Exploring the intersection of passion and engineering, Matthew Balbuena shares his journey at Mazda R&D, emphasizing the human element behind automotive design. He recounts his first job interview with Mazda, where he felt an instant connection with the team's enthusiasm compared to other automakers. The conversation dives into his unique background, growing up with deaf parents, and how it shapes his approach to user experience and audio systems in vehicles. Balbuena's story highlights the emotional connections engineers have with their work and the importance of creating enjoyable experiences for all drivers.
AI Auto Podcast S7E11 - In this captivating episode, Mazda´s Engineer Matthew Valbuena shares the story about how his deaf father, Francisco René Valbuena, taught him that true music isn't just heard, but deeply felt through vibration and emotion.
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"...first test ride of the Mazda 2026 Mazda CX-5. I'm reading here because I get confused with bad witness..."
The Mazda CX-5 is a small SUV that is good for families and people who want a mix of space and fun driving. The 2026 version will likely have new features and improvements.
The Mazda CX-5 is a compact crossover SUV that combines practicality with sporty handling. The 2026 model may feature updated technology and design enhancements, making it a popular choice among drivers looking for versatility and style.
"...my very first new car that I bought was a 2003 Mazda Pro J5 that I bought in 2002. And at the time I was in car audio..."
The Mazda Pro J5 is a car model from 2003 that Mazda made. It's known for its interesting design and features that many car fans appreciate.
The Mazda Pro J5 is a model that was produced by Mazda, known for its unique design and features that appealed to car enthusiasts. It represents Mazda's commitment to innovative engineering and performance.
"...building show vehicles for SEMA and for CES. But I loved the..."
SEMA is a big car show in Las Vegas where companies show off custom cars and parts. It's a place for car enthusiasts to see the latest trends and innovations in the automotive world.
SEMA stands for the Specialty Equipment Market Association, which hosts an annual trade show in Las Vegas. It's a major event for the automotive aftermarket industry, showcasing custom vehicles, parts, and accessories.
"...they were talking about the racing they were doing at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. They were talking about their project vehicles..."
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is a well-known racetrack in California where many car races take place. It's famous for its unique turns and exciting races.
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is a famous racetrack in California known for its challenging layout and significant motorsport events, including the Monterey Grand Prix.
"...I put four 12 inch subwoofers running off of a 2000 watt amplifier. He could not hear a word, but he could feel it..."
Subwoofers are speakers that make deep sounds, like bass in music. They help make the music sound fuller and more powerful in a car.
Subwoofers are specialized loudspeakers designed to reproduce low-frequency sounds, typically used in car audio systems to enhance bass performance. They are essential for creating a rich audio experience in vehicles.
"...I put four 12 inch subwoofers running off of a 2000 watt amplifier. He could not hear a word, but he could feel it..."
An amplifier is a device that makes music louder in a car. It helps the speakers produce better sound, especially for deep bass notes.
An amplifier is an electronic device that increases the power of audio signals, allowing speakers to produce louder sound. In car audio systems, amplifiers are crucial for driving subwoofers and enhancing overall sound quality.
"...my dad had a older Ben's and I put four 12 inch subwoofers running off of a 2000 watt amplifier. He could not hear a word, but he could feel it..."
Mercedes-Benz is a famous car brand that makes high-end cars and trucks. They are known for their quality and luxury features.
Mercedes-Benz is a German automotive brand known for luxury vehicles, buses, and trucks. It is one of the most recognized and prestigious car manufacturers in the world.
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Tires are the rubber parts on your car that touch the ground. They help your car move and stop safely on the road.
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Welcome to the AI Auto podcast with Javier Moda, your front row seat to where artificial
intelligence meets horsepower. Well, today we're here in Encinitas with Matthew Balbuena.
Good to see you, Matthew. How are you, Matthew? I'm good. So we're here for the first test ride
of the Mazda 2026 Mazda CX5. I'm reading here because I get confused with bad witness.
And usually I do my podcast just with audio, but you understand why this one will require
video visuals. So you're responsible for the new multimedia system, which is amazing. We
already talk about that a lot and like Google base and all that kind of thing. And this video,
my intention with this video or podcast to confirm my theory that the automotive industry
is powered by people. It definitely is. A lot of the customers getting the car, turn on the knob,
open, unlock the car, all do this, turn on the radio, adjust the AC before even driving.
They don't realize how much work goes behind that, right? I mean, in this case, I don't know,
a Mazda is a Japanese company. This car is built in Japan. They have huge operations,
not only here in the US, but in Europe, you know, all over Latin America. So there's like,
I don't know, how many, do you know, even know how many people work at Mazda?
