do wagons and Supras built Sam Abuelsamid 50:26 by magnet. Yep. And they also, you know, they know how to manage supply chains and get suppliers to ship them parts that they need to build that stuff. So hopefully, having this guy this this gentleman is their new clo we'll help them get their supply issues sorted out. Hopefully, Roberto Baldwin 50:46 I'd like you know somebody Yeah, it's a good truck, man. It's such a wow, I still Yeah, them and lucid Wow. Because I thought they would, they would seem like the two that would go to do well. And I'm like, okay, the cars will come out and they'll be fine. And then you're like, wow, Nicole Wakelin 51:01 like or not? Roberto Baldwin 51:02 I don't know. Nicole Wakelin 51:04 Maybe I judge that wrong. Unknown Speaker 51:06 See. Sam Abuelsamid 51:09 BBs. You guys know who PBS is? Right? Make? Sure. Yeah. They have a new version of one of their wheels that they have announced, called this the CIR wheel, which is a pretty good looking wheel Excuse me. The new version of the BBS CIR wheel is now now has what they call universal fitment BBs unlimited. If either of you ever bought aftermarket wheels for any of your vehicle, Roberto Baldwin 51:48 not I've had some aftermarket wheels on my Dell soul. And then on my civic, as you would expect. Unknown Speaker 51:56 So nobody's surprised. Sam Abuelsamid 52:00 These new BBS wheels, you know, one of the challenges of buying wheels is making sure that you get wheels with the right bolt pattern that matches your car. You know, because different manufacturers have different different patterns, you know, if four or five, six bolt wheels, different diameters. And so what would BBs is doing, I guess some other manufacturers have done this, as well as their offering, they're bundling the, the, the wheels with hub adapters, so that you have this adapter that goes in between the wheel, the hub on the car and the hub of the wheel, so that you have one that matches the car, and the other one matches the wheel. I've never used anything like that. But you know, and there are some aftermarket adapters that you can buy for various wheels. But I think, you know, finding something from a company like BBs, probably more likely to have something that's actually going to be reliable. Roberto Baldwin 53:04 Yeah, I feel like if you get it directly from them also but the wheel adapter thing. I just feel like the torque every time you that wheel turns, there's always going to be a miniscule amount of movement between that adapter wheel. Tiny little bit. This is huge. A skewer tiny, tiny bit every time. teeny tiny bit a little bit. I don't. I mean, it sucks when you save up a bunch of money for wheels, and then you go to buy them. And it turns out they don't make the right wheel pattern for your car. You're like, oh, that's a 20 something year old sadness right there. Sam Abuelsamid 53:33 Yeah. Yeah. All right. Last item for this week before we get into q&a is the Fisker pear, which I don't know if they're actually going to call it that in production. I think they are. It's sounding like that's the plan. But it's they've released a teaser sketch of it. And it's coming in 2024. And it's going to supposedly have a starting price under $29,900, which would make it one of the cheapest TVs on the market. The one of the interesting things, though, this is this is actually supposed to be built in Lordstown, Ohio, at the factory that used to build the Chevy Cruze back, way back when the saucer the same factory that built the Chevy Vega. You remember the Vegas cheese Nicole Wakelin 54:25 way back? Factory factory. It is cursed. When GM Sam Abuelsamid 54:33 finally abandoned it. You know, they sold it to Lordstown motors and Blount and I think the curse continued with them. So hopefully, hopefully it doesn't continue for Fisker because a couple of weeks ago, Lordstown finally closed the deal to sell this factory, which they had bought from GM to Foxconn who makes the iPhones that you guys are using and all kinds of other stuff. Foxconn has not had a great record with manufacturing in the US though. Roberto Baldwin 55:07 does ask Wisconsin. Yeah. Yeah, right. Sam Abuelsamid 55:11 Yeah. And Eli Patel, the editor in chief at the verge complains about them all the time because they Foxconn was supposed to build a giant TV factory just a few miles from where he grew up and Racine, Wisconsin. Needless to say they're not building TVs or anything else in Wisconsin, but now now Foxconn wants to get into the Evie manufacturing business with Fisker Nicole Wakelin 