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340: Skill Agility
340: Skill Agility
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About this episode
Exploring the evolution of diagnostic skills in the automotive field, this episode emphasizes the importance of skill agility amidst rapid technological advancements. Host Sean Tipping discusses the challenges of sourcing and programming used control modules, highlighting the services of SJ Auto Solutions. The conversation shifts to the impact of agentic AI systems on the industry, detailing how these tools can enhance efficiency for technicians and shop owners. Tipping shares his optimistic view on the future of AI in automotive diagnostics, urging listeners to embrace these changes for better business outcomes.
Today on the show I share my thoughts on the value of being agile in your skillset, not just when it comes to fixing cars, but with adapting to the rapidly shifting technology tools that are now available. Where am I spending my time and effort right now to learn the skillsets I need for the future? How adaptable do we need to become?
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Technical
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Term
control module
"...faced with the challenge of sourcing, installing, and programming a used control module in a vehicle? I know a lot of us have. It seems to be happening more and more..."
A control module is like a computer in your car that helps control different parts of the vehicle, like the engine and brakes. It makes sure everything works together properly.
A control module is an electronic component in a vehicle that manages various functions, such as engine performance, transmission control, and safety systems. These modules communicate with each other to ensure the vehicle operates efficiently and safely.
Company
SJ Auto Solutions
"...I strongly recommend checking out SJ Auto Solutions and Tommy Oliva. Tommy offers a cloning service for used control modules..."
SJ Auto Solutions is a business that helps car owners by fixing or replacing parts of their car's computer system, making it easier and cheaper to repair vehicles.
SJ Auto Solutions is a company that specializes in automotive services, particularly in cloning and programming used control modules. Their services help make used modules compatible with various vehicles, which can save costs for repairs.
Term
plug and play
"...to make these things plug and play for the vehicle that you're working on. In a lot of cases, he is also able to source the control modules..."
'Plug and play' means you can easily connect a part to your car, and it will work right away without needing complicated setup. It's designed to be simple to use.
'Plug and play' refers to a system or component that can be easily installed and used without extensive setup or configuration. In automotive terms, it means that a part can be connected and will work immediately without needing additional programming.
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Welcome to the Automotive Diagnostic Podcast.
We're going to explore ways to sharpen our diagnostic skills, find learning resources,
and hear from experts in the automotive field.
Have you ever been faced with the challenge of sourcing, installing, and programming a used
control module in a vehicle? I know a lot of us have. It seems to be happening more and more
often today with the volume of control modules on vehicles, the cost of some new ones, or even
the availability of new control modules in some cases used may be the only option. So what do you
do here? I strongly recommend checking out SJ Auto Solutions and Tommy Oliva. Tommy offers a cloning
service for used control modules to make these things plug and play for the vehicle that you're
working on. In a lot of cases, he is also able to source the control modules if you're unable to
locate one for the vehicle that you're working on. But once you get connected with Tommy, he's going
to offer fantastic support from start to finish to make sure that that control module is going to
work in your application. He's also got tech support that he offers through his website,
along with some free resources there as well on information about used control module programming.
So make sure to check out SJ Auto Solutions. I can't recommend that enough.
Hey, what's going on? Automotive World, welcome to another episode of the Automotive
Diagnostic Podcast. My name is Sean Tipping and I will be your host once again for this week's
episode. Just me this week, I'm going to talk to you about what is on my mind. I was thinking about,
you know, well, as I do every week when I make the podcast of like, what was the interesting car?
What was the interesting obstacle that we overcame this last week? How was I challenged in
diagnostics? All that stuff that you normally hear on the show. And of course, every week,
we learn something every day. I learn something on cars. But there's another thing that is
consistently on my mind lately. And that's kind of what the show has been about for me as a whole,
is, you know, getting people on the show that I'm interested in hearing about and then talking
about topics that I am interested in. And that's what I'm doing today is like the thing that I
can't stop thinking about and that I want to share with the listening audience. And, you know,
I titled the episode as, you know, skill mobility or skill agility. And that's where I'm going to
start with this. But really, it's the advancements that have been coming around in the last couple
months with agentic AI systems and what's capable right now and what it's going to look like in the
future. But I want to talk directly to the audience of this show, right? Technicians, shop owners,
mobile guys and gals that are doing this stuff every day that you can be at the forefront of
this stuff. And I think the listeners of this show, the people who are interested enough
to listen to me yammer on about intricate vehicle diagnostics and programming and stuff like that
for hours on end, you are the exact kind of person who is in a prime position, not only to be agile
in your skill development and take on the new stuff and be ahead of the trend, but also to benefit
from the things that are coming down the pipeline. So I want to talk about it,
my experience and my thoughts on the future, which I don't know, I think it's going to be crazy.