In the US, it's, I want to say between the dealers and all the supply chain and everything,
it's several thousands. Within Mazda R&D, R&D design, it's about 100, 150 people. And I am one
of those people at Mazda R&D. But to your point, there are so many interesting personalities
and people that work for the company and so many passionate people. And I am proud to say that I
am one of those passionate engineers for Mazda. Yeah. And there's several, for example, Dave Coleman.
Dave Coleman, exactly. More in charge of the engines and the setup of the car.
The chassis, the dynamics. The way the car feels.
And so you shared a little bit of a story yesterday about when you were like getting into
your first job in automotive and you interviewed with other car makers, I don't know if you want
to mention, but you got that feeling, right? So a lot of what I was looking for in a job is I wanted
to work someplace that was fun to work. One of my very first new car that I bought was a 2003
Mazda Pro J5 that I bought in 2002. And at the time I was in car audio. I was installing car
audio systems for high-end clientele, building show vehicles for SEMA and for CES. But I loved the
car brand. And looking at the car audio industry, over time it got harder and harder to replace the
stereo that came with your car with an aftermarket stereo. It was just like pulling out a couple
cables and that's it. But now? Yeah, exactly. Now it's much the factory audio systems and
radios are much more integrated into the design of the vehicle. So at the time I knew that my
days were numbered in the aftermarket industry. So I had several interviews with different
automakers based in the Orange County area in Southern California. If you know, you know.
And when I interviewed with Mazda, I'm in a suit because I'm interviewing for a job. But the guys
I'm interviewing with jeans and a hoodie. We're making small talk and they're talking about the
racing they were doing at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. They were talking about their project vehicles
and compared to the other interviews I'd been on where I'm trying to make small talk and they're
like, oh yeah, the weather. It's nice outside and it's just very dry. They were nice people,
but they weren't passionate people. Yeah, they were doing business. They were doing business.
They were just business people. And when I had this interview with Mazda at R&D, it was like,
these are my people. They are passionate. They're enthusiastic. They want to create the best vehicles
possible that supports their own passions. And so I knew right away it was a great fit.
But I don't know if that was the most interesting part of our conversation. Well, no, no, I'm going
backwards now. Okay, all right. So I mean, I think one of the reasons we started talking more beyond
work and cars and all that because we're our last names. I mean, my motto,
you come up and I think you asked me if I dream in Spanish or English or English and actually
do both. And actually I failed to mention last night, but actually sometimes even I dream in
black and white. Yeah. Or I have the ability to kind of wake up, have to wake up and then
what was the dream or it was real? Oh, it was a dream. I can go back to the dream.
Oh, really? It's really amazing. Yeah. And so what was interesting is, you know, Javier said,
okay, I can dream in English or Spanish, black and white color. For me, English is my second
language. American Sign Language is my first language. My parents are deaf. So growing up,
I was the adult interpreter as a kid. So when I was seven, I bought a car. Wow. When I was eight,
I bought a house. I didn't really. My parents did, but I was the interpreter. Right. So for me,
so much of what I do for work is based on my childhood experiences. Both my parents are deaf.
So for me, English is second. Sign Language is first. And so I'm very, very visual. So I catch
things based in the user interface. So I'm very focused on improving things based on what I see.
I'm also big on audio. I do. Of course. I do the premium audio tuning. Because of that, too. I mean,
your parents didn't don't hear, but they feel you tell me the music. Right. And so you were telling
me about how you put like a, what, how many, four or what? So back when I was doing the car audio
thing, my dad had a older Ben's and I put four 12 inch subwoofers running off of a 2000 watt amplifier.
He could not hear a word, but he could feel it. The vibration. And he loved it. And one of the funnier
stories. I don't even think I mentioned this last night is after I installed the system in his, in
his car, he takes his coworker out to lunch. He's so proud to show off the car. So he takes his
coworker out and he hits play on the CD player and his coworkers face turns white. My dad didn't
realize what he was listening to was, uh, I think it was Snoop Dogg. Okay. So it was explicit lyrics
and his coworker was a born again Christian. Oh my God. And was offended at the lyrical content.
And he thought that he was showing you because of the lyrics. Well, he didn't know. He's like,
listen to this. And it was just profanity. So I had to go back and burn CDs that were all radio
edit. So that way everything my dad listens to is safe for work. So what, but that experience
growing up with your father and your parents, your mother too, without being able to listen,
like really, it's shaped. Exactly. Eventually consumers are going to get into a new system.
Right. So one of the things for me when I, when I'm helping tune the Bose premium audio systems
is I want an experience that you can feel. Yeah. So when you get in the car and you turn it up,
I want you to have that tactile impact. Cause typically if you're listening to your music
outside of the car, you're listening on what earbuds, a portable Bluetooth speaker,
you can't feel the music with that. Yeah. So when you're in a car, in many cases,
the car is the best sounding audio system the person has. That's why I record my podcasting
cars. There you go. So I want to deliver an experience that gives you that tactile feedback.