55:36 Have you set I'd like to point out that where I was like, Where the heck did they come up with pair and it's the personal electric automotive revolution. That's what pair stands for? Roberto Baldwin 55:47 I guess. Electric I don't think the names of your car should stand for anything. Just find a good name especially Sam Abuelsamid 55:54 when it's obviously a retro Nim like that. Roberto Baldwin 55:57 Yeah, like oh, he's just like, oh man, okay, you know what I like pears. Nicole Wakelin 56:02 How do we go from ocean to pair? Like I see ocean to wind or like ocean to sandstorm i don't know but ocean ocean debris Sam Abuelsamid 56:15 from Waves wave Nicole Wakelin 56:17 but ocean to now we're doing fruit. Roberto Baldwin 56:21 I felt like someone needs to do the Earth Wind and Fire one. And like just pay Earth Wind and Fire a bunch of money and then when they announced the third car fire, then they have the band come out. Well, I didn't come out anymore. Yeah, Sam Abuelsamid 56:34 I really want a car called Fire. Roberto Baldwin 56:37 Yeah, especially in evey. Unknown Speaker 56:38 Oh, oh, that's Roberto Baldwin 56:41 the all catch on fire eventually. At the end of the day fire cleanses us all. Nicole Wakelin 56:49 By this dramatic change. Sam Abuelsamid 56:53 Okay, let's answer some listener questions. First up from a Jordison on Twitter. It appears the lightning is going to be a major breakthrough for regular electric vehicle acceptance. Speaking of which, Ford delivered to their first customer deliveries this past week have they really? When will we see this take place with SUVs I think most of us just want normal looking vehicles that just happened to be electric. What do you think? Roberto Baldwin 57:22 I mean, I have one of those right now. Yeah, I feel like these the Tron the Audi e Tron the first the not the a three e Tron with the E Tron SUV. Sam Abuelsamid 57:34 The E Tron e Tron. Tron e Tron? Roberto Baldwin 57:36 Yeah, that's such a weird naming thing of the everything's but first one is the Tron but then everything else is you tried something else? Yeah. What else looks like just a regular but I feel like it kind of is Nicole Wakelin 57:46 taking place. I mean, like electric vehicles that kind of just don't look weird and wonky at the Evie six doesn't look crazy. A Hyundai Yannick five doesn't look crazy. Like you could just those Roberto Baldwin 57:58 to the buyer there those again, but yeah, but the people who again the E Tron in the car I own Kona it just looks like a Kona. It just looks like a Kona but it doesn't have the grill up front and just has nothing and a little hole doesn't Sam Abuelsamid 58:19 have a one in the back. Roberto Baldwin 58:20 No. Girls, yeah, there's a rear grille for hot dogs in Tucson, apparently. Sam Abuelsamid 58:27 Yeah. I think you're right. You know, there are already several, you know, rather conventional looking. Electric SUVs are crossovers. And there's going to be a bunch more coming in the next year or two. I was actually just talking to somebody from Genesis the other day. The gV 70. Evie is coming next year. That's going to be that's actually going to be built at the Hyundai plant in Alabama. You've also there's Ford's got electric versions of the Explorer and the aviator coming in 24 Chevy has shown really sketches of the or renders of the equinox Evie, which looks, you know, fairly conventional, the Jeep that we saw renders of a couple of months ago, that looks fairly straightforward. Although apparently, that one might not actually be coming to North America that might be for Europe only. Yeah, because apparently it's smaller than we've all thought it was. So it's more like even smaller than Renegade. Nicole Wakelin 59:35 Wow, that is tiny. Yeah. Sam Abuelsamid 59:38 But yeah, there's there's a bunch more, you know, more traditionally styled. Let's put it that way. As you Roberto Baldwin 59:46 there's some, there's more coming. Yeah. You'll you'll if you want something wacky, it's available available. I can't say the word available, by the way. If you want something traditional. Yeah, yeah. Sam Abuelsamid 59:59 All right. Next up, Ajay asks, Do they sell storage batteries that can be used to power the home will be charged with power from the electric utility rather than solar cells. Our state has really cheap power at night and make it convenient to buy and store it for charging during daytime. And actually brings bring Barron's housing on actually responded to this directly on Twitter with format that so I can actually read it says