The episode covers a wide range of automotive news including a former Apple engineer charged with stealing autonomous vehicle secrets, Tesla's shift towards advertising amid softening demand, and Aston Martin's financial boost from Geely. It discusses Panasonic's plans to expand EV battery production, the debate over mandating AM radios in cars for emergency broadcasts, and BMW's collaboration with Meta on augmented reality in vehicles. The show also highlights bespoke customization options from Range Rover and Lexus, European automakers' call to delay Brexit-related trade rules, and a historical look at the aerodynamic 1938 Mercedes 540 K Streamliner.
Topics:autonomous vehicle secrets thefttesla advertising strategyaston martin investmentev battery productionam radio mandate debatebmw augmented realitybespoke car customizationbrexit trade rules1938 mercedes 540 k streamliner
- U.S. Charges Chinese National w/ Stealing Apple AV Data - Chevy, Nissan, Ram, VW Have More Subprime Customers - Tesla Being Forced Into Advertising - Geely Buys Bigger Stake in Aston Martin - Panasonic Boosting Battery Production 4X - AM Radio Could Be Mandated in Cars - BMW Integrates AR and VR Into Cars - Range Rover Becomes More Bespoke - Lexus Boosts LC 500 Bespoke Options - Automakers Want Brexit Rules Delayed - 1938 Mercedes 540 K Streamliner
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This is Autolinning Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
The US Justice Department charged a former Apple employee was stealing in the company's autonomous vehicle secrets and then fleeing to China. According to the indictment, the
former thirty five year old engineer was hired by Apple in twenty sixteen, but he also accepted a US based job with a Chinese company to work on avis and then he waited four months to inform Apple that he accepted a new job.
Apple says it discovered he accessed proprietary data days before he left the company in twenty eighteen, and federal agents say they found quote large quantities of data from Apple after they searched his home, and shortly after that he fled to China. As US interest rates shot up, that forced many subprime car buyers
or people with low credit scores out of the market, but some brands have been hurt more than others. Cox Automotive says brands like Nissan, Chevrolet,
Ram, and Volkswagen probably have a larger number of subprime buyers because they charge higher interest rates for financing cars. Subprime buyers can still get loans, but
they have to pay higher interest rates, which raises their monthly payments for both new and used cars. Last year, General Motors spent one point three billion
dollars on advertising and promotions in the US, Toyota spent one point one billion, and Ford spent three hundred and seventy million dollars. Meanwhile, Testless spent
about one hundred and fifty two thousand dollars on web banners and billboards. That's
according to Vivix, which tracks advertising data. But Elon must says that Tesla
will start experimenting with more advertising, so its ad spend will go up.
Reuters quotes one aising experts saying that Musk can't criticize advertising anymore since he owns Twitter and that gets most of its revenue from advertising. Yesterday, on CNBC,
former Ford CEO Mark Field said that Musk wants to start advertising because he's seeing demand for Tesla cars starting to soften up. Not only is Aston Martin
having a breakout season in Formula One, it just got a big financial boost.
Jeelie is buying an additional ten percent steak in Aston for nearly three hundred million dollars, which means that Geelie now owns seventeen percent of the iconic British brand. Geelie also gets a seed on Aston's board, but it agreed not
to increase its steak beyond twenty two percent until at least August of next year.
Geelie leapfrog pass Mercedes as the third largest investor in Aston, only behind chairman Lawrence Stroll in the Stoudy Public Instment Fund. Wall Street love the news.
Astons stock was up nearly twenty five percent this morning. Panasonic is going
to significantly ramp up it's EVY battery production. It's currently one of the top
five EVY battery makers in the world, producing around fifty gigawatt hours annually, but the company announced it's going to build at least two new battery plants in North America by twenty thirty to help it reach a capacity of two hundred gigawatt hours, or four times what it currently makes. Panasonic hasn't chosen a location
for the new plants, but it did say they'll produce forty six eighty battery cells. There's a big bat brewing over AM radio. Of all things.
At least eight automakers got rid of AM in their evs because they claim the electric motors interfere with the AM signals, even though they can shield the radio to prevent that from happening. They're using this as an excuse to cut the
cost of an AM radio. But several former heads of FEMA, the Federal
Emergency Management Agency, called on the Transportation Department and members of Congress to prevent automakers from ditching AM. They claim it's necessary because it's far more reliable to
broadcast warnings during an emergency than streaming. You may remember this from past reporting,
and now a bipartisan group of US lawmakers just introduced a new bill to force automakers to keep AM. Automakers aren't happy, and the Alliance for Automotive
Innovation, their lobbying group, issued a statement saying the bill is unnecessary because warnings can still be broadcast through FM, Internet or satellite based radio and over cellular networks. BMW's longtime tagline was the Ultimate Driving Machine, but now it's
working on the ultimate Driving experience by combining vehicle and sensor data with augmented and virtual reality technology. BMW and Meta say they are the first to be able
to display stable virtual content inside a moving vehicle. The Automaker and Meta teamed
up in twenty twenty one and had to come up with a way to match the virtual devices motion in the car with the car's movement in the world.
They say they figure that out and will now work on use cases for the tech, which could teach student drivers how to drive, conduct yoga classes, or even allow passengers to play games and do it all without them getting car sick. There's good money to be made custom in cars, and JLR and
Lexus are ramping up their efforts. Range Rover is launching a new division called
SV Bespoke that provides a wide range of options to owners of Autobiography and SV models. Customers will have nearly four hundred interior material and color options, two
hundred and thirty paint choices, as well as custom badging and stitching. It's
not going to come cheap, but the base prices alone for these models are roughly one hundred and sixty and one hundred and ninety thousand dollars. And now
over to Lexus, which is expanding its bespoke build option from the Coupe to the convertible version of the LC five hundred Customers of both will have more options for wheels, spoilers, roof material, as well as interior and exterior colors and trim. The sports car also gets a few new upgrades, the biggest
one being a new digital display. Both the LC five hundred coop and convertible
go on sale this June. The coop starts at nearly ninety nine thousand dollars,
while the convertible starts at one hundred and six thousand, including destination.
Automakers in Europe are calling on the UK and the EU to delay trade rules created after Brexit that go into effect next year. In order to avoid tariffs,
forty five percent of the value of an electric vehicle sold in the EU must come from the UK or the EU. Stillantis Ford and a group representing
German automakers, want to postpone that rule until twenty twenty seven. They claim
it will delay the transition to evs and that the extra cost will be pushed onto consumers without postponing it. But by postponing it, automakers say it will
allow time for the battery supply chain in Europe to develop and meet demand.
Stillantis even warned that it will be forced to close plants in the UK if it's not delayed. Aerodynamics has been on the mind of car designers and engineers
for over a hundred years, and in the nineteen thirties automakers started integrating headlights into the fenders and body shapes became more tear dropped. But Mercedes was really
pushing the limits with the five forty K Streamliner. It's a one off car
that was delivered to Dunlop in nineteen thirty eight for high speed tire testing and added aero tricks like a wraparound windshield and flush mounted door handles. A supercharged
five point four leader V eight making one hundred and eighty horsepower propelled the five forty to its top speed of one hundred and eighty five kilometers an hour or one hundred and fifteen miles an hour. Mercedes rebuilt the vehicle in twenty fourteen
and put it through its wind tunnel. It got a drag coefficient of zero
point three six, which is a little less efficient than a Rivian R one T and many of the who is ev sedan's coming out today have a CD approaching zero point two zero. Don't forget to check out autoline after hours later
today as we get an insider's look into the world of EV battery recycling.
That's a rap for today's show. Thanks for tuning in. Autoline Daily is
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