One, because I know it's enjoyable. Two, it's also kind of limited homage to my parents.
Exactly. Making sure that my parents can enjoy my work, even though they may not be able to
directly hear it. It's kind of a big deal for me. And so when I look at user interfaces,
again, because sign language is such a visual communication, so is the user interface. You're
taking in information and you're understanding things. So I focus on icon design, layout, text,
everything you see in a Mazda vehicle. I have had some sort of input on or control over every
single word that is shown in the settings menu. I have the size, the color. All of this I have
written, reviewed or curated. Same thing with the gauge cluster. So because of my background,
I studied industrial design. I wanted to get into transportation design, but my enthusiasm for car
audio for automotive technology brought me into a different space in the vehicle, but it's worked
out perfectly because it's pulled from my experiences as a young adult, even as a child,
and have enabled me to bring my heritage, my history, combined with my passion to create
kind of this ideal user experience. So when every customer gets into a Mazda now, they know
what's Matthew and the inspiration from your father and your mother to create this. So experience
that. But let's go back a little bit back with your father story because it's amazing. He was
from Colombia. He had an action or whatever, but tell us what caused him and how successful
he became despite this. So I am here. I exist obviously because of my parents and my father
was born in Cali, Colombia and moved to Bogota at a young age. He was a rambunctious youngster
and when he was about eight years old, he was kind of a little mischievous little brat. He was up
at a tree and he had a little blow dart gun and he was popping passerbys and they were like,
oh, what the hell? And it was just shooting berries or rocks. Yeah, nothing really harmful,
but just mischievous. And so he was done causing havoc. He puts the blow dart gun down his waist
band and he's trying to climb down the tree. Well, he loses his grip and he falls and he
lands on his butt. But the blow dart gun was sticking out of his waist band and it impaled
the roof of his mouth. So he's bleeding out of the mouth, but he's okay, but he's bleeding.
So his mom takes him to some local clinic. They stitch him up. They give him some antibiotics
and they send him home. So all is well that night. The next morning he wakes up and he realizes that
his pillowcase is just soaked in blood and he's got blood coming out of his ears and mouth and
he's just like, what the heck? And so he stumbles into his parents' room and his parents are up
in bed reading the paper and he tries to yell, but he doesn't make a sound and he then smacks
the foot of the bed and his parents drop the paper, freak out because they see their eight-year-old
son who's in blood everywhere. They wrap his head up in towels. They rush him to the hospital.
They get to the hospital and the doctors, they're like, there's no wound. The roof of his mouth,
that's looking good. So they do blood work. And when they looked at the lab results,
they discovered that he had a toxic level of veterinary antibiotic. The doctor,
the doctor they had seen the day before in the clinic was a fraud and had given him an antibiotic
that was meant for a cow. So a thousand pound animal's worth of drug into like an 80-pound
kid's eight-year-old. Yeah. That was what ruined my father's hearing. And in Columbia at the time,
unlike the US, where in the US, if you have a disability, a vision, hearing, you are still
guaranteed at least a high school education. You're given assistance. You're giving the right
educational support to ensure that you graduate. Well, in Columbia at the time, it's like, well,
you're on your own. If you can pay for private school, okay, but you're not getting any help from
the public school system. And unfortunately, my grandparents didn't have the support to do that.
And so he unfortunately only has a third grade education. So he ended up kind of working odd
jobs on the streets. He would shoe shine. He would just do whatever kind of busking, whatever he could
do to earn a buck. And over the years, he befriended an American who had come to Columbia who was
deaf. And he was a, he had set up a missionary outreach and had kind of herded in the hearing
impaired in Bogota and was teaching them American sign language and trying to give them,
I was wondering about that. It's different, right? It's different. So different countries have
different versions of sign language. So if I, if I travel and I see somebody in Germany signing,
Oh, you don't understand. Like, I don't understand the German when they speak,
but some signs are universal. Like drink, no matter what country you're in, this is drink.
It is good. Yes. But in other countries, sometimes the signs, I don't understand. So this, this
American had taught my father American sign language. And my mom and some of her friends
had gone down to Columbia as part of some missionary trip. And my dad ended up being
their unofficial tour guide. And so he knew enough American sign language to show them the
site. He's like, you know, this is the store. This is the party place, whatever it was. And
they felt for my dad because being a deaf adult at this point, you can't drive. You can't vote.
And you're actually weren't allowed to enter any government building. Like you were seen
as a pariah. You were seen as like, you were a less than and they felt bad for my dad because
they realized if he remained in Columbia, he didn't have much of an opportunity. Right.
