✅ Updated Requirements

TOGETHER WITH

Next week we will be at the Reuters Automotive event in Las Vegas and we have the opportunity to enter into a really unique conversation.

We need your help!

What is something that you, as a dealer, wish OEMs knew? Something about your day-to-day, or the way they support you or the way you care for customers? Hit the ol’ reply button on this email and we will be gathering feedback from the ASOTU community that we can share with the industry leaders in the room!

Keep Pushing Back
-Paul, Kyle, & Chris

DEALERS

Step 1: Community

This week, Step One Automotive Group showcased their generosity by handing over a hefty $22K to local charities for this year’s Subaru Share the Love campaign.

The two selected organizations chosen to receive the funds were the OCSO Sheriff's Star Charity and Healing Hoof Steps Equine Assisted Mental Health Counseling and Therapeutic Riding, each receiving about half of the total donation.

Sarah Cagle, Store Director at Subaru Fort Walton Beach, said of the contribution, “We are so excited to be able to include two such wonderful charities in Share the Love this year. We are proud to call them partners and help support all the good works they do.”

Telling it like it is - Step One Auto is maximizing its horsepower and making sure everyone in their community is covered—whether it's catching the bad guys or providing therapy for those who've dealt with them. 🐴

AUTOMOTIVE

Are You Compliant?

Auto dealerships are (or, at least should be) preparing for stricter compliance regulations with the FTC’s expanded Safeguards Rule taking effect June 9th. It's important to prioritize these new security efforts to protect customer information, but it’s not always easy. Here are the top five most common compliance pitfalls and ways to avoid them:

1️⃣ Business on personal devices. Staff storing consumer information on their cell phones or non-business email accounts is a big no-no. Be sure your staff is only utilizing approved channels for client communication. 📵

2️⃣ Not securely sending and receiving consumer information. Instead of asking customers to email or text information to salespeople (which is not compliant), send a secure link that allows them to upload the documents needed. 🔗

3️⃣ Treating private consumer information like paperwork, when you should be treating it like gold. Leaving it exposed in unsecured locations, such as a desk or copier, is a recipe for theft. Leveraging a secure platform to digitize your physical documents is one way to help protect staff and customers. 🔒

4️⃣ Tossing info sooner than you should. Dealerships are required to store dead deals for at least five years. That’s a ton of personal information that dealers are legally responsible for storing, protecting, and proving that they’ve retained, so be sure you have systems or platforms in place to handle the stockpile. 📑

5️⃣ Hope isn’t a reliable strategy. When it comes to compliance, dealerships can't just cross their fingers and think happy thoughts. Every dealership employee will need to ramp up their efforts to ensure a consistent and by-the-book process on every client exchange. Being busy, short-staffed, or ignorant of the rules just isn’t gonna fly with regulators. 🤞

Telling it like it is - An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of FTC fines. 💸

TOGETHER WITH LEDGER

Who Wants Their Stuff Stolen 🙋

It's way too easy to be lax with security, especially when it comes to new techs like crypto and NFTs. However, your crypto wallet ain't no credit card…if someone gets a hold of its contents, they're gone. Like, for real.

That's why a former Apple exec is marking crypto security accessible with a beautifully designed, keychain-sized device. They even do a great job of teaching you a little more about watching security along the way.

Check out their hardware wallets and take a step toward keeping your stuff, your stuff.

AROUND THE ASOTU-VERSE

Live Tonight In ATL!

Up next: The Peach State! 🍑

We’re bringing the show to Atlanta, GA, for an evening of live music, real talk, and automotive’s best and brightest! Live Tonight with ASOTU is retail auto’s best late-night style talk show, and not because it is automotive’s ONLY late-night style talk show!

It’s classy but cut-loose, insightful but inviting, cranked to 11, but polite to moms. Seriously, all the best vibes will be in ATL on June 14th at the Buckhead Theatre.

Get your tickets now! 🎟️

AUTOMOTIVE

Motor Morsels: Toyota, Rivian, Ford

🍪🇯🇵🔋

Toyota has decided chip shortages are for chumps and will no longer participate in them. Instead, the Japanese automaker targets a 10% profit jump for 2023, including a 500% increase in EV sales.

Some of Toyota's European investors ask the brand for more transparency regarding climate change lobbying efforts. Shareholders are concerned the former global leader in environmentally friendly cars has been dragging its electric feet due to financial incentives from shadowy figures who don't like batteries.

🥳👍📈

Rivian is celebrating smaller-than-expected losses last quarter because a smaller negative number is just a positive number in disguise! The company lost $1.35B (down from $1.59B year over year) after bringing in $661M (up from $95M YOY) in revenue.

While shifting priorities have led to spending cuts in the last year, the EV maker says they are still on track to hit their 50K production goal for 2023. Shares were up 4% following the news.

🦖🛻🤑

Ford's new truck is a Ranger in the woods but a Raptor under the hood. This is our way of saying the company revealed a redesigned Ranger and announced a performance Raptor version it expects to account for around 10% of the mid-size pickup's sales.

Ford has been working with high-profit variants to get dat money for EV investments. The Raptor will share about 80% of its parts with the regular Ranger model but have a 30% higher margin. It's like putting a little more truck in the truck to get more money out of the truck.

TL; DR - Toyota wants to increase profits by 10% this year (don’t we all), Rivian lost less money last Q than they expected, and Ford’s new Ranger is a clever girl (as is Jim Farley).

TECHNOLOGY

AI: Milkshakes and Medical Warnings

🤖🧋 Wendy's is working with Google to replace order-taking humans with an AI Chatbot. The trial will be at one store in the chain's home state of Ohio. Engineers are teaching the language model to understand customers' orders even when they don't follow the menu. For example, a customer who asks the AI for a "milkshake" needs to get a Frosty, or things may get ugly.

👩‍⚕️👎 Burgers are one thing... Public health experts are calling to pump the brakes on AI development until regulations are in place. While these technologies could revolutionize diagnosis speed and accuracy, examples already exist of "GPT MD" missing details that could have led to patient death.

The health professionals go on to say a lack of regulation could lead to the intentional use of lethal weapons or a mass mental health crisis if AI displaces large numbers of workers.

🏖️ Maybe wide-scale unemployment ain't so bad? Leading artificial intelligence researcher Ben Goertzel spoke at Rio de Janeiro's Web Summit about the impact AI could have on the job market in the coming years. He says AI could replace 80% of jobs within a few years but isn't a threat because "People can find better things to do with their life than work for a living... Pretty much every job involving paperwork should be automatable."

Which worked for the folks in Star Trek, but mathematically and historically, don't feel quite right.

Telling it like it is - People are always going to work. “Jobs” may fade away, but work never will.

Quick Hits

• Beetlejuice 2 will be released in theaters next year, 36 years after the original. Michael Keaton returns as Beetlejuice and Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz, and “Wednesday” star Jenna Ortega will join as Lydia’s daughter. 🪲

• A recent study finds about 55% of Americans support nuclear power. This is up 4% from last year and the highest rating since 2012. ☢️

• A mysterious rock crashed into a home in New Jersey. People say it could be a meteorite, but we can’t stop thinking about Joe Dirt. ☄️

• Inflations are down for the 10th month. 🤑

History

• 1904: Spanish surrealism artist Salvador Dali is born.

• 1978: The two millionth Chevy Camaro is built.

• 1997: Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeats Garry Kasparov, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player in a classic match format.