Nov. 23, 2025 | Bonus Episode: VW Microbus fire survivor; Amazon Web Services’ Stefano Marzani
Automotive News Daily Drive
Automotive News Daily DriveNov 23, 2025
Nov. 23, 2025 | Bonus Episode: VW Microbus fire survivor; Amazon Web Services’ Stefano Marzani
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Car
VW microbus
The VW microbus is a small van made by Volkswagen. It’s known for its simple, boxy design and was very popular in the 70s and 80s. Many people still use it for fun trips or as a classic car.
Amazon Web Services is a big cloud company that lets people and businesses store data online and run software over the internet. Cars can use AWS to send information to the cloud for things like navigation or updates.
CV to X is a way for cars to talk directly to the internet or cloud services, instead of using regular phone networks. This could make car features faster and more reliable.
Term
5G
5G is the newest type of mobile network, like Wi‑Fi but for phones and cars. It’s faster and can send data more quickly, which helps self‑driving cars talk to the world.
LTE is a type of mobile network that’s faster than older 3G networks. Many cars still use it to stay connected when 5G isn’t available.
Term
6G
6G is a future mobile network that will be even faster than 5G. It’s still being worked on and isn’t available yet, but it could make cars even more connected.
Volkswagen of America is the company that sells and takes care of Volkswagen cars in the U.S. They run the dealerships, help with repairs, and promote VW products here.
LIVE
This podcast is brought to you by Proton dealership IT experts in dealership cybersecurity and IT management. Interested in a free cybersecurity compliance or IT consultation? Visit ProtonTex.com. That's PRO, T-O-N, T-E-C-H-S.com. Hey, this is Daily Drive Executive Producer Jake Near in Detroit. On this bonus episode, Volkswagen used this week's LA Auto Show to show off its restored VW microbus.
That survived the palisades fire in January. We'll hear from an executive about that. But first, on Wednesday's show, our own Molly Boygan spoke with Stefano Marzani of Amazon Web Services. He talked about one big issue for connected vehicles. Their dependence on strong cellular service. In this final portion of the interview, Marzani talks more about possible solutions and whether there might be a better tech alternative to standard cell data.
The network is very interesting to me because of this access question and also because of the repeated sunset of the different generations of the network. I wonder if there is a technical solution to the sort of fragility and brittle nature of the network? Is it at all possible to just somehow directly connect the vehicle to the cloud?
To AWS servers? Maybe that's direct CV to X or something like that. What does that look like? Is that at all in the works or not so much?
There are, again, established practice. Right now, the standard is 5G for what concerns connectivity. We still see a lot of LTE, personally, that's still what's going on.
There's a prom user of 6G, so very recently I started to talk about more and more about 6G. And surely CV to X, everything is kind of a promise in a way. It's been there since long time.
That's surely something that definitely needs to be addressed, not just from the technical perspective. Again, it's another thing that technically we know it works.
But there are other aspects like regulations, the options of the frequencies and stuff that needs to be resolved before making real and practical use of that.
Or even a agreement between industry players, because even if a CV to X standard is defined, yeah, but who is going to adopt it?
And really, we are seeing different brands adopting the technology in order to have different brands communicate each other. Those are in industry issues. That needs to be solved before that being a really proficient.
Surely, as Amazon, we experimented big times and we are experimenting big times on various connected forms. I can give you a couple of examples.
In some areas, you can use AWS wavelength. That is, for example, there are wavelength areas that will guarantee you cellular connectivity with extremely low latency and high throughput, intensely in a bit of area or for specific purposes, maybe you need to transfer a lot of data for autonomous driving, for example, through cellular connectivity.
Not all of it, let's say big chunks of it. In that case, we work with operators, Verizon specifically to put a part over the center in proximity of the cell towers.
Another example in other areas is the sidewalk where we create a desired network that makes it easy to transfer information through existing infrastructure, including Wi-Fi and other elements.
So there's a space for experimentation, but surely it needs to, again, the adoption is what's really important, regulatory framework, adoption agreements, industry consensus.
So there's a lot of variables in making this more reliable overall.
It sounds like a sort of multi-pronged solution. As you said, you can anticipate a dead zone with the user. You can basically enhance existing access to cellular networks.
You can rely on a satellite and lots of different things to consider.
The university, as they say, and they call it technically diversity, telecommunication is always important.
So the fact that you can use the best channel for the best situation that is available.
And again, you have a lot of options. When you don't have options, because you're in a blind spot, the best way is to prevent it.
To forecast that you have that kind of situation and manage it, providing the user a set of options that they are comfortable with.
In any case, never rely on poor quality of service for critical use cases.
Staff, thank you so much for joining us.
Of course, thank you, my pleasure. Thank you so much, Molly.
Coming up, a VW microbus that was made famous by surviving the Palisades Fire in California has been restored in his on display at the LA Auto Show.
We'll hear about that next on Daily Drive.
