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Welcome to this weekend edition of Daily Drive
00:26
for the fourth week in October 2025.
00:28
I'm Kellan Walker in Las Vegas.
00:30
We're breaking down some of the biggest stories
00:32
in the auto industry from the past week
00:34
and looking forward to what's in store in the days ahead.
00:37
Joining me today, Larry Veloquette
00:39
covers Toyota and Subaru for us at Automotive News.
00:42
Larry Legend, welcome back to Weekend Drive.
00:46
I spent so many weekends with you,
00:47
I feel like you ought to have custody.
00:51
Your wife would probably like that.
00:53
She probably would.
00:55
Hannah Lutz is director of tech and innovation coverage
00:58
for us at Automotive News.
00:59
Welcome back, Hannah.
01:01
Thanks for having me.
01:02
So the fallout from the Nexperia chip crisis
01:05
began to spread far and wide this week.
01:08
The Dutch chip maker is caught in the middle
01:10
of a geopolitical battle between China and the Netherlands.
01:13
Nexperia China has declared independence
01:16
from its Dutch parent company.
01:18
And now several automakers are bracing for disruptions.
01:22
Hannah, do you think we're seeing
01:23
the beginnings of a chip crisis on par with COVID times?
01:27
It's hard to say right now.
01:28
I certainly hope not, because that was a really
01:31
significant global crisis.
01:33
The level of impact on automakers is unclear so far.
01:37
We've heard from a handful that they're
01:40
monitoring, looking into it.
01:42
Some talk about the impact, but we
01:44
haven't seen any accounting for the level of disruption
01:47
that we saw during COVID times.
01:49
But this chip crisis could definitely
01:51
hurt the supply chain in the US and in Europe.
01:54
John Bozzella, who's CEO of the Alliance
01:56
for Automotive Innovation, said that if the shipments don't
02:00
resume quickly, it will disrupt auto production really
02:03
across the globe in many countries
02:05
and could affect other industries too.
02:07
It's also a good reminder of, I feel
02:10
like we're reminded of this every day at this point
02:12
with tariffs and other things, but how
02:14
fragile the supply chain is.
02:16
Chips have become such an important part of cars
02:20
and of other appliances.
02:22
And it shows further reliance on China too.
02:26
I think it's so crazy that this subsidiary in China
02:30
just kind of declared its independence, right?
02:34
And how worrying if you have operations in China right now,
02:39
if you're an OEM or a supplier, and you
02:44
have operations in China, and suddenly, OK, well,
02:46
they just decide to go off and declare their independence,
02:49
start this international incident.
02:52
Well, Nexperia isn't the only supply chain crisis
02:55
keeping automakers and suppliers up at night.
02:58
The recent Novellus aluminum plant fire
03:00
in Oswego, New York, caused Nissan
03:02
to temporarily shut down its largest US plant
03:05
in Smyrna, Tennessee this week for a couple of days.
03:07
And Ford says the disruptions will cost it up
03:10
to $2 billion this year.
03:12
Larry, the supply chain has had enough stress
03:15
as it is this year with tariffs.
03:17
What do these added emergencies mean
03:19
for automakers and suppliers that are already
03:21
struggling to keep up?
03:23
You know, a couple of years ago, the worst job at an automaker
03:27
was purchasing, right?
03:28
You didn't want to be the head of purchasing
03:30
at an automaker coming out of COVID.
03:33
You got a little break.
03:34
Now the worst job was maybe product planner, right,
03:37
for the last couple of years because you're
03:39
planning products, and then the entire landscape changes.
03:43
I think the production guys, I hope they caught up
03:46
on their sleep because it's their turn in the barrel again.
03:50
These disruptions, and they happen around the globe.
03:53
We don't know where it's going to hit.
03:55
We don't know when.
03:56
I don't know if you guys remember back in 2011,
03:59
remember there was a paint additive plant in Thailand
04:02
that went down in the flooding there.
04:05
And suddenly all these automakers figured out
04:07
this is the only supplier in the world
04:09
of these paint additives that give your paint
04:13
And they all had to disrupt their supply of cars
04:17
because they didn't know that this was the only place
04:20
that supplied the industry.
04:22
I think you're seeing this again.
04:24
We went through it in COVID,
04:25
and a lot of the automakers took that opportunity
04:29
during COVID, after COVID.
04:31
Try and map out who their tier two, tier three,
04:33
tier four suppliers were.
04:35
But you can map it out all you want.