Maybe I'm an optimist, maybe I'm a dreamer, I don't know, but the rate at which things are
accelerating right now, and I think that is really the key piece of it that a lot of people don't
yet quite grasp, is it's not what is capable or present right now with the technology that's out
there, but the rate at which it is accelerating and will continue to accelerate. And it's almost
scary if you really extrapolate out and probably not even that far, things are going to change
so much faster than we're even capable of perceiving in my personal opinion. I could be totally
wrong, I don't know yet, but what I can speak to is what's going on right now and how it has
progressed just in the last few months. So if you pay attention at all to AI and the current
tools out there, and I can tell you talking to people in my life, a lot of people really don't.
Most people are like, yeah, I've used chat gpt to help, you know, be build a grocery list or find,
you know, the restaurants around me that are good to go visit. And yeah, it's great for stuff like
that. But again, things are advancing so quickly. And the tools that are available to anyone right
now have dramatically shifted in the last few months. And I actually want to get Fonzal back on
the show to talk some more details about this. So expect an episode in the near future where we
dive into this with more than just, you know, Sean's optimistic viewpoint of this. But again,
this is what is on my mind. So I couldn't pick a car out from the last couple of weeks that was,
you know, more relevant or important for me to talk about on the show than this stuff,
because it's the center of what I'm doing right now. So what has really developed and shifted
that is available to the general public and people like myself is the agentic AI systems
that you can now implement. And if you haven't been, you know, following along with the advancement
of the tools, the really the shifting point was this program that was developed by an
independent person called Open Claw. And this is a system that you run locally on a laptop or
people are doing it on Mac minis. And it runs, it's powered by Claude, the company is called
Anthropic. And it's, you know, you could think of it as a similar system to chat sheet BT,
it's better in my opinion, just from my experience using both. But it uses that as the engine behind
it. But it allows you to set up agents, which I mean, you've probably seen the matrix. So it's not
quite like that. But it's a, it's a bot, it's a AI system, if you will, it's hard to exactly define
what it is. But it is something that you can interact with that can actually do things for you.
Now, what do you mean by do things? That's a very open ended question with this system, the Open Claw,
because it is really just limited by what can be done on a computer, your imagination and your
tolerance for risk. And by that, I mean, what are you going to allow it to do or give it access
to do? Because there's a huge, crazy security risk with this current version. But this is
kind of taking the technical world by storm, because of what it is capable of. And there's,
if you look out there, there's stories and examples of where things can go terribly wrong.
If you give it financial information and logins and stuff, things can go very,
very badly for a number of different reasons. And I guess maybe I should preface everything
with what I'm saying right now is that look into this at your own risk and understand
what the potential risks are if you're going to allow something like this to
act on your behalf or do things for you. So take it with some caution going into it,
read up on the security risks if you're going to look into it. But I'm not so focused on what is
right now, what is today, if February 22nd, 2026, because as I've told a lot of people along the
way, and again, the rate of acceleration comes into play here, is that the stuff that we're
using today and looking at today is the worst it will ever be, right? It is only going to get
better. And what I mean by that in reference to the open cloth thing is that there's going to be,
and there is already companies that have seen what the capabilities are of something like this,
and are developing methods that can be done much more securely and safely,
that could be integrated at an enterprise level, so a big corporate structure could
use something like this. And the guy who developed this, I don't know his name,
but he got hired by OpenAI within a few weeks of putting this thing out into the world. But
where this changes things is, this, you know, takes your LLM that you interact with as an AI system,
and it allows it to perform tasks autonomously. Now, it's going to interact with you and you
tell it what you want it to do and what you don't want it to do and how you want to do it. And
you're going to have to put some effort into training it to do it the right way. It's kind
of like training an employee, just in my personal opinion. But if you do that and you set it up,
it can run tasks independently. And this to me has completely changed the capabilities of
just interacting with an LLM and then an agent who can do things on a schedule or independently
without me. Now, obviously, like I said, a lot of risk, right? What if it does the wrong thing?