it says Home batteries like the Tesla Powerwall and face storage are able to do this already no requirement to pair them with solar, it's just what most people do. The problem with using whole home batteries to charge cars is that a car batteries say 55 kilowatt hours or larger, while a single power law powerwall is only 12 kilowatts and cost 12 and a half $1,000 Plus installation. So unless you're only driving 30 to 40 miles, you'll deplete that battery and spend a lot of money for it. When I started looking into solar batteries, solar plus batteries, my dream was to do this charge the home battery during the day with solar and and transfer that to my car overnight. In reality, I'd have to spend a small fortune for dual power walls and not and it wasn't in my budget. So what do you think? I agree, I think I agree with what Brian is saying there that it's probably not economically viable to do it. Roberto Baldwin 1:01:21 Yeah, I mean, it's nice. I mean, the power walls are really nice. And you know, a Sunrun has one because I'm actually looking, I'm trying to figure out like who I should get for solar on my house. And it's like all the reviews are like paid for by the solar company. So I'm just like, let's it's not something you can just review, I'm gonna throw some solar panels on my Sam Abuelsamid 1:01:41 car, he sent me a review set of solar panels and a battery for my house, I Roberto Baldwin 1:01:45 can try. I think that for the wall is mostly for when the power goes out. And then you're like, Okay, so now I have something that I'll keep my you know, especially if you live in California, because of the fires or if you live in an area where you know, intermittent access to electricity, they're great. To power your car, that's probably less Yeah, I think mostly you want the sun to power your car, and then also fill up that battery pack. And then when things are going hinky or during the day, if you you know the cars off somewhere, you can have that powerwall like sort of help you run your air conditioning in the middle of the day. Yeah, between noon and like 9pm When electricity is very expensive. And it's also very warm outside, you can use that to sort of run the your air conditioner and that sort of thing. So it's, it's cool for that i My, my, my new goal is to get a bi directional vehicle. And I've been looking at the ID buzz so that that x is a power wall. So that is connected because most of the time we're not driving that we'd be driving the Kona or we're driving the BRC. And so and then we take the the ID buzz out with the dogs and you know, to go pick stuff, go pick up some mulch and whatnot. But that would be the Powerwall as opposed to buying a power wall. But, you know, I'm crazy that way. Sam Abuelsamid 1:03:10 Yeah, no, I think I think you're right, you know, because the vehicle is going to have a lot more battery in it, then you're likely to have you know, for stationary storage in your home. You know, and as more and more vehicles come up with bi directional capabilities, you know, I think we're going to see that capability expand beyond just, you know, the the power backup when your power goes out, you know, but you know, to maybe be able to use it, you know, to reduce some of the load. So, you know, if you're, if your solar, you know, is producing 24 kilowatts or something, you know, and, and you need, you know, something more than that, you know, during peak times the day, you can take some of the, the juice from the battery to supplement the solar, you know, and then recharge it later. So, I think there's there's gonna be a lot of interesting options there. But like you say, the the home so the home batteries are more for those emergencies and you know, as we get these bi directional vehicles, you know, I think even those are going to become less and less useful. The home to home batteries. Roberto Baldwin 1:04:17 Yeah, cuz I was talking my wife was talking to someone who got solar and didn't get the battery and the one that get in the end decided later they wanted the battery. And it turns out it's more of a pain in the ass to get the battery after you get it. So if you get it all done at once, and then you get the battery I'm like, Oh man, but the car. Well, I don't really need an F 150. Nicole Wakelin 1:04:38 Yeah, I can't really convince myself I need a pickup truck for no reason whatsoever. Roberto Baldwin 1:04:42 Other than you know, where's the van? The van makes a lot more sense for us because the dogs and all this stuff, but we'll see. Sam Abuelsamid 1:04:49 All