Episode 537: Apple CarPlay Reportedly Coming to Teslas

Coming up on this week's episode of Ride the Lightning,

the Tesla and EV podcast, in a big surprise,

Tesla is reportedly working on adding

Apple CarPlay to its vehicles.

Plus, Tesla sweeps the global EV sales charts

for September, Ford CEO Jim Farley says his company

was shocked when they took apart a Tesla Model 3 and more.

What's happening friends? I'm Ryan McCaffrey joining you as I always do every Sunday at 9am

Eastern 6AM Pacific for another episode of Ride the Lightning, the Tesla and EV podcast.

This one is releasing on November 16th, 2025.

It's episode 537.

To my left, looking calmly out the window, is Daisy the Boxer.

And chewing on a toy that might start squeaking at some point

is Lily the silly Labrador puppy.

And I want to do apologize to all of you up front this week.

If I sound a little tired or low energy,

it's Lily the Labrador's fault because the poor dog, actually I feel really bad for her,

she ate something yesterday and ended up up in the middle of the night with an unfortunate situation in her crate that required immediate attention.

Let me just phrase it that way.

So I was up from like 3.30am to 4am this morning and I'm starting to feel it now.

Like I was able to get through the work day okay, but now I'm starting to run out of fuel and I'm ready for bed.

But I've got a very chock full of action episode here of Ride the Lightning for you first.

I'm going to start with this one.

This was a bit of a surprise this week.

Maybe not so much an isolation, but for the story that will immediately follow it together, they are a little bit surprising.

So this first one is that the Cybertruck program manager at Tesla, who was also the Model 3 program manager, has departed Tesla.

His name is Sedant Awasti, if I'm pronouncing that correctly, I hope I've got that correct.

And he posted on X saying,

I recently made one of the hardest decisions of my life to leave Tesla after an incredible run.

Eight years ago, when I started as an intern, I never dreamed I'd one day have the opportunity to lead the Cybertruck program and bring it to reality.

It's been an absolute privilege filled with mostly high intensity days working alongside talented, driven and truly rockstar colleagues across Tesla.

I want to extend a huge thanks to Elon, all Tesla leaders past and present, mentors and our amazing customers, huge shout out in parentheses,

who fueled my drive and kept me pushing forward through it all.

It's tough to sum up eight years in just a few lines, but what a thrilling journey it's been.

Ramping up Model 3, working on giga shanghai, developing a new electronics and wireless architectures,

and delivering the once in a lifetime Cybertruck all before hitting 30.

The icing on the cake was getting to dive back into the Model 3 work toward the end.

This decision wasn't easy, especially with so much exciting growth on the horizon.

Tesla vehicles are incredibly complex systems that often don't get the credit they deserve,

but I've witnessed firsthand how they've changed lives for our customers, my friends and my family,

adding real value and, above all, improving safety.

I'm confident Tesla will nail its next big mission, especially after last week.

He's there referring to the presentation that Elon gave at the annual shareholder meeting,

and he concludes by saying, and I'm truly excited for the next chapter of my life.

So, first of all, this gentleman was the Model 3 program manager in his early 20s, that's crazy!

He must be an absolute rockstar, just one of those wonder kind people that comes in

and is just, you can just tell right away, is special.

And that alone makes it sad to see him go as somebody that owns two Model 3s.

And then, even though, okay, yes, the Cybertruck sales have been quite a bit below what certainly

Tesla had hoped, and definitely what people like me thought they would be,

you can't fault the truck itself. It is absolutely jam-packed with genuine next-gen tech

that makes the Cybertruck an absolute joy to drive and to live with.

So, boy, what a resume for Sedant here. That is, he'll probably not have any trouble getting

a job anywhere else, should he decide to join another company, or maybe he'll decide to start

his own thing, and who knows what he's gonna be up to. I'm sure we'll hear about it at some point

whenever he decides to pop his head back up above water and let us all know.

For all we know, he might be taking a good bit of time off. It seems like, I mean, I'm not in

the tech world, per se. I mean, I'm tangentially involved as a media member, somebody that covers

it. Although, even there, it's like, I do this in my spare time, and for my day job,

I cover the video game space, which is definitely a different world than the actual Silicon Valley

tech world. And my point in saying all that is that in that space, it certainly seems to be

fairly common that when folks leave a high-profile position after a long time at a company,

they take some time to theirs themselves, because they typically can afford to,

and then eventually they pop back up. So, I'm not expecting to hear from Sedant again, like,

in the next couple of weeks or this year, but maybe sometime next year. He'll post again and

let the world know what he is up to, but again, just what a resume for him. Absolutely incredible.

Now, it's entirely possible that he's chosen to leave because he's just burned out, and or

his stock compensation, which I imagine had added up as he moved up the company,

has matured to such a point that he's sitting on a huge stack of well-deserved cash and just

doesn't want to go all out hardcore 24-7 anymore, which is what Tesla seems to demand. He even

alluded to it in his post there. I mean, I don't know, maybe he's starting a family or has started

a family and he just doesn't want to do the 24-7 grind anymore, but whatever the case may be,

he has certainly earned a lot of praise, a lot of respect, and certainly as somebody with two

Model 3s, again, as it's such a great privilege for our family to have two of them, I owe him a

tip of the cap for sure. Now, the other slightly more selfish and depressing thought here is,

I know I try to be optimistic with this podcast, and I think most of the time I am,

but I've got to share this as well because I think it's a fair thing to bring up.

