They talk about what the Chevrolet Trax LT is like day-to-day, including how much it can carry and what tech features it has. They also mention how the powertrain feels when you’re just trying to get around.
They mention the Ford Explorer Tremor as a more rugged version of the Explorer. In this conversation, it’s mainly a comparison point to show how different the “who it’s for” audience is versus the smaller, cheaper SUV.
Wireless Apple CarPlay is a way to connect your iPhone to the car so you can use things like maps and music on the car’s screen. The “wireless” part means you don’t have to plug your phone in.
Android Auto lets you connect an Android phone to the car so you can use apps on the car’s screen. It’s meant to keep you focused on driving while still getting directions and music.
EPA is a U.S. agency that sets standardized tests for fuel economy. Their MPG numbers are commonly used to compare cars, even if your real-world mileage can differ.
This is a small 1.2-liter engine with a turbocharger. The “turbo” helps it feel stronger than you’d expect from a small engine, and the goal is usually better gas mileage.
A six-speed transmission is the set of gears that helps the engine run efficiently. Sometimes it can feel odd if the car shifts in a way you wouldn’t expect.
They’re comparing the Hyundai Venue to another cheap small crossover. The Venue is described as feeling nicer and being a little cheaper, with more usable space in the back.
They’re talking about the classic Volkswagen Beetle with an air-cooled engine. The point is that older cheap cars could be painfully slow compared with today’s basic cars.
The HR-V is a small crossover SUV from Honda meant for everyday driving. In this podcast, it sounds like the specific example had a manual transmission. Wheel bearings can still wear out on any car, especially if it’s driven hard or on rough roads.
The WRX is a sporty Subaru sedan with a turbo engine and all-wheel drive. It’s built to handle different road conditions while still feeling quick. If you drive it on rough roads, parts near the wheels—like wheel bearings—can wear out faster.
Adaptive cruise control is like normal cruise control, but it can slow down or speed up to keep a safe distance from the car in front. The speaker says the car’s screen/controls for switching modes are a bit awkward.
GM is General Motors, one of the big car companies. The host is saying GM might be building extra costs (like tariffs) into the car’s shipping fee.
Brand
Chevy Pri tracks
This sounds like the Chevrolet Trax, which the host is bringing up as a cheaper option. They’re comparing it to other budget cars based on price and features.
The Ford Maverick is a small pickup truck that’s designed to be cheaper than most trucks. This episode talks about the Maverick’s hybrid version and how you can (or couldn’t) get it with all-wheel drive depending on the model year.
It sounds like the podcast is talking about the Ford Maverick, a small pickup truck. A pickup like this is used for everyday driving and occasional hauling. If you hit rough roads often, wheel bearings can wear out faster.
An all-wheel drive hybrid means the car uses a hybrid engine but can also drive all four wheels. That can help it grip better in bad weather than a hybrid that only drives the front wheels.
A mid-cycle refresh is when a car gets updated halfway through its production life. It can include new features and option changes—like what engines or drivetrains you can order.
EcoBoost is Ford’s name for a turbo engine. A turbo engine can make good power without using a bigger engine, and here it’s being mentioned as the non-hybrid way to get AWD.
The Ford Escape is a compact SUV. They bring it up to point out that another Ford model already offered hybrid all-wheel drive, while the Maverick initially didn’t.
The Ford Bronco Sport is a small SUV. The hosts mention it because it uses a similar underlying design, and it already had hybrid AWD—so they’re comparing that to what the Maverick offered at launch.
The Chevrolet Cobalt is a compact car. The podcast is describing how it felt to drive—smooth and easy. Over time, any car can develop wheel bearing noise or wear, especially with high mileage.
A bed liner is a protective coating inside a truck bed. It helps prevent damage from hauling things like tools, rocks, or anything that could scratch or dent the metal.
Co-Pilot360 is Ford’s package of safety and driver-assist features. It’s the kind of option that can add things like warnings and automated help, and it usually costs extra.
An aftermarket cruise control switch is a third-party part you can add to a car to get cruise control if it wasn’t included. In the story, someone had it installed by a mechanic.
Chip shortages mean there weren’t enough computer chips available to build as many cars as usual. With fewer cars available, dealers could charge more.
A markup is an added price above the vehicle’s listed price, often charged by dealers when demand is high or supply is constrained. The segment describes dealers charging large markups during the chip-shortage era, then explains how Ford raised MSRP to reduce the ability for dealers to profit from excessive markups.
