GM Takes ChatGPT On the Road

TOGETHER WITH

Our good friend Damon Lester recently reminded us that “how you start your day determines how you end your day.”

And while none of us can decide or predict how our day will play out, we usually can choose how it starts.

Are we gonna smash the snooze button?

Or rise to greet everything the day may bring?

The choice matters.

Keep Pushing Back-Paul, Kyle, & Chris

DEALERS

The McCarthy Auto Group Joins Forces with JCCC

The McCarthy Auto Group of Kansas is proud and excited to announce its partnership with their local Johnson County Community College, which will provide scholarships to those looking to pursue a career in Automotive Technology. 

Andrew W. Bowne, President of Johnson County Community College, says that the partnership helps support a program providing skills and training to students that directly align with what’s needed to be successful in the automotive workforce.

Telling it like it is - Is there a better way to support your industry than by helping to advance the next generation of leaders and techs? If there is one, we can’t think of it.

AUTOMOTIVE

Tesla’s Need for Speed

Tesla is so focused on speed lately that we have to wonder: What are they running from? Should the rest of us be running too? Just how afraid should we be?!

Slowing down to go fast? Early claims about the Tesla Model S Plaid said "with the right tires," it could go 200 mph. Owners found the car was limited to 163 mph (maybe they had the wrong tires).

However, in Belgium, a limiter-free Model S Plaid hit 217. The blogger said the limit was just as much about the breaks as the tires, so the test was conducted with a $20K ceramic brake kit installed.

Intuitively this makes sense to us. Are you ever going faster than when you’ve got your favorite plaid shirt on? Or, slower after you’ve stepped on a piece of ceramic pottery? 

The news doesn't slow down there. The EV company says it is ramping up production of its Supercharger V4 for deployment soon. Current V3 chargers can take an EV from 10-80% in about 18 minutes. Tesla has not announced the specific speed/performance upgrade the jump to V4 will bring. 

18 minutes is long enough to listen to Electric Avenue almost five-and-a-half times, in case you also need a recharge. 

Sometimes speed can look like rushing. According to Elon Musk, Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta v11 is coming this weekend. Despite ongoing calls to slow down or even shelf the whole idea, the new update will merge Tesla's Full Self-Driving and Autopilot highway features, allowing a vehicle to complete an entire journey based on a destination entered into the car's nav system. 

When did we sign a consent form to be involved in this beta test? Because, like, we gotta drive to Target too.

TL; DR - Tesla’s Model S Plaid is faster than earlier claims, the Supercharger V4 is nearing deployment, and FSD is upgraded and coming back despite the recalls, legal actions, and urging of the NHTSA.

TOGETHER WITH CAROFFER

Find Cars, Not Pickles!

Problem:

Your dealership needs a steady supply of cars. Of course, not just any car works in any market. And with stuff selling faster than ever, getting the inventory your customers want is tough.

It's a real pickle…

Solution:

CarOffer's Buying Matrix™ works around the clock to find the specific makes and models you need. You input your specs and customizable buying preferences, and the system scans for those exact cars at the price point you select.

CarOffer eats pickles for breakfast!

Save yourself, your employees, and your dealership time and money by investing in a solution that produces impressive results at record speeds. Contact CarOffer now!

AROUD THE ASOTU-VERSE

Pitch Tank By Auto Genius

Congratulations to Kane McCord and ATC for winning this week's Pitch Tank! Join next week for three more great pitches by some of automotive's best and brightest! Have a product or service that belongs on Pitch Tank? Apply now. 

David Long's All Things Used Cars

Every Friday morning David Long and the All Things Used Cars community dive into a topic and see what they find. The conversations are carefully moderated but open to operators with something to share! Join us this week! 

AUTOMOTIVE

GPT-4 is Out and GM is In

On Tuesday, OpenAI released the latest version of their chatbot, GPT-4. For only $20 a month, subscribers will have access to all of the newest tricks that the AI has picked up in just a few short months, such as:

🖼️👀🧑‍🍳

Improvements in the AI’s ability to analyze and interpret images. For example, the language model can be shown a picture of cooking ingredients and asked what can be made with them, and it will respond with multiple options, ending the age-old debacle of, “I don’t know, what do you want for dinner?”

🎨🧩🧐

More reliable, creative, and better able to handle nuanced instructions. Better reasoning skills to parse puzzles and offer a more accurate response.

🤓🧠📚

GPT-4 is also way smarter than its predecessor. It comfortably aced most standardized tests, scoring in the 93rd percentile for the SAT reading and writing tests, and the 99th percentile in the Uniform Bar Exam (up from GPT-3.5’s 87th and 10th percentile results). 

ChatGPT has also piqued the interest of GM who is exploring the use of the technology in its vehicles, and now we can’t stop daydreaming about becoming our very own Knight Rider. If GM doesn’t rebrand the AI bot to KITT, we will never forgive them.

The technology will be used to enhance the in-car experience by enabling more natural language interactions between drivers and their vehicles. Finally, someone to talk to on those long, lonely road trips!

The automaker hopes to roll out the feature by 2025. By then, your car will be smarter than most people you know. And it will probably tell better jokes, too.

Telling it like it is - ChatGPT gets an upgrade, and GM gets ChatGPT.

CULTURE

T-Mobile To Buy Mint Mobile

It was good while it lasted. Ryan Reynolds is selling Mint Mobile to T-Mobile. 

The budget-friendly carrier already used the T-Mobile network, so we imagine the primary changes will be the price and the fun commercials that often star the majority stake-holding celebrity. 

T-Mobile will pay $1.35B for the prepaid phone provider and close the deal later this year. The price could change as it involves a 39% cash and 61% stock purchase to be paid based on the company's performance at the time of finalization. 

Telling it like it is - If my cellphone plan goes up even one dollar I am leaving a bad review for all the DeadPool movies on Rotten Tomatoes. -Chris

Quick Hits

• Brazilian scientists have discovered some unsettling “plastic rocks” on the remote Trindade Island.

• NASA unveils their new Artemis Moon spacesuit — one small step for man, one giant leap for fashion.

• According to the American Kennel Club, the French bulldog was the most popular dog breed in the US in 2022, overthrowing Labrador retrievers who have held the top spot for the past 31 years.

History

• 1850: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is published to the dismay of high school students everywhere.

• 1926: US professor and scientist Robert Goddard launches the world's first liquid-fueled rocket.

• 1950: The US celebrates its very first National Book Awards.

• 1968: General Motors produces its 100 millionth vehicle, the Oldsmobile Toronado.