right. Well, speaking of the the ID buzz. We had another question from Freedland Koch. I'm assuming lives in in Germany or somewhere in Europe. Yes. And yes. What our thoughts were on the pricing of the ID buzz prices here in Germany? Oh, yeah. Okay, the real, were released a week ago and are very steep, considering it is the same platform as the ID four. And I think the price tag for the buzz in Germany is somewhere around 50,000 euros, which is pretty expensive. Even even when you're factoring in the VAT is that they that they do there? What do you think? Roberto Baldwin 1:05:31 I mean, I've heard 40 to 50 for it. If it's 50 us, for the US. I think if it's four if it's 50. There, that's like 4445 The euro is not doing very well, by the way against the dollar. I was just over there. I'm like, Oh, look at all the things I can buy. So yeah, it was like 4045 I think would probably that's that's what will, you know, that sounds Nicole Wakelin 1:05:56 that feels right. I think you're right, Robbie, somewhere in there. And I feel like people would go for it at that price too. So Roberto Baldwin 1:06:04 it'd be nice if they had at least two as well. I mean, I'm still a big Sam Abuelsamid 1:06:08 law I'm sure they want at least Roberto Baldwin 1:06:09 even kind of leaves. Yeah. Give you leases. You can't Evie, lease a mini SC, which is kind of a bummer. Really? No, there's no lease available available for the mini SC and they're like, Yeah, we don't have to because people just keep buying them. We can't make them fast enough. I'm like, Oh, okay. Everyone gets in one. They drive it around. They're like, You know what, maybe I only need an hour when 100 miles because this is fun. Sam Abuelsamid 1:06:32 Okay, next up James Gardner. Question about cars for new drivers, reliable older car without tech, or go new to have all the safety equipment safety electronics present. In my case, I have a merc American a Mercedes 2015. GLK 350. without so much as a backup camera, keep it or get something new with its excellent resale value. Nicole Wakelin 1:06:57 like seven years old, I was trying to do math. Roberto Baldwin 1:07:00 What is math really? I mean, here's, at some point, prices for used cars are gonna go back down. So if you're, if you're thinking money wise, if you have another vehicle that you could replace that you could drive, maybe sell it and hold on to that cash until you know, Nicole Wakelin 1:07:24 exactly that's the problem right now. Because even if you sell that Mercedes for really good price, you're gonna pay a heck of a lot to get into a new car, because you're not going to get a deal on any new car right now. Because they just don't have the inventory. So if you, you know, I guess you'd have to weigh it. Am I getting so much more from a Mercedes right now that it would make it worthwhile to go and buy a new? Because you could you could potentially, if this is a car for new driver, right? Let's assume this is a young new driver that they're looking to replace this for? Right? You could get a pretty cheap car, do you know what I mean? Like you might be able to get something where the really good resale value on that Mercedes, which is a very expensive car can get you a very cheap new car and have money leftover. No, don't get Roberto Baldwin 1:08:07 a Nissan Kicks. Nicole Wakelin 1:08:08 Like you could get let's still have the Roberto Baldwin 1:08:12 car and then money left over to use on another car if you want exactly Nicole Wakelin 1:08:16 like you could save that cash. If you just want to get a cheap, low end new car for a new driver, you can buy a cheap car that has a ton of tech safety check on it just standard features that aren't on that Mercedes and then you could probably that might make sense might make sense. Sam Abuelsamid 1:08:29 Yeah. I mean, certainly, you know, even even many of the entry level cars and crossovers today, you know, have at least some degree of driver assist systems. I mean, at the very least you've got backup cameras standard on everything new, right? You know, and in many cases, you're you got things like blind spot monitors, Lane Keep Assist, some cases, even adaptive cruise radar, adaptive cruise control, you know, especially if you get a Toyota, you know, they all have that standard now. So, you know, something like a Corolla, you know, for 20 to $23,000 You know, Honda Civic for, you know, 22 grand, you got all those features of standard equipment now. But even even on something like the kicks or bass Kona or the venue, you've still got, you know, at least some