The Ford Bronco is a popular off-road SUV. They mention it because someone they know had to pay extra money after ordering, similar to the Maverick stories.
MSRP is the starting price the manufacturer lists for a car. They’re saying Ford raised that baseline so dealers had less room to tack on huge extra charges.
A destination charge is the cost of getting the car from where it’s built to the dealership. It’s one of the fees that can surprise you when you look at the final price.
Options are extra features you choose for a car, and they usually cost extra. They’re pointing out that adding lots of options is why the final price climbs.
The podcast is talking generally about trucks and how adding many options can make them more expensive. Trucks often get driven on rougher roads or used for work, which can affect parts near the wheels. Wheel bearings can wear faster when a truck is used hard or on uneven surfaces.
Fuel efficiency is how far the vehicle can go on a gallon of fuel. The host is comparing how efficient the truck is in real driving, not just on paper.
The Subaru Uncharted GT is Subaru’s new electric crossover. The host explains it’s built on the same EV platform as other Subaru EVs and that it’s front-wheel drive with an electric motor and a battery pack.
The Solterra is an electric crossover SUV. The podcast is saying it shares its basic design with other similar vehicles. Because it’s an electric car, it can be heavier than some gas cars, and that can affect how quickly wheel parts wear out.
The Toyota C-HR is a small crossover SUV. It’s built for normal daily driving and parking in tight spaces. Like other cars, the parts that support the wheels—like wheel bearings—can wear out with time and rough roads.
Front-wheel drive means the front wheels do the work of moving the car. The host is pointing out that this Subaru EV version is front-wheel drive and uses one electric motor.
A kilowatt-hour (kWh) number tells you how big the battery is—how much energy it can store. Bigger kWh often means more potential range, depending on the vehicle.
The Subaru GT is the trim they’re testing for range and efficiency. They talk about how far it goes on a charge and how efficiently it uses electricity in normal driving.
Term
fifteen hundred watt one twenty volt AC outlet
That’s a built-in power plug in the car that can run regular electronics. It’s useful for camping or powering small appliances without needing extra gear.
The Chevrolet Volt is a plug-in hybrid, so it can drive using electricity and can also switch to gasoline. The podcast mentions using a regular outlet to charge or power something, which fits how plug-in cars are used at home. Wheel bearings can still wear out like on any car, depending on driving conditions and maintenance.
The Lucid Air is an electric sedan, meaning it runs on electricity instead of gasoline. It’s designed to go farther between charges and to feel smooth to drive. Like other cars, it can still develop wheel bearing problems as parts wear over time.
This is the range number the company advertises for the EV. Your real range can be higher or lower depending on how you drive and the weather.
Car
Subaru Soltera
The Subaru Soltera is Subaru’s electric vehicle. In this segment, they’re talking about how the updated interior design makes the driver’s screen easier to see and how the charging pads are arranged.
These are charging spots in the car that power your phone without a cable. They also help keep the phone steady so it doesn’t move around while driving.
A heads-up display shows important info in front of you, near the windshield. The host is saying the car’s screen placement feels similar because it’s easy to see while driving.
J3400 refers to the charging connection standard the car uses. The host is saying where the port is located and that it was easy to plug in at a charger.
They mention the Subaru Outback because they’ve seen how wireless phone charging behaves there. Then they compare it to the EV’s design, which keeps the phone from moving.
Cadillac is used as an example of a car that charges your phone in a slot. The host likes it because the phone is held securely and you don’t have to look at it while driving.
The Subaru Trail Seeker is a more powerful version they’re looking forward to driving. They mention it has more horsepower than the other trim and that EVs feel quick right away.
Traction control helps prevent the wheels from spinning when the road is slippery. It adjusts power and braking so you keep moving without losing grip.
All-terrain tires are tires meant for both regular roads and rougher surfaces. They usually have a tougher tread pattern so you get better traction on dirt and gravel.
Ground clearance is how much space there is between the ground and the bottom of the car. More clearance helps you avoid hitting rocks or bumps underneath on rough roads.
All-season tires are made to be decent in many weather types without being specialized. They’re usually not as grippy on rough trails as all-terrain tires.
The Wrangler is an SUV made for off-road driving. The podcast mentions trail areas like Moab and the Rubicon Trail, which are tough on vehicles. Off-road driving can make wheel bearings wear out faster because the wheels take a lot of impacts.
Kilowatts are a measure of how much power the charger can deliver. More power usually means faster charging, but the car and battery condition still affect the final speed.
