Meet Ups and Granted Wishes

TOGETHER WITH

Opening this email today has a perk. You get the pride and privilege of being the first ones to see the official new ASOTUx website! We are live with tickets to our first stop of the US Tour of Live Tonight with ASOTU in Arlington, TX.

If you are close (or if you aren't), make sure and secure your tickets to the event on the evening of April 5th at Arlington Music Hall. We are bringing the band, the in-show games, and a couple hundred of our friends to launch this traveling series in style!

See you in Texas!

-Paul, Kyle, & Chris

DEALERS

MDCS Group Meets Up and Makes Wishes Come True

We learned from Thomas Ieracitano that the Modern Day Car Sales (MDCS) Group began as an online community of auto industry professionals that met every morning on Clubhouse. Two years ago, they decided to arrange an official meet-up in Atlanta. 

One member who works closely with the Make-A-Wish Foundation in Illinois suggested they use the gathering as an opportunity to raise money for the cause. The group has gathered and fundraised for the organization for the past two years – raising $76,600 this year alone.

During the event, Tim Cox of CarNow said, “I want to make a difference, with people that make a difference, doing something that makes a difference.” This crew is definitely making a difference.

Telling it like it is - How cool is it that an online community became a real-world community doing real-world good? The internet is a crazy place.

AUTOMOTIVE

Profits and Production: Porsche, Volkwagen, and Honda

Porsche issued a positive growth outlook following its record earnings in 2022, despite concerns over ongoing supply chain disruptions. The company reported an increase in their group sales revenue by 13.6% from 309K vehicles delivered globally, amounting to about $40B.

Parent company Volkswagen also boasted some impressive growth in operating profit from 2022 — up 13% from the previous year, reaching about $24B. Alongside their stats, the company also revealed plans to invest $192B in the next five years. More than two-thirds of the investment will be dedicated to electrification and digitization, including a new battery factory in Canada.

Honda is shuffling some things around as part of its overall transition to increased EV production. The automaker announced yesterday that it would be moving production of its Accord from Ohio to Indiana in 2025. After 40 years of production at the Ohio facility, Honda has decided to revamp that existing plant to focus solely on EV and hybrid manufacturing. 

Telling it like it is - Porche is growing profits, Volkswagen is growing investments, and Honda is growing EV production.

TOGETHER WITH FULLPATH

In Case You Missed It! 

#ICYMI

AutoLeadStar has rebranded to Fullpath!

The company’s new name fully reflects its mission to help dealers create lifelong customers wherever on their journey they may be.

Fullpath leverages first-party data so dealers can provide exceptional experiences every time.

Use the right tech to unlock infinite possibilities, gain loyal customers, and develop a resilient business with Fullpath today!

ASOUND THE ASOTU-VERSE

Word-Ro-Nymns

LTVLifetime ValueThe total monetary worth of a customer to a dealership over the course of the relationship. This is calculated by adding all of the profit opportunities with a customer across business centers. It can be used to find the best customer profile to provide elevated experiences on a customer by customer basis

AUTOMOTIVE

US Fuels Its Alternative Refueling Infrastructure

🚀🔌

The US charging infrastructure will get a $2.5B boost from the White House. Funds set aside as part of the Inflation Reduction Act will be used to bring public charging to rural and lower-income regions.

🗓️🚚

The program will run for five years and provide grant money to approved BEV and hydrogen fueling stations, as well as medium and heavy-duty propane and natural gas vehicle fueling stations.

🏡🗺️

Half of the $2.5B will be for use in communities, while the other half will deploy similar fueling stations along designated alternative fuel corridors (AFCs).

👍✅

AFCs, highways that were nominated by state or local officials for the title of National Alternative Fuel Corridor before November 2022, were granted the title and thus are eligible for the grant.

⚡️🚗

Of course, if you are still unsure where you can put some E in your V, the Waze map app will let you plan your route around chargers.

Telling it like it is - The grant doesn’t mention any funds for charging station based lemonade stand entrepreneurs. Even if they have a really cool name like “Shockingly Good Lemonade” or something like that…

TECHNOLOGY

Technology Parade: TikTok, Google, and Apple

People in 1923 didn't know how good they had it. For instance, they never had to make sense of the following sentence: TikTok is adding a STEM education content-only feed to its app.

The science, tech, engineering, and math videos will become available in the coming weeks and implement stricter moderation/vetting for videos appearing in the feed. 

Of course, we may not need to worry about it if the app is banned from the US later this month.

Remember when suddenly, every fast food place had a pretzel bun? Well, AI is the new pretzel bun, and tech companies are putting them on everything.

As part of a test, Google is adding AI to Gmail and Google docs for a small number of users. Eventually, the company hopes to add generative artificial intelligence to its Chat, Meet, Sheets, and Slide applications in an ongoing effort to out-nerd Microsoft.

Microsoft is pushing into the AI space full steam ahead but has just laid off its entire Ethical AI team. The brand's Office of Responsible AI lives on, but the Ethics and Society taskforce that bridged the gap between policy and products is another casualty of Microsoft's ongoing layoffs, which will ultimately impact 10K workers. 

Access to email AND no more ethics? Somewhere Skynet's great grand-motherboard just learned to smile. 

Apple has lost 11 high-ranking execs since mid-2022, but CEO Tim Cook has his eyes on something more important, or rather, in something more important.

The company says its Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality headset could release to the public as soon as June of this year.

However, employees expecting bonuses in April will need to wait until October as the company avoids layoffs by controlling spending in other ways.

We are sure Mr. Cook is not hoping to sell enough headsets in June to cover bonuses in October, but like...the timing is weird, right?

TL: DR - TikTok gets educational, AI gets its own email, and Apple gets virtual.

Quick Hits

• That giraffe in the final episode of HBO’s The Last Of Us was real. 

• NASA wants to put a telescope on the far side of the moon. We said sure, just make sure Pink Floyd is done with it. 

• Russia harassed, crashed into, and downed a US drone over international waters. The US condemned the act. 

• Buffalo Wild Wings responds to lawsuit claiming their boneless wings are not wings with “It’s true.” …Got em?

History

• 44 BC: Dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated at the Roman Senate building.

• 1820: Maine was admitted as the 23rd US state.

• 1906: Britons Henry Rolls, Charles Royce, and Claude Johnson formalized their existing partnership as Rolls Royce LTD.

• 1945: Billboard published its first album chart with the King Cole Trio topping the list.