Aug. 31, 2025 | Bonus Episode: Abdul El-Sayed interview, Part 2

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On today's bonus episode of the show, we'll hear the second and final part of our interview with U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El Sayed.

On Wednesday's show, we brought you the first part of the Michigan Democrats' conversation with our own Molly Boygon.

If you didn't hear that part, go back and check it out.

In this portion of the interview, Dr. El Sayed talks about the future of safety and emission standards,

changing attitudes toward vehicle ownership, and more.

A car-centered society is not very healthy.

You've spoken about this before.

You have drivers commuting for long periods of time under stress, facing isolation, the climate impacts are well documented,

and then you have a lot of cities in this country that are not safe or easily navigable for other road users.

What do you think the future of America's reliance on cars look like?

Do you see, on average, an American family has between one and two cars?

Do you see that as continuing into the future?

You know, that's a really good and thoughtful question.

And I think it's going to be a question of what kind of lifestyles are young people today demanding?

I think in a lot of parts of the country, we are going to continue to rely on our automotive infrastructure and vehicles.

I think in other parts of the country, you're going to start seeing more multifamily housing being built

and more episodic reliance on automobiles.

I think there's going to be a place for cars in the future, no matter where we go.

And the question of how people choose to use them is going to be interesting too.

At the same time, you've got really interesting investments in technology

that are changing the kind of interaction that we have in our cars.

I grew up in a time when my first car was a 95 Camaro.

I loved the feeling of getting in that car, turning it on, feeling the engine roar

and driving myself where I wanted to go.

It was freedom for me.

I think you talk to young people now, and I'm still kind of youngish,

but I can't incredibly call myself young anymore, I guess.

But I talk to folks in their 20s now, and they'd much rather just call an Uber

that can come pick them up.

And so where the technology is headed, how folks want to live,

I think it's incumbent on the automotive industry to be asking,

all right, how do we pivot with the way that demand is pivoting

and how do we start creating the kinds of vehicles that people are going to be demanding?

But I think cars are still going to be a part of everyday life,

given the way that we've built out a lot of our infrastructure.

And I think the question is, how do you then make them the safest, healthiest,

most human-centered kinds of transportation that they can possibly be?

And what I'm saying is we need more investment in research and development,

more investment in seeing the future and getting there

than in trying to retrench backwards as the Trump administration is trying to do on us.

I cover vehicle software a lot at Automotive News,

and in the conversations that I have with especially folks on the engineering side,

there's a lot of frustration about what they describe as a sort of legacy attitude

and as you described, a sort of quarter-to-quarter view of vehicle development

and unwillingness, for example, in the case of like a software-defined vehicle

to sort of fully scrap a platform

and work on something that will enable more flexibility.

So when you talk about the auto industry's needing to pivot

to accommodate the sort of changing appetites for different modes of transportation,

I wonder if you think that the industry is really doing that right now

or if it has to sort of continue to adapt and change that approach.

I think they're trying. I really do think they're trying.

I think it's really tough because as you know,

the time horizon from which you design a platform and then it actually gets to the road,

that is a very long time.

And you have to have a sense of both where demand is headed

but also the financial circumstances under which you'll be working.

And I think the Trump administration,

given that they change their minds on our financial future every 30 minutes or so,

I think has made it really hard to think through where the investments ought to go

and how folks are going to pivot with the new financial incentives

that are being created every 30 minutes on the dot.

And then I think the other part of that though is that

there is an opportunity to be asking even outside the Trump administration

how is it that this financialized system that has us more interested in

a quarterly stock price than interested in the profitability

and strength of our industry 10 years from now,

how has that itself created disincentives to be making those kinds of long-term investments?

And I do think that there is an opportunity for us, obviously,

to address this Trump administration's completely chaotic and ham-handed approach to tariffs.

But also to be asking, well, why is it that we're so beholden to Wall Street

when we're trying to put cars on the street?

And I would much rather us be thinking about the kinds of regulations

at the financial side of things that allow the CEOs of the Big Three

to be asking that 10-year question,

investing in the engineers and the technologies of the future

to meet the demand where it's going rather than playing this game

of trying to appease some financial analyst on Wall Street.

And I think those two things have been the biggest challenge

to being able to meet demand where it's going to truly evolve

automotive in the direction that it's headed

and to continue to be the best producer of vehicles in the world.

I believe, again, deeply in the quality of our engineers,

they're the best in the world and I believe even more deeply

in the quality of the workers, they're the best in the world.

I just think we've got to get the financial incentives

and the politics out of the way.

What types of regulations do you think would shift

the orientation of the Big Three from Wall Street

to that long-term vision of success for the industry?

I think there are a couple.

I think you need to have labor on the boards

represented of every one of these Big Three.

I think we should be banning things like stock buybacks

that are a lot more about playing financial games

than they are about making sure that the long-term

profitability of this industry is cared for

and thought through.