So the slightly more selfish and definitely more depressing thought here, that's hopefully not

the case, but maybe he's leaving because there are no other new vehicles to work on at Tesla,

that after the Roadster, they're just going to keep SX3Y Cybertruck and CyberCab,

and there isn't a big new vehicle challenge for him to take on. And I also acknowledge,

it could be some combination or even all of those things. It could be burnout, it could be family,

it could be he's got plenty of money, it could be because there are no vehicles, it could be any

and all of those are some combination thereof, so whatever the case, I certainly again wish him

the best and boy, doing all of that before 30, that's pretty darn impressive. Now, that wasn't

the only notable departure at Tesla this week, the Model Y program manager also announced his

departure this past week as well. I saw this written up on TeslaRadi who wrote,

Emanuel Lemakia has been in the role for almost five years, responsible for the rollout of the

all-electric crossover in several markets. He announced his departure on LinkedIn saying,

quote, after eight incredible years, I'm moving on from Tesla. What a journey it's been, from

leading NPI for Model 3 and Model Y variants, I'm not quite sure what NPI means, to becoming the

vehicle program manager for Model Y, the best-selling car in the world, he adds with a well-deserved

exclamation mark. Leading the all-new Model Y launch was the highlight, converting all four

factories across three continents in just two weeks, something that had never been done before

in the auto industry. To the teams who made this possible, you should be incredibly proud.

This achievement belongs to you, the engineers, designers, buyers, and associates in Fremont,

Shanghai, Berlin, and Austin who turned an impossible timeline into reality. Grateful

to the leaders who trusted me with programs that stretched my capabilities and to the cross-functional

partners who showed me that great solutions come from collaboration, not hierarchy. Tesla taught

me how to move fast without breaking things and how to scale from prototypes to millions of units.

Excited for what's next, more to share soon, end quote. So I think you can take most of what I just

said about Sedant and it could apply to Emanuel also. So that's where I come back to what I said

at the very top there. Taken individually, these two notable departures aren't necessarily anything

to really quote-unquote worry about if you're a Tesla fan, Tesla shareholder, etc. But admittedly,

both of these happening at the same time, it does send up a yellow flag for me. Not a red flag,

could be nothing, could just be a coincidence, could be, who knows. It's not necessarily a

red flag, but a yellow one, caution flag, yes. Again, it could also be clear internally at Tesla

that as I was saying, there simply are no more new vehicle programs to work on and I sure,

sure, sure hope it's not that. But regardless, I really do wish both of these gentlemen the very

best. They worked really hard and have a lot to be proud of. Speaking of vehicle program managers,

we did hear from one at Tesla this week who is still at the company. His name is Dan Priestley

and he heads up the Tesla Semi team. He posted on X after the annual shareholder meeting that

revealed the redesign, as I was telling you about on last week's podcast, the redesign for the semi.

And he took to X and said, quote, immense number of improvements in next year's semi stemming from

pilot fleet learnings and amazing innovations from the Tesla teams working on it, end quote.

And then an ex user responded to Dan's post there and asked him, quote,

can't wait to see it on the roads. Will you use it next year at giga texas to haul new cars to

the railroads? To which Dan kindly responded to that user, quote, Tesla will be the first customer

as we electrify our supply chain. This includes Texas operations. So in other words, yes, it's

the answer to the to that ex user's question. So Tesla itself will get the first final production

Tesla semi trucks that are being spit out or that will be spit out of the giga Nevada semi factory.

And that's not really new information, really. As as Tesla has been saying that for years,

including, in fact, they've not just said it, they've they've shown it to Tesla has been using the

original two prototypes for years to do everything from haul parts back and forth between giga

Nevada and the Fremont factory to actually delivering cars to customers. So those prototypes

have been getting plenty of run at Tesla as well. And now the imminent final the 1.0 version

of the Tesla semi that'll be going into production next year, Tesla will be putting those

to internal use as well. So I think the better question is what external customer that's not

Tesla gets the first production trucks? Well, my mind there would go straight to PepsiCo,

since of course they've been Tesla's biggest partner in the pilot program. But then again,

it's also possible that PepsiCo got their full order of trucks. They were clearly okay with being

essentially beta testers. And they're going to be good just continuing to run those pilot

trucks around until they reach end of life after however many hundreds of thousands or millions

of miles on those vehicles. So it does remain to be seen which customer that's not Tesla

will be the first one to run that 1.0 build out in the real world.

Before I get to this week's main story about Apple CarPlay, I wanted to mention this week's

lightning round mini episode that I do exclusively for all of the wonderfully generous folks

supporting me over on Patreon. I hope those of you with access to that enjoyed this week's

lightning round. It was about my newly updated method for washing my car. So if you're a

detail oriented person with your car like me, somebody that likes their car clean,

I hope you'll enjoy that, maybe get some good information out of it and maybe something that

you want to try in your own car detailing routine. So anybody that's with me on Patreon at that most

popular tier that's the $10 per month tier or higher has access not just to that lightning round

mini episode but all of them and there are over 160 of them now. You can find them on my Patreon

page at patreon.com slash Tesla podcast or just click the link in the episode description.

A friendly reminder that the lightning rounds aren't all you get at that most popular $10 per

month tier. You also get an ad free episode every week and you get early access to that ad free

episode every week. If $10 is a no go for you, I do have a $5 tier as well where you'd still

very much be supporting the podcast and you'd still get the ad free and the early access

to that ad free. So again, please consider a pledge. You'd really be helping me and my family out

over on my Patreon page at patreon.com slash Tesla podcast. Don't forget there's a 10% discount

if you are so kind as to do an annual pledge, a single pledge to support for an entire year

you'll get a 10% discount there patreon.com slash Tesla podcast. And one more thing before I move

on, if your factory Tesla warranty, your four-year 50,000 mile warranty from the factory is expiring

or about to expire or has already expired, what's next? You know, you don't want to be worrying

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or talk to a real person about it right now at 844-755-4186 that's Xcare.com or call 844-755-4186

and drive with confidence. Let's get to our main story this week which comes in the form of a new

report that says that Tesla is working on adding Apple CarPlay to its vehicles. I saw this on Reuters

who wrote Tesla is developing support for Apple's CarPlay system in its electric vehicles.