of those features on their standard equipment, you know, at around that $20,000 price point, assuming you can actually find one. Nicole Wakelin 1:09:27 That's the other challenge as Roberto Baldwin 1:09:28 Yeah, that's the that's the rub. Yeah. All that said. I mean, just I don't know if the if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I mean, if the GLK works for you, I mean, it's not so old that it's a death trap. Nicole Wakelin 1:09:42 It's not like it's an 1875. You just, you just Roberto Baldwin 1:09:45 kind of have to look over your shoulder when you back up. And you can get backup cameras by the way, you get aftermarket backup cameras. So that's the thing. All right. Give yourself a couple of grand. Keep the car you like Sam Abuelsamid 1:09:59 right now Okay, Tim engineering asks, with other car manufacturers going electric and proving they can shift to a software based over the air model. How long do you think Tesla will remain competitive? They've proven the iterative software model but seem incapable of bringing out new models of vehicles. Roberto Baldwin 1:10:18 I think Tesla's they still got a few. I'm just gonna say Tesla needs an adult to run that company. That's that. That's it. That's all there is to it. I mean, there's a lot of really smart, really talented, really nice people that work at Tesla. I have friends that work at Tesla, and I would like them to keep their jobs. And I like the idea of American automaker who's sort of coming out of nowhere, and done really well. That said, I would like an adult to rent it. Now. I think Elon is Elon, he's got a lot of money, he can go run Twitter, dig holes, go to space, do whatever. I think there's a point where the company needs to sort of start like, Okay, we need to stop thinking of let's make announcements to get people excited about the stock and make announcements that we can act and deliver on things that we can actually do. Because right now the last you know, every announcement right now for Tesla is just a sort of boost to stock to get to get more money. I mean, robots really a humanoid robot in a year. Now that's not going to happen. The semi Freightliner you can get a Freightliner Cascadia, just today. Yeah, you can, there's so many things that Tesla is sort of, we're going to do this thing that a Tesla shouldn't be doing. They don't need to do, they have you know, for cars, they, at some point, they need to update the x and the s because those cells are just sort of, you know, cratering. I want them to I want Tesla to succeed. That's, I mean, at the end of the day, the engineering team, they're the, you know, the people who work there, there's a lot of really smart, really nice, really, you know, good people that work there. And I would like that company not to go away because they are sort of trying to game the, the stock market as opposed to just building cars that people want going forward. Sam Abuelsamid 1:12:08 Yeah, I mean, you know, Tesla's still got, you know, some room for some growth, although, you know, their market share is probably going to continue to decline. You know, I mean, a year ago, they had 80% of the Evie market in the US now, that's, as of April, that's down to about 60%. But it's not because their sales are going down overall, it's because there's more people buying EVs and there's more more options out there for people. So, you know, I mean, they're not going to maintain a majority position in the Evie market over the long term. Because there's just gonna be too much competition. But you know, as long as long as there's somebody you know, running the show that you know, is competent, like you said, Yeah, I don't see any reason why they can't stick around. Yeah, yeah, I Nicole Wakelin 1:12:56 think I don't think they're going anywhere anytime soon. I think things will change and I think they'll have to change and adapt what they're doing in terms of their model lineup and updating things and you know, coming out with genuine new iterations of things and that will happen I don't know what rate because it's Tesla and who the heck knows with them but I don't think they're going anywhere anytime soon. I still think I still think they're they're going to be a solid manufacturer for ways to go yet. I don't I don't see them disappearing anytime soon. Roberto Baldwin 1:13:25 60% market shares and a lot that's they're still as far as I'm concerned. They're still the Kleenex of a UV so when people think TV, you Nicole Wakelin 1:13:33 think Tesla 100% Yeah. Sam Abuelsamid 1:13:38 All right. Finally