Term
charging is a lot better
They’re saying the newer EV charges faster than the older one. That means you can get back on the road sooner when you plug in at a good charger.
The “NAX” charging port is the type of plug/connection the EV uses to charge. They’re saying it’s set up so you can use it at many charging stations with the right setup.
CCS is a common fast-charging plug standard for EVs. If your car supports CCS, you can use many public fast chargers more easily.
Term
Knaxx connectors
They’re talking about another charging plug type besides CCS. The main takeaway is that some chargers are being built with two different plug standards so more EVs can use them.
Charging adapters are pieces that let your EV plug into a different type of charger. They help you use more charging stations even if the plug types don’t match.
Chevy is the car brand they’re talking about. They’re saying Chevy doesn’t include the charging adapters/connectors in the package the way some other brands do.
A Range Rover is a luxury SUV that’s designed to be comfortable and capable on different roads. Because it’s a heavy, high-end vehicle, repairs can be costly. Wheel bearings are one of the parts that can wear out as the vehicle gets older or is driven on rough roads.
Manufacturer plates are special license plates used for things like press cars or automaker vehicles. They can look different from normal plates, especially in how the numbers and letters are arranged. In this episode, that difference helped the camera system flag the wrong situation.
Jaguar Land Rover is the company that makes Jaguar and Land Rover cars. In this story, their special “manufacturer” license plates have a different layout than normal plates. That difference helped trigger false alerts from the camera system.
These are cameras that automatically read license plates as cars drive by. In this episode, the cameras are tied to a system that can alert police when it thinks a plate is stolen. The hosts argue the system can be wrong if the plate information is entered incorrectly.
They talk about a website that shows where these license-plate cameras are. You can look at your area and see camera locations. They also mention you can help update the map.
Automated license plate reader cameras are devices that scan cars and record the text on license plates. The hosts say these systems can also notice other details on the vehicle. That’s why a mistake can snowball into an incorrect alert.
Term
AI
AI means “smart computer software” that can recognize patterns. In this story, it’s used to interpret what the cameras see on cars. If the system’s information is wrong, AI can still act on it.
The Tacoma is a mid-size pickup truck from Toyota. People use it for work and for outdoor trips, including rougher roads. Trucks like this can wear wheel bearings faster if they’re driven on uneven surfaces.
A Dodge Charger is a popular American car model. In this episode, they’re talking about one that looked like a real police car because it had police-style lights and markings, even though it was just a press/fleet vehicle.
The Honda Civic is a very common everyday car. They’re using it in the story because someone stole its wheels, and the system recognized the car’s plate and helped identify who to call.
An automatic license plate reader is a camera that records car license plates and checks them against a list. The hosts are discussing how these systems can make everyday driving feel more monitored over time.
Flock makes camera systems that can automatically warn people to leave an area. In this story, it’s used around a hospital so people can’t stay in a certain spot for too long.
Term
private property
“Private property” means an area that belongs to someone (like a hospital or business), not a public street or park. The system is telling people they’re in a space where they’re not allowed to stay.
A car loan is money you borrow to buy a car and then pay back over time with monthly payments. This segment is talking about longer loan terms and how that changes what people can afford.
A down payment is the money you pay upfront when you buy a car with financing. If the down payment is smaller, you have to borrow more, which usually raises your monthly payment.
Interest rates are what the lender charges for borrowing money. If they’re high, your car loan costs more overall and it can make monthly payments harder to afford.
Term
underwater on that car
“Underwater” means you owe more money on the loan than the car is worth right now. If the car gets totaled or stolen, insurance might only pay what the car is worth, so you could still owe money to the lender.
The Nissan Kicks is a smaller, more affordable crossover. The hosts mention it as an option people might choose when they can’t afford a more expensive car.
“Touch screens” here refers to using a driver-facing display to control functions like turn signals, temperature, and other in-cabin settings. The segment argues that touchscreen interactions take longer and increase the distance/time the driver’s eyes are off the road compared with physical controls.
They used a Volvo V70 as a “baseline” car to compare against newer cars. The key idea is that the V70 has more normal buttons and knobs, so you can do things without looking at a screen.
The Mazda CX-60 is called out as the worst performer in the touchscreen-task timing results. The point is that its touchscreen interface made everyday driving tasks take longer and require more glancing away from the road.
LIVE
Sam Abuelsamid (00:01)
This is episode four hundred and sixty one of wheel bearings. I am Sam Abuelsamid from Telemetry.
