AD #3920 - Ram Sales Up 35% in October; Qualcomm Partners with Google on AI Assistants; Rivian Racks Up Most Safety Violations

Speaker 1: This is Autolying Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry, and this could be big. Qualcomm

and Alphabet are joining forces to combine chips and software to allow automakers to create their own unique in car AI assistance that will work without relying on a person's phone.

Qualcomm also announced that Android OS for automotive will now be able to run on its newest chips. We're talking

about the operating system for a car, not Android Auto, which interfaces a phone with the car's infotainment screen. Its

latest automotive chips are called snap Dragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Drive Elite. Cockpit Elite is for IVI or in

vehicle infotainment, while Drive Elite is for autonomous driving. Cockpit

Alite offers three times the graphic processing power than before and can run sixteen to display screens with four K resolution.

It can also process input from forty different sensors. While

automakers can buy separate Drive Elite and Cockpit Elite chips, Qualcomm will also offer them on one chip for parts consolidation.

Qualcomm will make the latest snap Dragon chips available to automakers next year, and it says Mercedes, Benz and Liauto have already signed up to use them. Through the first

nine months of the year, RAMS sales are down twenty four percent in the US, but they rebounded significantly in October after boosting incentives. According to RAM CEO Chris Fuel,

RAMS sales are up thirty five to forty percent so far this month. Ram's inventory levels in the US where

at least double the industry average in August, according to Cox Automotive, so it boosted incentives to help clear out inventory, which comes ahead of the launch of the all electric RAM fifteen hundred RIV and the Extended Range RAM Charger at the end of the year. Next Star Energy, the

battery joint venture formed by Stilantis and LG Energy Solution, just achieved a big milestone. The company announced it started

battery module production at its plant in Ontario, Canada. The

site is also on track to produce battery cells starting in twenty twenty five. Once the plant is fully up

and running, it will have the capacity to produce nearly fifty gigawatt hours a year, which Stillanta says is enough to power four hundred and fifty thousand vehicles a year.

Speaker 2: There's nothing wrong with heavy metal.

Speaker 3: Hey light enough, but with world class composite material taging automotive technologies makes vehicles lighter, safer, and more eco friendly.

Speaker 1: Tesla's autopi pilot system is getting better in the US.

According to the company's Vehicle Safety Report, there was just one accident for every seven point oh eight million miles driven on autopilot in the third quarter. That's up from

five point nine million miles in Q three of last year and a slight jump over Q two, although it's still trying to work back up to the first quarter of the year, when there was a crash every seven point six million miles on autopilot. By comparison, it showed

that Tesla vehicles not using autopilot got in an accident every one point three million miles driven, which is better than the national average of one accident every six hundred and seventy thousand miles. But it is important to note

that Tesla's numbers do not include FSD data or things like weather conditions, was the driver or the tech at fault, how bad was the crash, or were people hurt or killed?

According to NITSA and the National Safety Council, there's a fatal accident in the US roughly every one hundred million miles driven. Rivian has struggled to ramp up production at

its plant in Normal, Illinois, and according to a new report from Bloomberg, the evy startup is also struggling to keep its workers safe. The company has received sixteen initial

citations of serious violations since the beginning of twenty twenty three from the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration or what you probably know is OSHA. That number is more

than any other automaker, even though Rivian only operates the one plant and has significantly fewer employees than its competitors.

Some of the injuries include a cracked skull, a broken foot, an amputated finger, and a back laceration that required surgery.

One woman even said she started vomiting Rivian blue after painting vehicles without a respirator. In a statement, Rivian said

the health and safety of its workers is a top priority and that most of the violations were downgraded or dismissed as part of settlements with OSHA. However, former OSHA

leaders interviewed by Bloomberg say those initial citations reveal more about workplace safety issues, and one said the complaints, citations, and injuries are all red flags. Looks like Weaimo is

going to get robotaxis with a giant opening for passengers to get in and out. This is the Zeker Mix.

Weimo and Zeker have a partnership to make robotaxis, and the Weaimo Zeker Robotaxi is based on the same platform as the Mix. As you can see, the Mix has

the option for both a sliding passenger front and rear door, which provides that big opening. It also comes with a

swiveling front seat, which would make a lot of sense for a robotaxi as well. Some people thought that the

Weimo and Zeker partnership might have fallen apart because Weimo just signed a deal to make robotaxis with Hyundai as well, but Weimo confirmed it's still working with Zeker and the Hyundai deal is likely in response to the US banning Chinese evs in tech and Jaguar announcing that it's killing off the Ipace, which Weimo also uses in its fleet.

The thirty five thousand dollars version of the Equinox EV is finally here. LT front wheel drive models have officially

started arriving at dealers across the US, and they offer up to three hundred and nineteen miles of range from their eighty five kilowat hour battery pack. The model also

qualifies for the full seventy five hundred dollars EV tax credit at purchase. So we're interested to see how sales

do because Chevy sold fifteen thousand Equinox evs in Q three without the more affordable Verse. Volvo Cars reported its

third quarter earnings with some very up and down results.

It sold almost one hundred and seventy three thousand cars globally, up three percent and with revenue up one percent to eight point seven billion dollars, but its EBIT was down seven percent to five hundred and thirty seven million. Its

net profit was up thirty five percent to four hundred and fourteen million dollars, while its free cash flow was down nine percent to almost eighty seven million. Volvo CEO

Jim Rowan says the industry is facing an increasingly volatile environment, and he lowered the company's sales growth for the rest of the year. That's it for today's show. Thanks for watching,

and have a great day.

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Jaguar Ipace

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