👀 Tesla’s Always Watching

TOGETHER WITH

There is a fine balance between making sure this community is kept informed with auto industry news and insights AND going full send on 'Who Let the Dogs Out" on stage at Live Tonight with ASOTU. Here's to striking that kind of balance every day!

Have a great Easter weekend, fam!

Keep Pushing Back-Paul, Kyle, & Chris

DEALERS

GLANCDA Contributes to Citrus College

The Greater Los Angeles New Car Dealers Association (GLANCDA) has come together to donate $10K to the Citrus College Automotive Technology program.

Founded in 1907, GLANCDA is a group of factory-franchised dealers who provide educational assistance to communities throughout Los Angeles.

With the donation, the tech program will partner with Toyota Technician Training and Education Network (Toyota T-TEN) and GearWrench to purchase tools and toolboxes for two Citrus College graduates. 

GLANCDA has donated to the school on several occasions over the years. The funds have paid for more than a dozen laptops, as well as software to help students work with the advanced technology found in many modern vehicles

Telling it like it is - An investment in talent today is an investment in the whole industry tomorrow! Good work GLANCDA!

AUTOMOTIVE

Toyota, Jaguar, Lada

Incoming President and CEO Koji Sato is shaking things up over at Toyota, and looking to revamp the company’s EV division. 

According to sources, Sato is considering a factory overhaul as he looks to introduce a dedicated platform for BEVs and works toward updated EV architecture. A new EV platform would bring the automaker closer in line with rivals who are already producing dedicated EV platforms. 

We will have better insight into Sato’s plans Friday after his first briefing.

Don’t forget Nintendo was originally a playing card company. Sometimes the game evolves.

Jaguar Land Rover, owned by India's Tata Motors, expects over $1B in free cash flow by Q4, due to a 24% increase in wholesale volumes as supply constraints ease.

Despite total orders declining, the company has seen higher retail sales and anticipates pent-up demand for several models. 

The luxury carmaker's performance is essential to Tata Motors as it contributes nearly 60% to the group's total revenue.

“Guess we’ll have to take the jag…” -Ed from Shaun of the Dead and Tata Motors. 

Russians bought more Chinese cars in Q1 2023 than Ladas, Russia's most popular brand. As western brands continue to pull out of the country since Putin's invasion of Ukraine, Chinese brands are capturing market share. 

Auto sales in Russia dropped 59% in 2022, but experts forecast a 12% increase in 2023 to around 770K units - still a far cry from 2021's 1.6M. 

Quarters are interesting. They can both contain audacious news reports and bring a shocking level of joy for every kid under 10 years old.

TOGETHER WITH CAREER CHANGERS USA

Talented and Driven

Larry Feldman with Career Changers USA is changing lives and filling service lanes nationwide with talented and driven people! 

Career Changers USA's recruiting and training can meet any need, even tech training, which, let's face it, couldn't come a day too soon. 

You know your dealership offers nearly unlimited opportunities for growth to your people and next-level service to your customers; now work with Larry Feldman to fully realized those realities for your people, your community, and your bottom line.

AROUD THE ASOTU-VERSE

All Things Used Cars

Join us today for another great chat with David Long and the All Things Used Cars community. 

AUTOMOTIVE

Former Tesla Employees Reveal Privacy Breaches

Tesla drivers — do you ever feel like somebody’s watching you? Cause, they might be.

Reuters interviewed nine former employees of the auto-maker who confirmed that workers would often share private, highly invasive videos and images recorded by customers’ car cameras in the company’s internal chat program.

Tesla has claimed that privacy is enormously important and recordings made by vehicle cameras “remain anonymous,” but employees are saying otherwise. They say the computer program they used could show the location of recordings, which could reveal where a Tesla owner lived and video/images could capture distinctive features that could be easily identified.

They also said that the recordings that were most often shared amongst staff were from embarrassing situations or serious incidents such as crashes and road rage. Some would even Photoshop the screenshots, turning them into memes.

Telling it like it is - Is this why Twitter “Needs access to your camera, microphone, contact list, and last will and testament?”

TECHNOLOGY

YouTube, Italy, and Waiting in Line

YouTube is adding a podcast tab to its channels. This is cool since there aren't already dozens of places to listen to podcasts.

Of course, if you are one of the millions wishing YouTube would let you lock your screen and keep listening to your video... sorry, they are still not adding that feature to the app.

Italy banned ChatGPT last week, saying the company failed to verify the age of users, and has no legal justification for collecting and storing personal data. OpenAI took the app offline but is back this week to address concerns and pledged to be more transparent.

Plus, we heard they put pineapple on pizza.

The energy capacity of the US is around 1,250 gigawatts. Currently, another 2,020 GWs worth of solar and wind power are waiting to be connected to the US grid.

Unfortunately, the application process comes with a long wait and fees that are often so costly the power generator must pull out of the project entirely.

Much of the issue stems from the US energy grid being a patchwork of smaller grids that are not necessarily uniform. While it was easier to connect sizeable fuel-burning power plants, connecting multiple smaller power projects had proven challenging since 2008, when renewable energies arrived in areas with insufficient energy transmission abilities.

The solution? Most grids are at capacity, and upgrades are expensive, so upgrading existing systems will be necessary. However, pushing the cost of such upgrades on emerging energy hopefuls has seen more abandon or move their project elsewhere. 

TL: DR - More podcasts on YouTube, no more ChatGPT in Italy, and not enough grit in the US energy grid. 

Quick Hits

• Walmart is making plans to have their own network of public charging stations by 2030.

• Ford, Dickies, and Syndey Sweeney team up to modernize workwear. 

• Chipotle has beef with Sweetgreen over a chicken burrito bowl.

• Diddy still pays Sting $5000 a day for sampling the song “Every Breath You Take” without permission. Both men seem fine with it now.

History

• 1795: France adopts the meter as the basic measure of length.

• 1948: The World Health Organization is formed by the United Nations.

• 1983: Oldest human skeleton, aged 80K years, was discovered in Egypt.

• 1997: Howard Stern’s radio show premieres in Ft Myers FL.