What if it shares the wrong information? The systems you're giving it access to could have
sensitive information? Yes, that's all 100% true. And I'm not so focused on that right now. I'm
being very cautious as I experiment with my own stuff. But what I see is the future of this
five, 10 years down the road, I mean, even sooner, but what it's going to look like and what it's
going to mean for, I mean, everybody, but obviously I'm focused on, you know, my business and people
within the automotive space. But when we make that shift away from, hey, I input something
into chat GPT, and then it gives me an output, which has a ton, almost endless possibilities
of what you can do with that. And it has its own impressive use cases. I've talked about them on
the show and ways that it's saved me an enormous amount of time at specific tasks. But that is
the key and unlocks all kinds of new possibilities for someone who is running a business or even
just any technician in the automotive space, again, expands way out beyond the automotive world.
It's probably going to touch most careers. But of course, I'm focused in on the blue collar world
because that's what I do, right? I fix cars. And I am viewing this as a tool of how can I have it
help me both fix the cars and in my case run my business. So some of you listening may run your
own business, maybe you're a technician in a shop, either way, there's ways to utilize this. And
this is my thought process as this shifts to something that can do things for you on a
scheduled basis or autonomously. It is allowing you to perform tasks that would otherwise be taking
away from your ability to do the core thing that you do that makes money. And I can look at this
as a business owner very clearly that me right now, I mean, granted, I am kind of making the shift
to trying to run the business, not be in the business. But the fact of the matter is I am
still in the business. And personally, I still love the actual fixing of the car. It's my passion.
Probably never stop completely. But anyways, there are things that I can do
that are core to the business and actually bring in, you know, money directly. And if you look at
that from the technician standpoint, that is diagnosing cars, that are programming modules,
that is calibrating ADAS systems and then cutting in programming keys, right? If I'm doing that,
I'm bringing money into the business. But the things take me away from that, again,
especially as a business owner. And I guess this episode isn't exactly about how you shift from
one to another or balance one another. That's a whole other conversation. But I do a lot of
other things that aren't, I should say, I do a surprisingly large amount of things that aren't
the core thing that makes the business money. Even if you just looked at running the business
and the things that really move the business forward, I still spend a lot of time on things
that take me away from that, right? And, you know, there's a lot of material out there that
tells you as a business owner to focus on the biggest constraint. And that is the main thing
that you should be focused on of your business, right? Your business isn't growing because of
one main thing at any given point, right? Are you supply constrained? Are you demand constrained?
Okay, you know, you should work on getting more people or you should work on marketing or, right,
there's a hundred different things that can be going on there. But like, you should have a focus
and this is really the thing that's moving the needle, right? And let's say you're a technician,
right? That thing is getting the car fixed. But you probably have to do a lot of other things
that don't directly fix the car. Okay, as a technician, these are things like research
for a particular job. This and that's not even just the job. That's research on tooling, research
on techniques, diagnostic methods, known problems of a vehicle. Also, you know, invoice documentation
or documenting what you actually do for future reference. And those things take a lot of time,
especially if you're doing them manually. And I've talked about how you can use systems,
like even just using a project within chat GBT to enter the information vocally, like talk to it,
and then it will spit out a formatted output that you can put into an invoice or put into whatever
file structure you have that saves information on what you're doing for future reference.
But we're now getting to the point, like I mentioned, where it's not just an input output thing,
that it's a you set it up with one of these agent tools. And like I said, open clause, the one that's
out there right now. And if you're, you know, reading about this stuff, it's the one that's
front and center, but there will be more. There's already a Claude co-work, which is a version of
Claude you download on your desktop, and it can work within your files. And it can do some stuff,
you know, autonomously, which I'm just experimenting with right now. But that's
that's only going to grow in popularity and capability and security too. That's the other thing
where it is going to be more and more capable to perform the tasks that eat up your time and eat
up your day. And so this episode is brought to you by L one automotive training and Keith Perkins.
If you're looking for education on module programming, J 2534, eProm work, key in a
mobilizer, electrical diagnostics or drivability diagnostics, Keith has a website L one training
dot com that's got over 60 hours of training videos on all those subjects and more. When I
first started out doing mobile, I utilized Keith's videos on module programming and J 2534 in order to
get my head wrapped around what I would need for the tooling, the computers, the software setups,
you know, what kind of obstacles I would be up against when I'm out there programming modules
on cars. And it was a huge benefit to me. And I continue to use the training videos
that he has on his website. So I strongly recommend checking out L one training calm.
The link is in the show notes. Going back to the title episode where you know, it's skill
agility. I really think it is important to look at the current tools that are available,
the new stuff that's out there, where it's going, what's happening with technology like this,
and asking yourself, you know, where can I utilize this stuff? Or I mean, I guess first,
do I really understand what this stuff is, how to use it? Should I take some time to actually
figure it out to play with it to experiment to learn it? And that's the agility portion of this.
