🏈 Down, Set, Give

TOGETHER WITH

We have an elephant in the room.

The reputation of retail automotive is at the mercy of the loudest voice in the room. We know the industry is full of people passionate about compassion and ready to tell a better story, but we cannot shift people’s perceptions on our own. Some tasks are too big to be done alone, to be done quickly, or to be phoned in.

One bite at a time isn't the only trick for eating an elephant; you can also bring friends.Keep Pushing Back-Paul, Kyle, & Chris

DEALERS

Tackling Childhood Hunger

🎒🍌 Blessings in a Backpack is an organization committed to ending childhood hunger. They provide school-aged children with food and nourishment on weekends when school lunches are unavailable. 

Baltimore Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton and Preston Ford West have partnered to bless the mission of Blessings in a Backpack in a unique way. 🏈🏟️

💸 For every tackle Kyle Hamilton made through the 2022 football season, Preston Automotive Group donated $140 to the charity group to cover one child's entire year of weekend meals. 

By the end of the season, Mr. Hamilton had over 70 tackles leading to a $9,940 donation to the children of Frederick and Baltimore, Maryland. 🤯

Hamilton and Preston Automotive Group invited young Ravens fans to participate in the handing of the donation to the Blessings in a Backpack team. ✅

Telling it like it is - Two ways to make even the most peaceful soul love tackling – add a football and do it to help children.

AUTOMOTIVE

Apples, Birds, and Cats

With the recent news that GM plans to drop Apple CarPlay, many users have been concerned other automakers may follow suit. Ford, however, isn’t hopping on the bandwagon anytime soon and says that it “remains committed to CarPlay.”

Apple is expected to release a full roster of vehicles on board for the upcoming generation of CarPlay at the end of 2023.  

At this week’s Shanghai Auto Show, some of the largest crowds could be found huddled around a small, unassuming yellow hatchback by China’s largest carmaker BYD. 

Designated the “Seagull,” the bright new EV had visitors cooing not necessarily for its looks or features, but because of the price. At about half the cost of the cheapest EVs available elsewhere, BYD is selling this little guy for around $11K.  

Jaguar Land Rover announced plans on Wednesday to increase its investments in EVs to the tune of $19B over the next five years, an increase of about $1.3B per year over their previous investment declarations.

Legacy OEMS continue to face mounting pressure to electrify ASAP, especially in China where the EV industry is moving quickly and the urgency to cut prices is intensifying.

Later this year, the automaker also plans to open order books for a new all-electric Range Rover SUV, which is scheduled for launch in 2025. 

Telling it like it is - Ford is keeping Apple CarPlay, BYD releases a cheep cheep bird, and Jaguar Is pumping even more money into electrification.

TOGETHER WITH DIGITAL DEALER X ASOTU

Way, Way More...

The Digital Dealer Show in Tampa is going to have it all:

• Time to make new or deepen existing connections with troublemakers across the auto industry.

• An enjoyable look at the tech driving auto to a more prosperous future. 

• 🍿🎥🎬 The world premiere of the "More than Cars" docuseries.

Wait... what??

Yep! ASOTU took a camera, mic, and some flat-brimmed hat into dealerships to reveal the people and passion keeping the auto industry growing.

Join us on May 2nd after the first full day of Digital Dealer for an evening of fun, food, and the first look at retail automotive's whole story. 

If you still need a ticket to Digital Dealer, use code “ASOTU300” for $300 off your ticket!

AUTOMOTIVE

Safety Standard Suggestions from TWG

A new car safety standard is being established by the US Department of Transportation to prevent injuries caused by drunk and impaired driving.

🦺🥽👩‍🔬

The Technical Working Group on Advanced Impaired Driving Prevention Technology (TWG) released recommendations on Tuesday to the DOT after months of research by auto safety experts and consumer advocates.

📹👀🛞

The guidance recommends incorporating comprehensive systems in cars, including cameras and sensors, that can detect impairment such as blood alcohol content, distracted driving, and drowsy driving. The committee would ideally like to see these systems mandated for all new vehicles as early as 2026, though they did not mention how such requirements might roll out.

Telling it like it is - While these are lovely intentions, in light of the recent Tesla privacy breaches, the idea of having a camera on at all times while driving really gives us the heebie-jeebies.

CULTURE

Fire Up The Jets, The Kyle Fair, and Drake-Bot

🛩️ Hovercrafts are like hotdog toasters - awesome but so impractical they never really got off the ground.  🌭

🛠️ Youtuber "Rich Rebuilds" decided to lean into the awesome and forsake the practical entirely by adding two, that's more than one, jet engines to some old Scat personal hovercrafts from the 80s. The kerosene-powered hovercraft was loud, fast, and bizarrely enough, easier to handle than its un-DIY-ed cousins. 

The used vehicle market is about to really “take off…” 🚀  

The city of Kyle, TX, is hosting a Kyle Fair on May 21st. Like any good fair, it will have food, rides, drinks, music, and fireworks, but unlike most fairs, it will have as many people named "Kyle" as possible. (Most fairs only have 3-7 Kyles at a time) 🍔🧨🎡🍺+🙋‍♂️

A record set last year in Bosnia gathered 2,325 people named Ivan into one place, setting a Guinness World Record. Now the town of Kyle is hosting the Kyle Fair to gather Kyles and beat the record. 📒

🆓 Anybody who spells their name the same as the town of "Kyle" gets into the fair for free.

Any dealers in Kyle, TX need to borrow our Kyle for the event? 

🎶🤖 You don't need to listen to much pop music to get the idea it is all being written by robots. Now an AI has literally performed a Drake song, and everybody has thoughts. 

"Heart on My Sleeve" is a viral hit that the artist himself described as "the final straw AI." We don't know if Drake is talking about a camel's back or if he is thirsty, but others do not share his opinion. 🎤❤️

While AI-generated voices could revolutionize the work of writers and producers, they still cannot replace the human element (sound familiar?) needed to craft art. 🖌️

Check back next week to see if that, too, has changed. 

Five years from now elevator music will be real-time AI generated based on the tastes of the people in the elevator. We will still use “Elevator music” to explain things that are boring and uninspired. 

Quick Hits

• Mortgage rates jump 0.13%, mortgage demand drops 10%. 📈📉

• After 25 years, Netflix is finally ending it’s DVD-by-mail service. 📀🚫

• 97.9% of writers vote to strike. TV and movie production faces a shutdown beginning May 1st. 📝😠

• Record-shattering heat blisters Asia and a third of the world’s population. 🥵🥵

History

• 1916: Wrigley Field hosts its first baseball game.

• 1972: Apollo 16 lunar module, commanded by John Young and piloted by Charles Duke, lands on the moon.

• 2008: Danica Patrick becomes first woman to win IndyCar race.