Bloomberg News reported this week marking a potential shift in the car maker's long-standing

resistance to third-party software integration. The company's potential adoption of CarPlay

which allows users to control iPhone features such as navigation music and messaging through a

vehicle's built-in display would mark a major departure from its preference for its own ecosystem

to maintain control over the in-car experience. Tesla has discussed rolling out CarPlay in the

coming months but the plan is not yet finalized and the release could be delayed the report said

citing people familiar with the matter. The report also said Tesla plans to integrate CarPlay

within a window inside its existing interface which could mean Apple software would not

fully replace Tesla's operating system as it does in many other vehicles. Well there you go,

uh that one I'll tell you I did not have that on my bingo card for any point ever. It's like if I had

a bingo card with potential Tesla headlines on it I that that wouldn't I would not be xing off

that square because I would not have had that square CarPlay in Tesla appears to I mean it's like

I I'm I know this sounds like I'm exaggerating but when I first saw this like I first saw the

headline on social media I almost literally could not believe it until I saw that it ultimately

came from Bloomberg who again there's no guarantee I can't say with 100 percent certainty that this

is real but Bloomberg is a serious news organization that doesn't just print gossip so this this is

coming from somewhere and and so that's when I went oh so wait this might actually be real and then

after I saw it later that day a test a reliable Tesla source reached out to me unprompted to mention

it and to corroborate the report just again to me personally with and they gave me a specific

detail that I'm just respectfully not going to share here because I don't want to risk

sort of giving any indication of who or where who this person is or where in the company

they work but let me just say it was it was corroborating evidence

to not that Bloomberg needs little me corroborating their report but if it if it helps you believe

it because it did help me believe it a Tesla source offered me some additional corroborating

evidence to this and so yeah this is seemingly happening now look I mean we all know it was

even it was in that Reuters story that I read you there we all know that Tesla has always

gone its own way and understandably so Tesla's software Tesla's user experience is really good

I don't think very many people out there would really complain about what the experience is

like software wise in a Tesla in terms of well really in terms of any piece of it I guess

probably the number one thing that anybody might complain about if we were to survey

like family feud style just find a hundred people survey them what is the most annoying thing to

you about the Tesla user experience and then it would be number one answer would almost certainly

be the lack of physical buttons because I know I mean it doesn't really bother me

and you also have voice control at your fingertips on the steering wheel to just say you know turn

my seat heater on or set the set the climate control to 64 degrees or whatever but that's

still a common one that I see not just with Tesla but as more and more cars go with a more of a

touchscreen based experience but I'm getting a little sidetracked point is in that family

feud style survey I'm not even sure that anything about the user experience in terms of like audio

entertainment or or what the like sort of what is offered in that front end in your car would

even make that top five that family feud top five of things that that people might criticize but

that said a lack of carplay or android auto that might be the number two answer on that family

feud board so uh Tesla appears to be taking action against that um and and I guess on the back of

Tesla's software being really good what I as I thought more about this I think this move seems

to me to be something that's very much aimed at people who don't already own a Tesla I realize

wait I think I'm looking at this from the wrong perspective I'm looking at it not wrong but um

maybe just I'm looking at it from the perspective of a Tesla owner when I should be looking at it

from the perspective of someone who's not yet a Tesla owner because those of us that that own the

cars that drive the cars which is most of you I think most of you probably aren't clamoring for

carplay or for android auto I'm not saying that people haven't asked for it or that people wouldn't

welcome it if it did show up as it appears to be doing but this does seem like something that Tesla

is doing as a way to try and lure potential new customers particularly when a lot of the rest

and maybe this is a coincidence or maybe it is by design maybe if Tesla is zagging here while the

rest of the industry zigs we are right now witnessing a lot of major players a number

of major players in the auto industry purposefully moving away from carplay and android auto right

now so um there's that Tesla may just be deciding okay well we stand to potentially gain a competitive

advantage here if we were to offer this so let's go ahead and do it um in fact as I thought more

about this part of the impetus for doing this might be because the standard three and standard y

which Tesla certainly hopes are gonna draw a lot of people into Tesla's ecosystem and they're gonna

sell a lot of standard three's and wise those cars have next to nothing in them in terms of

audio entertainment they don't even have FM radio so maybe Tesla wants to give people

not just any option for audio entertainment but an attractive one that many people are already

familiar with and comfortable with in fact kind of on that note maybe familiar familiarity and

comfort might be at the heart of this for Tesla again having this be such a surprise they've just

never they've always done their own thing software-wise but maybe they're thinking okay with where we

are on the EV adoption curve we've reached now most if not all of the early adopters because

quite frankly I would probably be considered an early adopter I mean there are phases there are

levels to it right like those of you out there that have an original roadster you're an OG okay you

get you get extra extra street cred model early model s owners you're on the next level early

model x owners same thing and then three y you know it's it is certainly this is the EV movement

has happened in phases and and that it's slowly gotten bigger but that I wonder if Tesla feels

like okay we've we've run out of the eager early adopters to sell to and now we need to sell to

the masses and for them they're not going to be as eager we need to help lure them and convince them

that to just to just try this to to make the switch from a from an internal combustion engine car

to an electric vehicle and so it's such I've talked about this a million times and those of you with

Teslas or other EVs have already lived this it is such a paradigm shift it really is to go from

a gas car to a battery electric vehicle it is a completely different experience it does require

a willingness to take on a new challenge of sorts in that it's completely different from how

you've always operated a vehicle I mean yes there's still a steering wheel there's still

pedals but there's still a door but but there's a lot that's different about the operation of

the car the fueling of the car the fueling requirements and habits of the car meaning

like you know you're charging from you're you're charging to 80% most nights unless you've got

an LFP vehicle whereas a gas car you just put the gas filler in at the gas station and and squeeze

the handle and turn the little lock thing on until it stops until it's full you don't do that in it

so that's the kind of thing I'm talking about so perhaps Apple CarPlay is something of a familiarity

olive branch to that to that segment of of customers potential customers out there

who have not yet made the switch to EV and need that sort of Linus's blanket from peanuts to just

kind of cling to that security blanket oh okay if I all right if I buy a Tesla I can I can just use

I can use CarPlay and I've got my Apple ecosystem in there that I'm familiar with

and that may really make a difference out there for some potential customers and I want to recognize

here my non-American listeners I know that Apple and iPhone is a much bigger deal it's a much bigger

piece of the market here in America versus worldwide like Europe much more android dominant so

hopefully obviously this report only mentions CarPlay that's America is Tesla's number one market

so it does make sense that Tesla would start with CarPlay but I can't imagine it would end with CarPlay