And again, I think listeners of the show, if you've made it this far into hundreds and hundreds of
episodes of me blabbing on about stuff, you are the exact person who is primed to learn this stuff
as it comes out to be on, you know, the tip of the spear, the cutting edge, and figure this stuff
out before everybody else does, right? And the reason I say that is because we have to do that
as the top of the game, diagnosticians, programmers, ADOS techs, you know, security
professionals out in the automotive world, especially if you're doing this stuff, you know,
independent, not to take anything away from the dealers, but you know, guys that are out there
doing this independent independently and have been for a while, you have to be able to learn
new stuff all the time, every single day. Okay, there's a new software out. Okay, there's a new
platform for programming. There's new tools, right? There's new cars. We're always, always,
always, always learning the new thing that comes out. And right now, this is the new thing,
is this agentic work and what it's capable of. And I haven't even fully implemented all of the
possibilities that this can help me with both, you know, with fixing cars and with running my
business. But I'm starting, I'm experimenting. And that's the key is like, figure this stuff out.
Unfortunately, it comes very, very fast. And tomorrow is different than it was today. But
that's why I feel it's so important to like, okay, let me dedicate some time to try to learn
these tools. But again, the focus is specifically on the agentic work that is coming into play
right now. And that it is capable of running tasks for you that allow you to then take your time to
do what you do best, right, whatever that is, the thing that really moves the needle for you,
your business, your job, whatever it might be. And heck, maybe it's even outside of your job,
and you just want to focus more on your family. Yeah, nothing wrong with that. You can take the
time that you were spending on a specific task that is repetitive, that you could instruct someone
or something to do. And then you move that into, you know, an agent that's capable of doing this
stuff. And you know, there's a lot of stuff out there of like, hey, the more and more use AI,
the dumber you get turns off your brain. And hey, there's a reason to believe that if everything
that you want an answer to, you just immediately go to AI and you don't try to actually learn anything
yourself. Yeah, you're going to atrophy something here. But in my opinion, it's, I can at least
decide, you know, which skill set I want to atrophy, or what repetitive thing like entering
something into a spreadsheet that doesn't really improve me or my life or skill that I really
feel like I need to have. If I had to go back to doing it manually, okay, maybe I figure it out.
But that I don't necessarily need to do these things. They're not important to me. Again,
they don't move the needle. And then I can put that time that I've given, you know, to this
particular tool into something else and developing a skill set that actually does really mean
something to me. It can help you learn to if you do it in the correct way, right? You can ask along
the way of like, hey, you know, how is this working? How are you doing this stuff? And what I mean by
that is like, for instance, with these tools, I've made some software. Now, guys, listen,
I am not the person who would be able to do that all on my own, at least not right now. I would
have to spend, I don't know, months, years, like, learning and researching and practicing in order
to code software. And maybe I could figure it out over a certain period of time. But that's
exactly it. It's like, I don't have the time to do that. So I've never done it. But with these tools,
I can build software. I can, well, I shouldn't say I, the tool is building the software based off
of what I'm looking for it as it's five coding, if you haven't heard the term is like, Hey,
here's what I want. Can you make it? Oh, can we make this a little different? And there's still
work behind it. You still have to tell it what you want. But again, these tools are there and you
can build something that is specifically suited for you, your business, what you do. And it doesn't
cost the, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars that it would for like, a software
development company to make something in the past. And that's where, man, I get so excited when I see
like, Oh, I just with the help of the AI systems built a software that does something specific
for my business, that now, I mean, just the fact that I made it was cool, but that it now saves
me time. Like I don't have to go in and manually do this thing every single day. And the work is
front loaded because you do have to work with it, develop it, train it. It's like training an employee,
like I mentioned, where it's some back and forth until you get things right and working out the
bugs. But then once you get something usable, and it is has the potential to save you all kinds of
time. And again, you know, way what you're giving up and really think about it, you know, is this
task that I am trying to get it to accomplish something a skill that I actually value? Or is
it just something that I have to do? Is it a, you know, a means to an end? And this is this is
something that I've thought about as I've used these tools, and I found the best way to interact
with them, which by the way is talking to these AI systems. They're the voice transcription on most
of these tools is excellent, meaning that you don't have to type on your phone, you don't have to
type on your computer unless you want to. And I was thinking about that. I'm like, well, you know,
my, my typing and my spelling are not going to improve. And they're probably going to get worse
if I just get used to talking to this thing. Now, I think it's way more efficient, right? I can get
across my thoughts and I'm not the fastest typer in the world. So my ability to talk to these tools
and then have it understand what I'm saying is lights out the best way to go. But yeah, I'm not
going to get any better at typing. I wasn't the best to begin with, right? That's a skill that is
definitely going to atrophy. And I think of a scene from a movie and actually a lot of the stuff that
has been coming along recently really makes me think about this. Now,
I'm a giant nerd. And yeah, I can, I can hear Tommy right now making fun of me. But
Star Trek movies back in the 80s and the early 90s, there was one of the movies where this is the
original cast, you know, William Shantner and Leonard Nimoy and them and they traveled back
in time in the movie, right? So they go to 1985 and computers are just beginning to be a thing there.