So they pulled their money together and helped my dad buy a one way ticket to LA.
Wow. So he comes out to LA in 1971. He marries my mom in 1973. I came out in 1979.
So my dad had nothing but a third grade education. He lands in the US at 18 years old.
And so he's in the LA area and they go to a, I want to say it was Catholic Industries was the
name of the organization. And this organization focuses on job rehabilitation for disabled
adults. So they help them find work, whether it be, you know, visual, hearing, cognitive,
or even physical disabilities, they're working with adults to find them applicable skills.
My father goes through Catholic Industries and gets a job working in a machine shop,
refinishing the machines. So sanding off the drill press. No, it's not really mechanical,
but just maintenance. Yeah. Just physical labor, sanding, painting. And he's,
he's working there for a couple of months and he sees a machine that's out of order and he
describes it as this kind of John Wayne technician comes strutting in with a tool belt. Yeah. He's
got like a hard hat. Intimidating, right? Yeah. The guy comes in, takes the machine apart, pulls
this component and says, this is no good. Throws it in the trash. He's like, I'll be back in a
couple of weeks. I'll order a new part when it comes in. I'll install it. Yeah. But my dad's
all curious. He's like, why did the machine break? What happened? So he asked his boss. He's like,
can I, can I check that part? Can I, can I fix it? And his boss was like, they can't fix it. That's
why they ordered a new one. He's like, on your own time, on your lunch, whatever, you can play with
it. So first lunch break comes around. He takes it apart and he looks at it and he realizes he's
like, okay, I see this. So he, he, whatever he does, he fixes it. He puts it back together and he
goes to his boss. He's like, I think I fixed it. And his boss was like, that's impossible. The guy
said it wasn't able to be fixed and they had to replace it. And then it's like, no, no, no, I think
I fixed it. So he's like, okay, after work, we'll, we'll put it back in and we'll see if it works.
So they install this part that my dad had repaired, fire up the machine and everything works. So at
this point, his boss realizes, okay, the guy that can just sand and paint the machines can do more.
So he takes my dad under his wing and starts teaching him how to operate the machinery,
how to become a machinist. And so my dad spends the next couple of months learning,
well, his boss quits. And my dad's like, what the heck? This guy was my future. His boss quits and
goes to a different company. And my dad's just, okay, doing his machinist job with the small
skills that he knew, just kind of keeps plugging along. Well, six months later, his old boss reaches
out to him. Hey, Renee, you want to come work with me? But it's like, yes. So then my dad goes and
joins his old boss at his new place. And my dad ended up before retiring from that company,
before leaving that company, because the company moved out of state. He worked there for 18 years.
In that span, he started off as a machinist, moved his way up to a tool and dye maker and left the
company as the production engineering manager. Completely self taught. And he had engineers
reporting disability and people would feel sorry about something. And then he had a huge white
board in his office. And that's how you would communicate with staff. He would just write
and figure things out. But his unorthodox education, learning on the job, taught him
things that engineers straight out of college did not know and could not figure out. And he
would butt heads with the traditionally trained engineers that would design something. And my
dad's like, you can't build that. You may have designed it, but physically is impossible to
produce. And they guys are like, no, no, this, this can be done. And my dad's like, all right,
we'll do it your way. And then the engineer realized, Oh, Renee was right. I couldn't do this.
And my dad's like, let me show you how I would do it. And he would manually mill and lay the machine
the parts or the, the, the, the tool and die and, and bring it to the engineer. So my dad,
with just a third grade education holds multiple design patents, multiple inventions,
completely self taught and is truly the epitome of the American dream. Absolutely. I am here
because of him. Exactly. I was going to say his best creation, Matthew. I don't even know if that's
true, but, but because of him and because of his struggles in his efforts, I am proud to be
an engineer and following in his footsteps. No, it's amazing. I mean, amazing story. And it's,
it's, it's good to feel emotional because I mean, he deserves a lot of credit. And now people,
when they get into the new Mazda, or any Mazda, because you've been working for the company for
a long time, you know, now René Valgoena and Matthew Valgoena are the reason for it.
There is a story behind every person and there's a story behind every feature.
And I am proud of my efforts to bring that to you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you.
My dad signed René. His true name is, it's, it's, uh, Francisco René. Yeah. So it's,
thank you, Francisco. Okay. Thank you. There you go. Thank you very much for listening and watching
this podcast. Thank you. Have a good one. That's it for today's AI Auto podcast
with Javier Moda. Hope you enjoyed the ride as much as we did. Tune in next time for more on
how AI is steering the wheel of tomorrow's autos. Drive safe, stay curious, and catch you later.
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