I have to imagine that Android Auto would follow probably fast follow before you know after after

not too long but as Lily is just walking around with of course a heavy toy that she wants to

drop on the ground and make noise as I'm trying to record but this is again such a surprise

such a a potentially big deal I mean in fact I'm I think I'm going to run a Patreon poll

this week so if you want to stop by and vote in the Patreon poll which is always free doesn't

require supporting me doesn't require giving me a dime on Patreon it's free and open to everybody

if you stop by the Patreon page for this week's poll I'm going to make it about Apple Play I'm

not I haven't quite decided how I'm going to word the question but it'll be CarPlay related

because I I want to get a sense of what all of you think of this as existing Tesla owners or

existing Tesla enthusiasts and how exciting or not this might be to you and then last point on this

if I were a betting man I would wager that the Tesla team is working extremely hard to try and

deliver this in the holiday software update which should be out in about a month or so now

I fully recognize the very report I just read to you said that there's not that it's there's no

immediate timeline on this it could get delayed yeah the the it says the rolling out in the coming

months but Q4 is Teslas and every car maker's biggest quarter it does make sense for them

for the Tesla software team to prioritize this but and make it try to make it into the holiday

software update so that they can start really getting the word out on this right away as people

are shopping for vehicles during that big Q4 season so stay tuned this is a very pleasant

surprise and we'll see what happens from here next up this week Tesla sweeps the global EV sales

charts for the month of September with of course the Model Y and then the Model 3 on top I saw this

on Drive Tesla Canada who wrote Tesla continues to dominate the global electric vehicle market

claiming both the top spots in worldwide EV sales for September of 2025 according to data

compiled by Clean Technica and shared on X by user X Freeze the Model Y once again secured the number

one position with 140,904 units sold worldwide while the Model 3 followed in second place

with 67,374 units delivered globally now what's interesting to me about this isn't necessarily

that Tesla's on top and in fact they're on top as you heard there buy a long shot in the Model

Y's case even over its own sibling the Model 3 but what's interesting to me is what the rest of

this list looks like so the entire rest of the top 15 all of it is Chinese EVs so 3 through 15 is all

Chinese EVs there's not a single other American car company on this list or a European car company

for that matter again we're just talking EVs here but still and then numbers 5 through 12 and 15

not only are those positions all Chinese EVs they're all one brand BYD so in terms of overall

volume BYD is actually beating Tesla quite handily BYD's cumulative total just from this top 15 list

is over 291,000 cars compared to Tesla's 208,000 now the Model S X and Cybertruck

aren't on this top 15 list so they did contribute but they wouldn't contribute much here unfortunately

which is why they're not on the list and then I must fully confess I have no idea how many other

models that BYD might have that could contribute to their number as well that just didn't make the

top 15 but the point is BYD has gone to another level those of you outside of the United States

are no doubt much more aware of this than I am we literally do not have them here and we probably

well I won't say never will but we probably won't anytime soon and that's that's most likely going

to be a a bipartisan agreement there that the American auto industry doesn't want BYD coming

into the American market because they could very easily undersell under price and and outsell

and really put the herd on the American automobile alright Lily you are I'm sorry I think this is

probably making a ton of noise I gotta sorry Lily I gotta take action I gotta take this toy I do

apologize I'm sorry pups you can find something else to chew on I hope that doesn't make noise

but anyway uh yeah BYD would probably cause a serious problem for the American automotive industry

and that's why regardless of of what political party is in charge in the United States it doesn't

seem like we're going to see BYD uh sold here anytime soon but overall Tesla is still clearly

in excellent shape for the time being like they're one and two by a mile uh you heard Frans von

Holzhausen on my most recent interview with him here just what a month ago that Tesla is focusing

on just a few vehicles and making them amazing versus making a whole bunch of vehicles that only

you know this one only sells a few units and that one only sells a few units which I mean

that strategy is working for BYD but also Tesla's strategy is clearly working pretty well for them

too but it is safe to say certainly the true competition for Tesla has finally arrived just

not in the U.S. but on the global scale yes BYD is here and they are a big deal they are a very

high volume EV automaker and ultimately that's a good thing right if we believe in Tesla's mission

to accelerate the transition to sustainable energy you love to see a especially in China which

I think don't please don't quote me on this because I don't even have this in my notes I'm just

kind of riffing here I have a memory of reading something some years back I know already you're

like oh gosh you're you're just pulling this out of your hat but I believe that China is the most

polluting country in terms of the like the air pollution in the world which makes sense they

have a billion plus people there right but I believe China is number one in polluting and

I think the U.S. is number two I think so if BYD is just pumping out EVs that's a good thing for the

overall mission that Tesla has to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy

and Tesla here in the U.S. certainly doing its part with the the Model Y being the top-selling

vehicle in the world for well the previous couple years probably not going to be number one this

year but it's still going to be very very high on that list and Tesla's still pumping out it's

going to end up being 1.7 million units probably this year thereabouts we'll find out in about a

month and a half exactly where Tesla lands but that was a that was a pretty cool story that Tesla

is still on top on a global scale in fact I made non-Tesla EVs the subject of this week's Patreon

poll and it was it was purposefully an open-ended question a not clearly defined question which

which uh maybe people in the comments a couple people in the comments were were maybe looking

for some more clear direction on this but I purposely wanted this to be just a more open to

interpretation question so this week's Patreon poll question on my Patreon page which again

totally free to vote in the poll every week it's open to everybody the question was what non-Tesla

company do you think makes the best EVs and so again I I kind of wanted to leave that to you

do you do you think that's styling do you think that's performance do you think that's efficiency

do you think you know what however you wanted to think of it I just wanted to ask the question

and 50% of you voted Rivian with another 18% of you choosing Lucid and 14% of you choosing

Hyundai slash Kia because they are the same company and then almost nothing for a lot of the other

choices BMW for GM 5% chose Porsche and 7% said other because I knew I'd need an other on this one

and there was a lot of commentary there were actually a lot of comments 48 comments

and there were a lot of votes here 328 votes in this week's poll so thank you to everybody

that took the time to stop by and vote a lot of comments about BYD and I had left them out of the

and not put them as a choice in the poll just because again they are a blind spot for me I

don't know anything about them and I and I know that those of you outside the US do and I'm glad

a bunch of you mentioned it mentioned them in the comments but uh yeah here in the US we just we

don't have any visibility into BYD so I thought that was a really interesting poll result this week

and yes I read and granted probably most of my audience the majority of my audience is in the