And the engineer from the enterprise is working with a local business owner and he kind of shows
him to a computer, you know, with a keyboard and a mouse and stuff. And if you've watched Star Trek,
they just talk to their computer, right? They'll just say computer and do this. And there's,
you know, an audio response, they're not necessarily typing on a keyboard to interact with
the ship's computer. And so he tries to talk to the computer. And everybody, of course, 1985,
they're looking at him like, what's wrong with this guy? He's like, computer, are you there?
And he holds the mouse up to his mouth and says, you know, computer. And he's like, just use the
keyboard. So then he uses the keyboard and you see him, he starts to pack, you know, one finger at a
time, he gets faster and faster. And what it makes me think is that, you know, some of the previous
ways that, like typing, for instance, may become something that is completely antiquated and
unnecessary. And I think about that when I think about skill sets, and okay, I'm giving this up,
and I'm not going to be the fastest typer ever was, wasn't going to be, but I definitely won't be now
that I'm talking to these tools. And so I'm okay with that. Personally, like, I'm fine. I know how
to type, I'm not going to get any better at it, because I'm usually using a voice transcription,
that's a skill set that I'm okay at referring. But on the flip side of things, seeing what these
tools are capable of, and how to utilize them, I think that is a skill that I should really
lean into and understand. And you're not going to be perfect at it right away, right? Let's say you
go out today, you listen to this episode, you go, you know, figure out open cloud, which isn't the
easiest thing to get set up, by the way, just a warning right there, it takes a little bit
to get this actually set up. There's some, you know, resources and some technical ability just
to get that far. But you get this set up, even once it's running, you might not have the best idea
of how to use it, because there's never been anything quite like this. And so you have to
experiment, because maybe you have an idea, and you're like, Oh, I'd really love for it to do this.
But then you find out, Oh, okay, let's not so great at that. And I remember finding that initially
with chat GPT, like, in the fall of 22, I'm playing around with chat GPT, I'm like, Oh,
what if it could do this? I can't quite do that. But that's the thing is like really
feeling where the edges are and what it's capable of. And of course, it'll be different tomorrow.
But figuring out how these new tools work and how they can benefit you, which again, I think
they really, really can. That's worth it. That's worth the agility. And I think that is where the
future of successful people are going to lie is their ability to shift and adapt to the tools
that are available and not be that guy. And I'm sure if you've been, you know, alive long enough,
you remember people that refuse to use a computer refuse to use email, I knew those guys, I worked
with those guys, when I first entered the field of I don't use a computer. And this was, I don't
2006, like, I mean, you, you are putting yourself in an extreme disadvantage. And I think this is
that tool times 10. To say that, Oh, you know, AI is BS is hype, you know, I'm not going to mess
around with it. I think is a huge mistake. And I think we need to be able to recognize the tools
and the value and experiment and see you where their limitations are, what we can actually use
them for. But check it out. That's the whole point of this episode is to really encourage everybody
who's listening to explore this stuff, see what's out there, see what might be possible experiment
with it. Because as time moves forward, and it's going to happen quickly, I think it's really
important to understand these things. And the ones that will be rewarded are the people who do this,
figure this out, and know how to integrate it into what they're doing. And especially in the blue
color world, I think we can utilize these tools to do repetitive tasks that take away from our big
needle moving function within our job or our business. So that's where I'm going to wrap this
one up for today. Like I said, I hope to have some other people on to talk more in depth about
the AI topic specifically. But we'll see what happens. But let me know your thoughts on it.
If you've got anything to add to this, shoot me an email, put it in the Facebook group,
whatever, you know how to get a hold of me. But that's all I've got for today. So thank you for
listening. Let's get out there and start fixing the world one card at a time.
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