Educating consumers about EVs can be a big lift for dealers. Michael Barrabe is a former Department of Energy official and the new CEO of CalStar.
He joins us this week on the Automotive News Shift Podcast.
To talk about how CalStar is helping retailers reach more customers and move EVs off their lots.
As technology been evolving, it's been more about the technology. Now it's just we've got to make it simple for consumers.
I'm Molly Boygon, and I'm Hannah Lens. Barrabe also talks about how private companies can work with the public sector to get more stability around clean energy policies.
And as always, we bring you the latest news from the world of automotive technology and innovation.
That's available Sunday morning on shift wherever you get your podcasts.
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Welcome back. 10 months after narrowly surviving one of California's most catastrophic wildfires,
a nearly 50-year-old Volkswagen Microbus is restored and ready for the spotlight at the Los Angeles Auto Show.
Volkswagen of America fixed up the blue and white bus made famous by an associated press photograph of a neighborhood devastated by the Palisades fire in January.
The photo showed the brightly colored van nicknamed a Zool by owner Megan Crystal Weinrob seemingly unharmed by the flames and surrounded by black and rubble.
Our own Jack Wallsworth wrote about it on AutoNews.com and spoke with Rachel Zalusik, senior vice president of brand marketing and customer experience at VW of America.
Here's their conversation from the LA Auto Show.
Rachel, thanks for taking time with me. I appreciate it.
Absolutely. Good.
So here at the LA Auto Show, could you tell me a little about the Zool project? How it kind of came to be and why we're here to see it.
Yeah, absolutely. Well, you know, we were just stunned by the associated press photo that went viral as everybody else was.
And because it was something that kind of took everybody's breath away, we wanted to do something not only for the owner herself,
but for everybody else in LA because it was such a kind of a tragic moment for everyone.
But it was that kind of pivoted the story. It took it from devastation to kind of turning it to a moment of hope,
but in pivoting everybody to turning the tide. And when we saw that, we thought, what can we do to help?
So we had to find out who owned the vehicle. And because it had gone so viral, we were able to get in touch with Megan Wynne-Ropp, who's the owner.
And thought, because it's local, we also have our Oxnard facility, which is in the area.
And Oxnard is where we have our all of our historically vehicles.
So, Megan was very willing for us to pick up the vehicle, which was a little difficult because the players were still burning at the time.
So we had to get permission to get access to that area. National Guard was involved.
Went in and were able to pick up the vehicle, take it to the Oxnard facility to see what condition it was really in.
It looked from the helicopter photo from the AP that it was actually completely unscathed, which wasn't actually the case,
which you'll see through all of the restoration videos that we were actually able to do.
It needed much more work than we thought. But in doing so, we were able to not only restore the vehicle for Megan, but actually tell the story of the restoration,
and take not only Megan to it, but kind of take everybody else through it as well, and make it a restoration, not just for Megan, but for everybody.
And kind of tell the story of turnaround for Volkswagen, for everybody involved.
Right. Very cool. So it's going to go from the LA show to the Peterson Museum.
It'll go to the Peterson Museum, and it'll be there until January 11th. And then it goes back to Megan. That was really the idea behind it.
Cool. So I have seen on social media, there's been some video clips of the process.
Will we see the car featuring like more of that or marketing and then that or curious if you have more plans for the future?
So there are three different short form films.
And the first two have already been released. The third will go today.
And then there is a long form film that will go on YouTube. That'll be released today as well.
And then there will be smaller little clips that will, they're much more for social. That'll be kind of fast release that show more of the restoration process.
Beyond that, we don't really have more of a marketing effort plan because really it was an marketing story.
It really was more about a story to tell about the vehicle, to tell about the process.
And to really tell about the owner and Megan and everything about her.
Okay. Cool. Yeah. The photos look super cool.
Yeah. And to actually watch the process is really pretty cool.
And really to learn about the technicians, Gunnar and Farlin, who are the two that worked on the vehicle itself.
Cool. Awesome. Thank you for that. Appreciate it.
Thanks so much for listening to this bonus episode of Daily Drive.
We'll be back on Monday with a brand new full episode of the show.
About this episode
A restored VW Microbus, famously known as 'Zool', is showcased at the LA Auto Show after surviving the devastating Palisades Fire. Volkswagen's Rachel Zalusik discusses the emotional journey of restoring the vehicle, highlighting its significance as a symbol of hope for the community. Additionally, Amazon Web Services' Stefano Marzani shares insights on the challenges of connectivity for connected vehicles, exploring potential solutions and the need for industry collaboration. This episode blends a heartwarming story with cutting-edge automotive technology discussions.
Rachael Zaluzec, senior vice president of brand marketing and customer experience at Volkswagen of America, talks about the automaker’s restored microbus that survived the Palisades fire in January, which VW showed off at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Plus, the second and final part of an interview with Stefano Marzani of Amazon Web Services about connected vehicles’ dependence on strong cellular service and possible solutions.