United States and so the Rivian result makes a lot of sense right I can't disagree with that choice

even though again you could define best by any number of ways but thank you to everybody

that took the time to vote in this week's Patreon poll on something of a similar topic to Chinese

EVs as I move now to other EV news Ford CEO Jim Farley says taking apart Tesla and Chinese EVs was

quote shocking and pushed him to shake up the legacy automaker I saw this story on Business Insider

who wrote Ford CEO had an EV wake-up call after tearing apart cars from Tesla and its rivals in

China speaking on the new episode of the office hours business edition podcast Jim Farley said

the quote shocking realization of how far ahead Elon Musk's automaker and China's EVs upstarts were

pushed him to overhaul the company quote I was very humbled when we took apart the first Model

3 Tesla and started to take apart the Chinese vehicles when we took them apart it was shocking

what we found the Detroit executive said Ford's Mustang Mach E had around 1.6 kilometers more

electrical wiring than the Tesla adding extra weight to the car and requiring a much bigger

and more expensive battery Farley who's led Ford since 2020 said the tear downs convinced him the

company had to change to match its new rivals quote we can't walk away from EVs not just for the US

but if we want to be a global company I'm not going to just seed that to the Chinese to meet

that new market Ford is once again shifting its EV strategy in August which I already talked about

this in the podcast Farley unveiled a new EV production line that he said would help Ford

beat BYD and Tesla the first vehicle to roll off the retooled production line will be a $30,000

mid-sized truck which is expected to launch in 2027 so I read this story and then I started trying

to picture 1.6 kilometers for my fellow American friends that's about exactly one mile so a mile

worth of wiring and that's extra that's not total that's on top of what's in a Model 3 or the Chinese

EVs an extra mile worth of wiring that is a lot but hey I'll say this about about Mr. Farley

good on him for recognizing that Ford was going to have to step up its game in order to better

compete and that mid-sized truck that's due out in a couple years using their new EV production

process that is the evidence that Farley is walking the walk on that and not just paying

lip service to it so I for one am rooting for Ford to fully make the switch to EV and to do so

successfully now I know it will not be a 100% switch over for probably many many years and the

reason for that is because it's not going to happen while the F-150 gas powered truck continues

to be the best-selling vehicle in America for literally decades running and the market for

the F-150 Lightning the electric F-150 unfortunately just isn't there quite yet but if Ford can

successfully electrify everything else besides the gas powered F-150s boy would that be fantastic

to see so I'm rooting for you guys Ford and and for for Mr. Farley I think Jim that he he

good on him for admitting you know a little little slice of humble pie that he was willing to eat

publicly there and just say hey yeah I was shocked by what what we found when we tore apart

the Tesla and when we tore apart the Chinese EVs so good on him for for being open and honest about

that next up this week in other EV news JD power reports a JD power report shows EV interest

surging in the United States despite the end of the federal tax credit another tip of the cap to

drive Tesla Canada who writes according to the latest JD power e-vision intelligence report

for November 2025 while sales declined sharply following the repeal of the federal $7,500 EV

tax credit underlying demand and ownership loyalty remain robust particularly among existing EV

drivers October marked the first full month without the federal incentive and the impact was immediate

EV sales fell by 53 percent dropping from 12.9 percent of total new vehicle sales in September

to just 6 percent in October many buyers had rushed to complete purchases before the credit

expired creating an artificial sales spike that has now subsided analysts say the current downturn

likely reflects a quote rebound effect rather than a long-term collapse in demand still JD power's

findings suggest that the end of the tax credit will affect sales volumes for several months quote

the bottom will not fall out of the EV market the report notes pointing to strong loyalty

among EV lesseys and growing consumer awareness of the benefits of electric ownership one of the

industry is the high rate of repeat EV ownership in 2026 approximately 243,000 franchise EV leases

are expected to expire more than triple the number in 2025 based on current patterns 62 percent of

those returning lesseys are likely to replace their vehicles with another EV the 2025 US electric

vehicle experience ownership study found that 94 percent of current EV owners plan to consider an

EV for their next purchase or lease with 79 percent saying they quote definitely will consider this

strong retention rate suggest signals a deepening attachment to electric mobility among early

adopters while actual sales dipped consumer intent is climbing the number of active car shoppers

who say they are quote very likely to consider an EV rose to 24.2 percent in october its highest level

since january of 2025 overall nearly 60 percent of potential buyers said they are at least quote

somewhat likely to go electric in the next 12 months a 2.6 percent increase from september

well those numbers certainly bode well for evs overall this is not a tesla specific report

and i can't help but wonder how much higher those last numbers the 24 percent who are very likely

to consider an EV and the 60 percent who are somewhat likely how much higher those numbers would

be if the 7500 tax credit was still there but what's done is done so i'll simply take the optimistic

road here we've got the model 3 standard on the market now model y standard on the market now

the chevy equinox ev that's doing very well in the low 30s price point wise the redesigned

nissan leaf that's coming very very soon so there are some fairly affordable options out

there in the marketplace hopefully they help get more people into the ev tent that's what we're

looking for because as we've all found out it's really nice in this tent once you're willing

to step foot inside finally this week in more other ev news volkswagen has announced that starting

on november 18th i had to think about for a second when this episode's publishing so

starting this week owners of the volkswagen id4 and the id buzz will gain access to tesla's

expansive supercharger network in north america drive tesla canada had this and they wrote the

move allows volkswagen's ev owners to plug into more than 25 000 tesla superchargers

across canada and the united states significantly expanding their charging options beyond

electrify america electrify canada and other ccs based networks to enable compatibility with tesla's

nac s volkswagen has developed a dc fast charging adapter that connects tesla's nac s plug to the

ccs ports used on vw's current ev lineup the adapter will be available through volkswagen

dealers or online via the volkswagen virtual parts counter beginning on november 18th for id buzz