Surtur asks, what will be the last car with a manual transmission? Mustang BRS EGR 86 Z Supra Miata. I could see Porsche dropping the manual soon with increased electrification. Nicole Wakelin 1:13:54 I go Miata Roberto Baldwin 1:13:56 Miata. I mean, I'd like to be as engineer e6 lasts forever, but, but that you can never tell the whims of Toyota. The out of them. Jada's that's a that's an icon yacht has never gone away to Nicole Wakelin 1:14:07 them take to lose the manual transmission on the Miata. That would be the very last car I could see. Roberto Baldwin 1:14:15 Someone that Mazda has one job, and that's to figure out how to put a manual transmission in the electric Miata. Nicole Wakelin 1:14:22 Some guy working away in his little office slaving away all day every day. We can't have an Eevee Miata until we can give it a manual make it happen. Sam Abuelsamid 1:14:30 As long as there is a Miata, certainly, as long as there's a Miata with an internal combustion engine, even if it's hybridized. There will be a manual transmission Miata. But yeah, the others are all, you know, anybody's guess. Mustang is one, you know, again, if as long as there's an internal combustion Mustang, there will probably be a manual option there. But yeah, those those two are, you know, those are the two most likely I think, yeah, Roberto Baldwin 1:14:59 Yeah, the big the GRE six, I mean those that's wonderful, wonderful car, but you can never tell whether or not I mean, Toyota's killed the super before, right, like the Nicole Wakelin 1:15:08 whole car could disappear. Yeah, and the Z car is gone. Roberto Baldwin 1:15:14 Z is the Z, you know, it's Nissan, it depends on how well, Nissan's doing in a few years. Yeah, be honest. Sam Abuelsamid 1:15:19 You know, it's interesting, you know, from the presentations they did on the the Z before the launch? Turns out 75% of all z sales are in the US. Really? Yeah. So, the US is the primary market for the Z, and most of the rest is Japan. So, you know, since the US is not, you know, overall particularly enamored of manual transmissions that I think they would like to keep the the manual z, but like you said, you know, all depends on how long the z itself holds up. stays. Yeah, Roberto Baldwin 1:15:57 I mean, that's this I mean, in that market, that that segment is the sweet spot for millennials. That's where mangoes are going to continue to thrive, I guess is the word. Yeah, thrive because that's the that enthusiast driver is that's the people that those are the folks who are keeping that the manual transmission alive. But so if you're when a car when an automaker comes out with a manual transmission by the car, Nicole Wakelin 1:16:26 just to keep manuals around, Roberto Baldwin 1:16:28 heard of stories from from, from a from an automaker about their they were they went somewhere and they had just come out with a vehicle that had American transmission. And the person came in and saw them and they were wearing like the jackets of that automaker. And they're like, Oh, you work for that company. They're like, yeah, and they're like, Oh, great. I'm so happy you came out with you. No such and such car with a manual transmission. Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah. So do you buy? Well, you know, I have a mute and there's a lot of yada yada yada, they bought. They bought the automatic. He was like, of course. Come on. Sam Abuelsamid 1:17:03 Yeah. I mean, if you really want the manuals to stick around, you got to buy them, you have to Nicole Wakelin 1:17:07 buy them. My brother in law has a manual transmission. He has two kids that both have driver's licenses. One has absolutely no interest whatsoever in learning to drive when the daughter who is 17 She's like, I'm trying I'm learning she's so she can kind of drive it, but she might destroy it. But she's learning at least but the older son was like, I don't need to know how to drive that. That's a waste of my time and energy. I have other things to do. You wouldn't even learn. Sam Abuelsamid 1:17:31 Yeah, I had the same issue with mine. One Yeah, one wanted to learn and the other one had tried. We tried one time to teach her how to drive. That was not happening. Roberto Baldwin 1:17:44 What is your favorite one you just don't talk to anymore. Well, it was a good run. We had a good run. Nicole Wakelin 1:17:52 It was a good run, but you won't try manual so done with you. Sam Abuelsamid 1:17:56 All right. That's it for this week. Thank you, everybody, and we will talk to you next time. Nicole Wakelin 1:18:01 Bye everyone.