04:38
You have to have backups for your backups in this industry
04:42
because shutting down a plant or shutting down a line
04:47
because you ran out of parts is just not the way to operate.
04:50
They lose tremendous amounts of money
04:53
as the Ford earnings point out when they shut down.
04:56
That's their source of income is getting those vehicles
04:59
out the line and out the door.
05:01
That's when they get their income as an automaker.
05:03
So this is, it's crazy.
05:05
And it just shows you again,
05:07
how fragile the entire system that's been built up is
05:11
and how disruptive it can be in even one part of the globe
05:15
for something on the other side of the world.
05:17
Hannah, before we get your thoughts,
05:20
I had something that's jumped into my head real quick.
05:22
I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt you,
05:23
but Larry, when you say that the industry hasn't thought
05:26
of a backup of a backup, why hasn't it?
05:29
I mean, it seems like they need to, but why haven't,
05:34
but why hasn't the industry think?
05:35
I mean, we've been through COVID.
05:37
We saw what happened with COVID.
05:39
You know, we saw what happened with the crash in 08.
05:41
Like why hasn't the industry thought this far ahead yet?
05:45
Well, it's not that they haven't.
05:46
The problem is, is if you're a supplier, right?
05:49
You can't be an automaker's side chick, right?
05:53
You can't, you can't just wait in the wings for,
05:59
I don't know, I don't know how else to classify it.
06:01
You can't just wait in the wings for somebody to say,
06:05
hey, I, you know, I'm ready to date you now, right?
06:08
You have to have income and you have to have production
06:11
and keep your employees working.
06:13
And if you're just sitting on the sidelines
06:15
waiting to be, you know, a backup,
06:17
that's not gonna work from a financial standpoint.
06:20
So, you know, from that standpoint,
06:24
they would like to have all these backup agreements, right?
06:27
But there's just not extra capacity and, you know,
06:30
capitalism being what it is, sitting on the sideline,
06:34
you don't make money sitting on the sideline.
06:36
Yeah, I mean, you would just think though,
06:37
like you would have the foresight to think like,
06:40
let's think long game in case of,
06:42
in break glass in case of an emergency, right?
06:46
But yeah, it is what it is.
06:47
Okay, Hannah, go ahead.
06:48
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you.
06:50
Well, it also shows how complex and deep
06:53
the supply chain is.
06:54
Like I remember in the early days
06:57
that we were talking about tariffs,
06:58
like around April or May,
07:01
one of the, a big supplier told us on background
07:04
that when they have to identify
07:06
like where every single tiny part in the car is from,
07:10
it's really difficult.
07:12
Like because of all the tiers of suppliers
07:15
and that made it really challenging for them
07:17
to know what their tariff costs would be.
07:19
So it's not, I don't think it's that anyone's like
07:23
being lazy or not thinking about the long game.
07:25
It's just a really difficult business
07:28
that evolves very quickly.
07:33
we'll talk about General Motors announcement this week
07:36
and that it's betting on eyes off driving.
07:38
That's next on Weekend Drive.
07:43
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like this one with Larry Dominique,
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I do believe the legacy OEMs
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They've got to find a way to, in some ways,
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09:47
Welcome back to Weekend Drive.
09:48
I'm Kellan Walker with Larry Beliquette and Hannah Lutz.
09:52
So Hannah, you talked on the upcoming Shift podcast
09:55
with our own Lindsay Van Hulley
09:57
about GM's announcement this week
09:58
that it plans to offer eyes off driving
10:01
for some vehicles starting in 2028.
10:03
You've covered GM in the past
10:05
and you lead our tech and innovation team
10:07
at Automotive News.
10:08
Now, what are your initial thoughts on this?
10:11
So GM has been talking
10:12
about advanced vehicle technology for a long time
10:15
and has implemented it.
10:17
And a lot of talk about personalization
10:19
in vehicles for years.
10:21
I remember when I was covering the company a few years ago,
10:23
that was a big topic.
10:25
This eyes off driving seems like a significant step
10:30
towards that, that is more tangible
10:32
than some of the things that they've laid out previously.
10:35
And it's a big deal to be eyes off the road
10:38
because their current product, Super Cruise,
10:41
is very much eyes on and hands off.
10:46
And they've had to make that really clear
10:48
in their marketing.
10:49
It tracks your eyes to make sure
10:51
that you are watching the road and paying attention.
10:54
And if you're not, you get a warning signal
10:56
and you have to take control of the vehicle.