customers adapters will be distributed directly through their selling dealers while id4 owners

can purchase one for their vehicle well i think this might be just about everybody now volkswagen

might have been about the last big automaker to officially have access to the tesla supercharging

network i i can't think off the top of my head of anybody that's still out in the cold on this

and again this is great for the ev movement at least here in north america because having

access to all of those tesla superchargers just goes a long way for obviously for tesla owners

but now for pretty much everybody else it goes a long way towards eliminating or at least mitigating

range anxiety which as we all know is a crucial and understandable mental barrier for a lot of

potential buyers no matter what brand of ev a north american buyer is considering hi this is

france von holthausen and you're listening to ride the lightning with ryan macaferi the tesla

unofficial podcast it's time for your phone calls in the ride the lightning hotline yes

it's back after a little break last week because of the tesla shareholder meeting i've got plenty

of your ride the lightning hotline phone calls queued up and ready to go got time for a few of

them here so if you've got a question comment or discussion topic for the podcast i welcome and

invite you to call in with it either way however you call in and i'm going to tell you the two

ways here in a second please try to keep your call to 90 seconds or less so that i can get to

as many callers each week as possible now as for those two methods to call in you can either use

your smartphone's built-in voice recording software record your question and then send it my way via

email and that email address is tesla podcast at gmail.com or you can simply dial up and leave

a message on the ride the lightning hotline it's a toll-free number you can call at any time and

the number is 1-888-989-8752 that number again is 1-888-989-TSLA and if you know someone special

out there with an upcoming birthday anniversary graduation or some other special occasion you

can give them a unique gift of recorded voices from friends and family telling them why they're

the recordings can be podcasted or put onto a keepsake visit life on record.com to learn more

first up this week is long-time listener and caller brian from pennsylvania

thanks ryan appreciate that i've got a serious question here for you do you honestly feel

that tesla will solve full self-driving with vision only and if you do

do you think they'll do it before someone else does who is using lidar and radar uh

because it really does sound like gm with their cruise is coming along pretty well with that and

also rivian is making great strides with theirs as well i just feel that you know with a hardware

three car here we've been waiting for this for years it seems like every arrange talk we're on

the cost we're almost there we're almost there but we never actually seem to get there um i'm

starting to become a doubter uh we're before i used to be yeah it will be here before we know it

and my car is going to pick up my kids at school well my last kid is graduating high school this

year and my car is definitely not taking my kid up from school for me back to you thanks as always

for your call brian i would be curious if you'd feel the same way if you had a hardware four car

an ai four car i don't say that as a dig of course there are so so many hardware three owners that

tesla has to take care of when the time comes but as someone lucky enough to have both a hardware

three and a hardware four car to me the difference between the two is stark and that difference is

only widening now with the ai four cars getting version 14 i've had that for what i guess a

couple weeks now i also wish brian i wish you could try out the robotaxi service i'm extremely

extremely privileged to have access to it here in the san francisco bay areas you know the second

market to have it uh but boy it is it is impressive and i and i wish you could get a look at it so

all of that said and and i recognize maybe i'm just being a tesla fanboy here i would say yes

i do believe tesla is going to solve it and they're going to do it first with one potentially

significant caveat and it's one i've brought up before and it's weather is a vision only system

going to work in a for instance pennsylvania winter tesla has not proven that at all as of yet

and it is a really big hurdle at least on paper for a vision only system so i think in the sun

of your climates it's happening and it's happening soon for regions with inclement weather there is

still a lot left to prove take care brian thank you so much as always for your thoughtful calls

next up this week is joel from florida go ahead joel hey ryan and uh and pets uh this is joel

from florida i called years ago about a uh a cybertruck question and i never got the cybertruck

but i did get a model three for an awesome price it was a perfect price point so question um model

three with my wife and my 13 year old son i'm thinking about taking a road trip up in i'm in

i'm in florida thinking about going up to naggerfalls uh and actually driving and going on up on the

north bay and then over to sous st marie and down through what's constant i grew up in wisconsin

so it's going to be nice to see that country again so i'm looking at over 3000 miles and

about two and a half maybe up to three weeks and uh just wondering is that even a good idea with

model three um it looks like there's chargers all the way up it i don't think that's going to be an

issue but comfort wise um you know we're going to pack light um i'm just wondering if is is

has anyone been on i'm sure people have been on road trips that long but have they absolutely

hated the model three after going that far are they actually happy and uh still comfortable with

it after a 3000 plus mile trip just curious if you've heard anything thank you and uh always

look forward to listening to you every week thank you bye bye hi joel thank you for calling in

this sounds like a really fun family trip i say go for it if you find your model three comfortable

in day to day driving i think it's pretty unlikely that you're going to find it much different on

a long road trip especially with autopilot slash fsd to help you out just make sure that you've

got all season tires on the car which unless it's a model three performance it's already got all

season tires and that those tires are in good shape and then i would also say just as a general

road trip thing in for any car maybe buy a tire patch and repair kit and a compressor to bring

with you just in case of any road hazards and i think you're going to love the car more when you

get done with this trip rather than potentially less so joel have a fantastic time and as i always

say at the end of every episode happy electric motoring finally this week the last call i've

got time for is another regular caller always good to hear from him here's robert from texas

responding to my comment about tesla not having any vehicles on the roadmap past 2027 or so go

ahead robert hey ryan it's robert from texas uh just listening to your show just this past week

talking about what new cars uh might tesla have for 2028 and i actually think what they should do

is a regular truck i think we have to be honest the cyber truck's an amazing car it's it's so

innovative incredible features and everything but i just don't think that most people are ready to go

there uh and the cost is so high i think with a regular truck uh tesla could deliver something

really interesting and you might wonder what the differentiation is i actually think the

differentiation is the full self-driving i mean think about someone who use a truck uh works all

day construction you know hauling things whatever at the end of the day they're exhausted tired

and they've got a you know or they either have to go home or they got to go to a site

which might be quite far away hour and a half two hours away i think the fsd is the game changer

and that allows someone to work with their contractors or you know ordering materials