I also think that there should be a question

of how much of leadership's remuneration comes

in the form of stocks versus comes in the form

of just straight income.

I think if you are able to take that short-term

financial incentive out of the decision-making

and you are able to make sure that the equities

of the people actually building our cars are considered,

I think you end up making far better long-term decisions.

And those are just a few of the kinds of changes

that frankly, you know, I think we should be thinking

through even beyond automotive,

but I think would be particularly liberating

when it comes to the automotive industry.

Coming up, more of Molly Boygon's conversation

with U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El Sayed.

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The industry has made a lot

of strides in terms of making cars

safer for drivers,

but the result of that

has been a

complicated picture for safety for

other road users,

people outside the vehicle, like pedestrians

and cyclists. What role do you think

the government should play in

regulating the safety of cars

for people outside the vehicle?

Yeah, look, I think the industry

pivoted when they recognized that

the design that

we were seeing in the 40s

and 50s was built more around

the structural viability of a car

rather than the safety of the

person in the car.

You saw a lot of pressure on the industry

from folks like Ralph Nader and others,

and the industry responded, and we've got

safety records that are truly

actually incredible when you think about

what a car actually does and the speeds at which

they go. I think there's an opportunity

for us to also then say, look,

what happens when you put the minds of the

best engineers in the world to the test on saying,

okay, we've made this really, really safe

for the person in the car, how do we make it

safer for the person outside the car?

And I don't think that's just a question

for automotive engineers. I also think

that's a question for public policy makers

and urban planners, right? Because a lot

of the ways that we're designing

our communities

tend to create

spaces where somebody who's a pedestrian

or a cyclist may not actually

be as safe just because of where

we've placed them relative to folks

who are traveling in cars. I think this is a society

question that I think we can answer.

I know we can answer if we decide

that we value it enough to answer it.

And to me, again, it's about

taking a bet on the people in this

industry who have produced some of the most incredible

products in the world

to push even harder to make them

even safer and to perform

even better.

I think it's such an interesting time in the industry because

you have

this type of

next level thinking about expanding

the definition of safety.

You have

a very robust discussion

about what types of

powertrains the industry and the government

should be investing in.

And then you also hear from the

industry that

the companies feel very burdened

by the investments

that they have to make in technology

by the increasing number

of sensors and cameras that are going to be

required in the vehicle

just by this sort

of regulatory pressure

that exists in addition to

the already present global pressure

and consumer pressure

to develop products.

And I guess I wonder if

you think that

there's any merit to that industry

perspective that

at what point is enough enough?

Look, I

understand that this is a really, really hard

engineering problem. I also

happen to be the son of two engineers

and I know that engineers are

really, really excited by very hard

problems. Like that's what wakes them up every day.

And to me, I understand

that it would be easier

to ignore things like emission standards

or safety standards. I understand that.

But I also know that you are making one of the most important

products in the world and you're making it

for people. And the

regulatory push that exists

to make it safer, whether that means safer

for the person inside or the person outside

or safer for the person who's breathing

outside and having to breathe

the air that comes out of exhaust.

I think that

that is just the next

set of steps in the central

question of that original set of goals

of saying, hey, what if we could make this

horse and buggy without a horse and make it go?

And I think the engineers

that are putting their minds to this,

they're more than capable

of designing the kinds of cars

that can do these things, can do

them on spec safely.

And so, again, I just bet on their engineers.

Look, at the end of the day, though,

it's hard for me to take seriously

that notion when

I'm watching decisions get made

that are more about, you know, what

the price of a stock looks like

a quarter from now than what

the profitability of this company looks like

10 years from now. And I know

that the quality of our engineers

and the quality of our workers can produce

the kinds of automobiles

that people want to buy

that perform exceedingly well

that are really safe for people all

inside, outside, and even beyond

and that can outcompete any other car

in the world if the incentives are right.

And what I'd like to see is those incentives

being made right. And that

to me means that we are making sure we're

thinking 10 years on the horizon.

We're thinking about where demand is going

and we're thinking about how to return

as much of that value as possible to the people

who actually build these cars, the workers

who make the big three possible.

Dr. Abdul-Alsaya,

thank you so much for coming on Daily Drive.

Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

A quick note before we go.

This is the second in a series of interviews

with candidates running for

Michigan's Open U.S. Senate seat

in 2026. We interviewed

Democratic Congresswoman Haley Stevens

on our August 11th

episode of the show. Next week

we'll hear from Democratic State Senator

Mallory McMorrow. And we're

currently scheduling an interview with

former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers.

That's all for this

bonus episode of Daily Drive.

We're off on Monday for the Labor Day

holiday here in the U.S.

We'll be back on Tuesday with a brand new

full episode of the show.

Aug. 31, 2025 | Bonus Episode: Abdul El-Sayed interview, Part 2

Chevrolet Camaro

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