10:59
They had an ad, I think it was for the Sierra,
11:03
but it was like, we will rock you,
11:05
like the hand clap to show that you can do that
11:07
while you're driving,
11:08
but you still have to watch the road.
11:14
I thought it was clever.
11:16
This eyes off technology may be a sign
11:19
of a successful integration with Cruise,
11:22
which was the robo-taxi company
11:24
that was majority owned by GM.
11:26
And GM folded Cruise into the broader business last year.
11:30
So maybe they've been able to take some of that
11:33
more AV technology and bring it
11:35
into their driver assist products like Super Cruise.
11:40
So two things on this.
11:42
Number one, great advancement, right?
11:44
Okay, three things.
11:45
Number one, great advancement.
11:47
Number two, I hope when they start advertising this,
11:50
that they point it directly at Tesla drivers
11:54
and say, hey, we can do this, you cannot.
11:56
I was waiting for this.
11:57
Yeah, you should have been waiting for this,
12:01
And number three, but number three,
12:07
to me, the most important thing is,
12:09
and I didn't see it in Lindsay's story.
12:13
To me, when an automaker says,
12:17
you can do hands-off driving,
12:18
are they assuming, maybe Hannah, do you know this?
12:21
Are they assuming liability
12:23
for the operation of that vehicle?
12:26
From an insurance standpoint?
12:27
The liability topic is really touchy.
12:31
And I don't think, I think the driver is always liable.
12:35
We'd have to go and double check every automaker,
12:37
but you're, I mean, you are operating the vehicle,
12:40
you're in the driver's seat.
12:42
Except you're not, yeah.
12:44
But you are, but you are, for Super Cruise,
12:46
I mean, you commit to paying attention.
12:50
Right, for Super Cruise, because you're eyes on.
12:54
Now you're eyes off, right?
12:56
You're saying, I can be eyes off.
12:59
I can be reading a book or checking my email
13:02
or doing the hundred other things that Tesla drivers do.
13:05
But the liability question to me is, you know, question one.
13:11
Who's gonna pay when something happens?
13:14
It's still not fully autonomous though.
13:17
So I think that makes the driver liable.
13:20
And it's for highways only.
13:21
If they get to a point where it's for all driving scenarios
13:25
and you don't have to say that you're ready
13:29
to take over when you need to,
13:30
then maybe the automaker would be liable.
13:32
But I think at this point, it's still the driver.
13:36
And they're gonna do this with a subscription, right?
13:40
I don't know if that was laid out,
13:41
but that's what Super Cruise is.
13:43
It's a subscription.
13:45
This is so interesting to me,
13:46
because if I'm paying extra money
13:48
for equipment that's already on my car, right?
13:51
In order for them to turn it on.
13:53
But they're not going to accept liability
13:55
when they're operating the, you know,
13:57
when the vehicle's essentially operating itself
14:00
and I'm paying extra for the vehicle to operate itself.
14:04
That to me is a disconnect
14:05
and it's gonna need to be worked out.
14:12
Yeah, a lot of big questions about that with insurance.
14:16
I have a question with the liability thing,
14:17
because you two would know this better than I would.
14:20
Wouldn't the driver be considered liable
14:23
if you're the one that decides like,
14:24
hey, I'm gonna flip the switch to go to Eyes Off
14:27
because you made the decision to do it.
14:30
So like you're liable
14:31
since you're the one operating the vehicle
14:34
and you're the one that switched it,
14:36
you know what I mean?
14:36
Switched it on or switched it off.
14:37
I feel like that would hold up in court, right?
14:41
Well, you never know.
14:42
You know, you don't know how,
14:44
you don't know what a jury's gonna say.
14:45
If you're, if you decided to turn it on
14:48
and then some amount of time goes by,
14:51
15, 20 minutes, you're, you know,
14:55
and this Eyes Off system,
14:57
which they're, you know, gonna advertise
14:59
and earn extra money from,
15:03
is saying, you know, I've got this.
15:05
I'm operating the vehicle.
15:08
You can turn your, take your eyes off the road,
15:11
read a book, do whatever you want.
15:13
What happens if, you know,
15:15
if something, if a semi or a deer or something runs out,
15:19
comes out in front of you
15:22
and you're, you know, the vehicle just,
15:24
through physics, is not in a position to stop?
15:27
Is it A, do like Tesla does
15:29
and just shut the system off
15:30
for half a second before the crash
15:34
and say, oh, we're, you know, we weren't in charge.
15:37
We weren't doing this.