or doing whatever they can in their car while they're on the way to work on the way to site and

back anyway so that's the differentiating feature and if only tesla breaks that um for a while uh

that could be the difference uh in addition to obviously they can make a great truck thanks

appreciate your show bye as always robert i appreciate your call elan did say a number of

years ago at this point i guess it was in the wake of the cyber truck unveiling so it would have been

late 2019 or maybe sometime in 2020 that if people didn't like the cyber truck that tesla

would make a quote-unquote regular truck and thus far the numbers suggest unfortunately

that people don't like it or at least they don't like it at its current prices as you wisely noted

there the key with a normal truck of course would be that it would need to be priced reasonably so

presumably that would be easier without steer by wire without 48 volt low voltage without 800

volt high voltage architecture without rear wheel steering and maybe even without air suspension too

unfortunately as i've been talking about in recent weeks here it doesn't seem like tesla plans to

make anything with a steering wheel on it after the new roadster and therefore it could be normal

in every other way but if tesla made a so-called normal truck that was fully autonomous with no

inputs i fear that that might be a bridge too far for a lot of buyers so we'll see what if

anything happens but i'm not sure if elan would want to build a so-called normal truck at this point

tesla's last normal vehicle was the model y five years ago now in fact almost six because it was

shipped in march of 2020 so it's just about six since that time we have had decidedly

abnormal vehicles we've had the cyber truck of course the tesla semi which is sort of out

the cyber cab which is going into production in april and the new roadster which is apparently

quote unquote more than a car it's it's insane whatever it is so none of that i would call normal

but we'll see what tesla does and yeah i i would not bet on tesla making a normal looking truck but

that's one of those cases where right again i'd love to be proven wrong thank you robert thank

you everybody that kindly took the time to call in and with your with your questions your comments

your discussion topics if you've got one if you've got a question comment or discussion topic i would

love to hear from you there are two easy ways you can call in i gave you both of those at the top

of this segment so refer back to that if you need to as for what's going on with me and my tesla

which i've named the soul of adventure well not much honestly it's expected to be a rainy weekend

so no car activity plan no car washing planned and that's fine that's all good i'm still having fun

with dispatch the game that i think i told you about on last week's show um half all the episodes

are out now all eight episodes you know they're about an hour each i'm halfway through as of

recording this and i really want to get done i don't know if i'll get done this weekend but

i'm having an absolutely fantastic time with that game so far but how about a different

entertainment recommendation for this week this is not a new show it's one that i've just discovered

my wife in fact recommended it to me and i finally decided to to dive in and give it a

shot and i've really been enjoying it i'm only in season one of what is currently four seasons

but the show is called hacks it's on hbo max and it is about a a comedy writer and a and an older

stand-up comedian two women who kind of end up the writer ends up working for the older established

rich and famous comedian and they clash and they butt heads and it's been a fun first season so far

so if you need and it's they're only 30 minute episodes so if you'd like a you know a no drama

just a fun 30 minute easily digestible comedy give it a go now for your pro tip of the week it comes

from the owner of a new model y and his name is mike in oklahoma city hey ryan this is mike in

oklahoma city area aka okie tesla on x and youtube i'm a new tesla owner got my new model y may 21st

and drove out the x takeover had a great time heading up to pike's peak later this month for

another great time i've been playing around with fsd and it was kind of frustrating with the

deviation in the max mileage or max uh miles per hour headset and been reading the law and

listening to the law and your podcast has been very helpful on getting me up to speed on eb vehicles

but uh one thing i did notice i set uh zero percent over speed limit in the fsd settings

and then i would roll the scroll wheel up five or six miles over the limit

to get to where i wanted to go but by accident today i accelerated like 46 miles per hour just

manual driving then i hit uh the right scroll wheel to go to fsd and it's at the max speed

at 46 i tried it a few more times and realized that if you just accelerate to the speed you want

to go over the limit and then press the scroll wheel that automatically sets your max speed

without having to roll up the scroll wheel up and down when the speed limit changes so

i don't know if everybody else knows that or not but i certainly found it out by mistake today

so i thought i passed along really enjoy the podcast and the uh tesla community is a great

community i'm thrilled with my new model y and hope to learn a lot more thanks

mike welcome to the podcast and welcome to the tesla community i am very happy to hear that your

new model y is treating you well so far and that you've been putting some miles on it and

getting out to some events that's awesome i am going to go ahead and count your call as a pro tip

even if it's maybe more of a psa than anything else because i bet you that not quite everybody

knows that if you're manually going faster than your max offset speed and then you activate which

was zero in your case and then you activate fsd the max speed will be set to whatever speed

you are going and uh i guess maybe this tip is going out of style as version 14 continues to

roll out but for anybody still on 13 hopefully that is of use and if anybody has a useful pro

tip of the week for your tesla or any other ev i'd love to hear it i would love for you to

call in and share it with me so that i can in turn share it with all of you with everybody else

so if you've got a pro tip of the week please feel free to call in with it the same way that you

call in with a regular ride the lightning hotline call which i gave you the instructions for just

a few minutes ago before i go this week let me mention some friends of the podcast that can

hopefully be useful to you and in fact specifically right now i know i always say like oh maybe useful

to you sooner or later but it could be sooner in this case abstract ocean dot com who's got so many

great aftermarket tesla and rivian accessories is currently having a black friday sale uh 25 percent

off of orders up to 150 30 percent off of orders over 150 i will be honest with you i am not sure

if my discount code is able to stack on top of that but it can't hurt to try for an extra 15

percent off or if it doesn't work well guess what you can still get 25 percent off here on this black

friday sale on the orders up to 150 and if you're spending more than that 30 percent off so head on

over to abstract ocean dot com they've got so many great tesla and rivian accessories let me click on

the refreshed model y accessories here and just see uh see what we've got there's again the big one

the ultra premium tempered glass screen protectors for all the cars uh you've got let's see here again

all those cyber truck expel armor pre-cut pieces to help keep the non-stainless pieces looking great

there's the puddle lights with the the tesla wordmark logo or other options there's the

ultra bright lights for the refreshed model three just kind of moving them to other vehicles so