15:40
This to me, this is the entire can of worms
15:44
on autonomous driving, right?
15:46
Who's in charge and who's financially responsible?
15:51
I never thought about it that deep.
15:53
Sounds like a good shift episode.
15:55
So stay tuned and we'll get somebody to talk about it.
15:59
Larry, Larry, I take you as the guy
16:01
that when navigation in cars first came out,
16:06
you absolutely hated it.
16:07
No, I was okay with it.
16:08
Were you okay with it?
16:09
But I don't, you know, I still, let me put it this way.
16:12
I'm okay with it, but I don't,
16:15
I'm not the kind of person
16:16
that's going to follow it off a cliff.
16:19
Which I can't seem to get through my kids' heads, right?
16:25
Well, I won't bore you with a story,
16:26
but the number of times that my kids go on these
16:30
crazy detours because they're following their GPS,
16:36
and we go to a family, you know, a family place.
16:38
It's about four hours away, right?
16:40
And there's literally two turns that you have to do, right?
16:43
It's four hours of highway driving.
16:46
You have to turn twice.
16:48
Can they do that without their GPS?
16:51
And I don't understand that.
16:55
Well, you can hear more about this story,
16:57
including an interview with GM's Sterling Anderson
17:00
on an upcoming episode of the Automotive News Shift Podcast
17:04
that will be available Sunday morning,
17:05
wherever you get your podcast.
17:07
Now, before we sign off, Larry,
17:09
you'll be traveling to Tokyo next week
17:11
for the Japan Mobility Show.
17:13
What are you expecting to see at this year's show?
17:16
And what are you most interested in covering?
17:19
Well, what we're going to see is some new vehicles
17:23
from Lexus that are coming,
17:25
they're going to be coming to Lexus dealers,
17:28
which is one of the reasons that I'm going.
17:29
And they haven't said so yet.
17:32
The Toyota, I don't know if you,
17:35
are you familiar with the Toyota Century line?
17:39
So these are hand-built, for our audience that doesn't know,
17:43
these are hand-built vehicles
17:45
that if you've never watched one of these things,
17:47
go find, go on YouTube and look up,
17:51
look up the level of craftsmanship
17:54
that is put into these vehicles.
17:57
They are going to be, some of these are,
17:59
we believe are going to be coming to the US.
18:01
But these are bespoke vehicles.
18:03
They are hand-built.
18:04
They will be very expensive.
18:08
We're talking, I don't know, Maybach money.
18:12
Yeah, they're going to be outstanding.
18:15
There will be problem-free vehicles.
18:17
Let's put it that way.
18:18
This is going to be interesting
18:19
because there's going to be a coupe,
18:22
there's going to be an SUV,
18:23
and there's going to be a sedan.
18:25
They're expanding this Century line.
18:27
And there's also some crazy concept vehicles.
18:31
Japan Mobility Show is like the last vestige globally
18:35
of where automakers play with concept vehicles, right?
18:40
Which is what auto shows used to be about
18:41
because they were fun.
18:44
And not only did you see what was coming,
18:47
but you saw what was not, right?
18:50
These crazy things.
18:53
Remember when they put the V8 engine in the motorcycle
18:57
years ago, the Chrysler did that under,
19:00
I think that was Daimler Chrysler,
19:03
put it, they mounted it sideways,
19:04
mounted a V8, big block V8 engine in a motorcycle.
19:09
It was stupid looking and they were never going to build it,
19:12
but it was fun to look at.
19:14
So this is the last real vestige of this globally.
19:18
So I'm looking forward to that.
19:19
Well, we can't wait to hear about your travels
19:21
when you get back and all the cool stuff you're going to see.
19:24
So that's going to be awesome.
19:25
Larry, Hannah, thank you so much for joining me
19:31
That's all for this Weekend Drive edition of Daily Drive.
19:35
Thanks to Automotive News executive producer, Jake Neer,
19:37
for his help on today's podcast.
19:39
You can get the latest news on supply chain disruptions,
19:42
tech and innovation, and everything happening
19:44
in the auto industry at autonews.com.
19:47
Come back on Monday for an excerpt of our interview
19:50
with GM chief product officer, Sterling Anderson.
19:53
Trust really, really matters here.
19:56
If you want to play the long game in autonomy,
19:58
you roll out incrementally and slowly.
20:01
We'd love to hear from you.
20:02
Let us know what you think of the show
20:03
and the topics we covered today.
20:05
Send us an email at dailydriveatautonews.com
20:08
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20:13
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