meaning the inside of the car those those accent lights just all sorts of stuff and you just head

on over see what you like click on which car you have see whatever all they have and then

pile it all into your cart and when you get to check out you can try the code RTL podcast

all one more no spaces and if it doesn't work well again you'd still be getting 25 to 30 off

in their black friday big sale so abstract ocean dot com and if it works with that sale

use the coupon code RTL podcast all one word no spaces the snap plate available at every amp

dot com slash RTL this is available for gosh they're oh they've they've really expanded here they're

they're on everything they got uh they've got them for teslas rivians chevys catalax fords pole

stars lexus subaru toyota um boy yeah the blazer ev the bolt the catalac lyric the fort f-150

lightning the pole star two and pole star three just all kinds of vehicles that they've uh that

they're supporting now with their snap plate and the newer stronger snap plate plus i'm a big fan

of these products because they do not stick with automotive tape to the front of your car if you

either want or are legally required to have a front license plate on your vehicle so use the

nice minimalist design but secure when it's on snap plate or the newer stronger snap plate plus

to get it go to every amp dot com slash RTL or just click the link in the episode description

and use the coupon code RTL at checkout for a discount as well if you're in or going to be in

the greater san francisco bay area treat yourself treat your car to a spa day if you will over at

my detailer immaculate reflections they are running as always the discount for ride the

lightning listeners so uh you can reach out through the website which is ir detailing dot com

and when you do that you will uh make sure to mention that you're a ride the lightning listener

so that any uh any service you have booked in will have that ride the lightning listener

discount applied maybe you want ceramic coating so that you don't have to bother with wax for the

next five plus years maybe you want to do paint correction get that paint finished looking as

good as it possibly can maybe you want to do paint protection film on the front of the car or all of

the car potentially whatever the case may be the place to start is ir detailing dot com you'll see

right on the front page either in the very top left you'll see contact jeff a link there

there's a phone number or right in the middle of the page you'll see a big red button that says

inquire slash book here and then there's a nice easy form to fill out on the website

finally my patreon let me mention that one more time if you would be so kind as to humor me there

patreon dot com slash tesla podcast again you can also just click the link in the episode

description that is the best way to support this podcast if you see fit to do so and my hope is that

eventually if you've been listening for weeks months years that you will feel like that i have

earned your support on patreon you'd super be helping me and my family out by contributing on

patreon the support tiers start at just five bucks a month and for those five bucks a month you'll

get in return as a thank you an ad-free episode as well as early access every week to that ad-free

episode as well if you step up to the ten dollar per month tier which is the most popular one

you'll get the ad-free early access and access to the entire stash now 160 something episodes

of those lightning round mini episodes that i do each week exclusively on patreon so one more time

the the link is patreon.com slash tesla podcast and if you're not already following this podcast on

your favorite podcast service i recommend that you do so because that way every time

there's a new episode you'll get a push notification letting you know hey there's a new ride the

lightning all you got to do is tap that push notification and you'll be listening in no time

makes it nice and simple so you can follow me on any of the big podcast services whether that's

apple podcasts spotify tune in youtube podcasts etc to find me on those just search ride the

lightning tesla you should see this podcast pop right up and then just click the follow button

and you're all good finally you can follow me on x and or on instagram the username is the same

in either place and that username is dmc underscore ryan you can also email me anytime about any tesla

or ev related stuff my email address is tesla podcast at gmail.com finally allow me to say hello

and thank you to the top tier patreon backers before i head out this week i'll start with the

roadster in space tier big thanks to pete white lile austin steve rad spinner fernando cordero

laughton from chicago shawn nightig neal weaver jackson wallace ralph and jennifer evers

howard anthony smith victoria aya coveto tesla hitchhiker 42 caro weston robert from near philly

american home contractors dug carry michael gallo and tony figaroa next up the maximum

plaid crew a big thank you and shout out to jonathan wales cameron clark daniel grummer

seth capello nick and tony the galpin family ryan from new york city darin nickle cos Barnes

patrick wisneski gill cabrera todd badger joe edgel kevin yank the tesla owner's club of

sandwalking valley will stedman jeremy harris chris beach tom mills choreo donnell aron

john codie jolsap paul casarino chris osbourne kb adam levoi jason chelukas travis krenzel

bruce otterstein tom behan josh pennington john from cream ridge new jersey dustin hart

derek finley charles clement daemon klyne jeff brown jerry slinger kenneth corbett

brian bertoglio kim bae troy sievers chip hooper matt shinander robert moran rave christopher man

and michael williams and last but certainly not least the grandfathered in plaid level supporters

big thank you to george cassiopo logan willis peter chalet eric randolph dory and steve guberman

the tesla owner's club of taiwan ron lee charlie gillespie jeff angwin chase cabineas the lydia

family erin alchool jared brown gerome strack jamie dalton mike and barbara from louisville

matt nixon the tesla owners club of wisconsin ish peter and the bear boys of colorado and with that

we've reached the end of the 537th official edition of ride the lightning your weekly tesla

and ev podcast i hope you've enjoyed it i am ready to pass out so i'm gonna try to do that fairly

soon but i'll be back raring to go for you next week of course every sunday 9 a.m eastern

six a.m pacific unless you're with me on patreon in which case it's the show is typically waiting

for you when you wake up on saturday morning because by the time i mean it'll be done it'll

be uploaded to patreon by what let's see at least tonight 8 30 p.m pacific so maybe i'll

catch some of you patreon folks still up on the west coast but otherwise for all of you kind

patreon backers it's waiting for you when you wake up saturday morning anyway happy electric

motoring my friends and i'll see you back here next week

music

ilan musk people don't like ilan musk the guy found a paypal and tesla and people are like

also have you been in a tesla have you been in a tesla my buddy let me drive his tesla i laughed

out loud at how fast it went been clinically depressed my entire life on dozens of medications

in a tesla for 13 seconds cured forever i mean i think a tesla is the most fun thing you could

possibly buy ever that's what it's meant to be our goal is to make it's it's not exactly a car

it's actually a thing to maximize enjoyment it's maximum fun

Episode 537: Apple CarPlay Reportedly Coming to Teslas

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