Roberto Baldwin (00:06)
And I am Roberto Baldwin from SAE International.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:09)
And Nicole's not here this week. I can't remember where she said she was gonna be. Yeah. Cool cooler than sitting around on a Sunday morning with the two of us.
Roberto Baldwin (00:13)
I should probably doing something cool. Cookie cookie or
Cookie or or Disney related. That's why I feel like that's like that's if Nicole's not here, that's what she's doing.
all right, well well spe speaking of of sweet stuff, I've been I've been getting into making ice cream in recent weeks 'cause it's been hot here. And I made this amazing chocolate sorbet yesterday.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:44)
But anyway, ⁓ let's see. Yeah. Well I also ⁓ I I also have a great strawberry ice cream that I made.
Roberto Baldwin (00:46)
I'm not really a big fan of chocolate. Just another reason why I'm a odd person.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:58)
Yeah. next next week I think I might make some ⁓ strawberry sorbet. We'll see. ⁓ so what have you been driving?
Roberto Baldwin (01:07)
So this week after last week you know, last week I had the Explorer Tremor and I was just like, I don't know what that car is for. this week I got the Chevy Tracks L T and you know exactly who this car is for. Like you need a you need an inexpensive little SUV that has ⁓ apparently enough room for two guitar amps, two ⁓ guitars, some percussion, a monitor, ⁓ some other random stuff.
Roberto Baldwin (01:35)
also a keyboard at the same time. Like you could put a lot of stuff in the back of this little car. Put the seats down, go do your band stuff. That's that's you that's that's what I've learned about the Chevy tracks. ⁓
somebody in a band who doesn't get paid very much for being in a band. Yeah.
Roberto Baldwin (01:49)
Which is everyone. Which is that
yeah. No one no one's making money in the band. We all you know, we have to pay you know, you buy you know, you get you we got we got a everyone got a hundred dollars from a gig and then you go out and buy like a four hundred dollar guitar or
Or you know Well I played like we played seven gigs and now I'm gonna buy a two thousand dollar keyboard. Like, alright. And then of course we have a space which you have to pay rent on, which you know that's like eighty bucks a month per person. And yeah, no one makes money ⁓ usually in a band. anywho, Chevy Tracks ⁓ is for the person in the band who's you know, you don't you know have a lot of money. ⁓ I will say unlike the Chevy ⁓ the the the Explorer, it has a wireless charger.
Sam Abuelsamid (02:04)
Math works about rooks are about, right?
Roberto Baldwin (02:33)
I still don't understand why that explored Apple Wirescharged. But this one does. It has wireless, you know, Apple Android. ⁓ Apple Android. Yes. Yeah, sorry. I had the show last night, so I'm very tired and a little loopy.
It has wireless Apple CarPlay and Android auto. I could not for the life of me figure out last night on my way home from the club how to find it what my what my miles per gallon was. I just kept hitting buttons and I was like, I give up.
but according to EPA I think it's thirty miles per gallon ⁓
Combined twenty-eight city, thirty-two highway, which is pretty good, you know, for you know, a small little car you need to get around. You you know, gas is very expensive, it's not cheap. ⁓ so you know, 30 miles per gallon is pretty good for ⁓ you know a non hybrid ⁓ vehicle. ⁓ it is ⁓ sorry. I get it now my my nose is a little runny as well. overall, yeah, it it feels like
inexpensive Chevy product. It you know you get in you're like, yeah, yeah, it's exactly what this is. It's an inexpensive Chevy product. And you know, at the let's see the starting price for this one was ⁓ you know twenty three thousand dollars for the one L T. I'm sorry, I don't know what what the one is for. But it's one limited I guess. One more. It's it's it's a little bit ⁓ a little
Sam Abuelsamid (03:51)
That's to distinguish it from the two L T. Which is, you know, one more.
Roberto Baldwin (04:00)
It's one more LT. It has it has the EcoTech one point two liter turbo. Ooh, which sounds eco. It's you know, thirty miles per gallon is like, yeah, sure. ⁓ tech, if you say so. And then turbo, sure. ⁓ it's not a quick vehicle. It's not you know, it's not supposed to be. I think we you we I think as automotive journalists we we we tend to start ⁓ expecting everything to be a performance vehicle. Not everything needs to be be needs to be a performance vehicle.
Sometimes you just need to get around. So this is definitely just I just need to get around. It's got a you know, six speed ⁓ transmission, ⁓ automatic transmission, and you know, it's there's some times where you're just like, What is the transmission doing? What's happening here? You're like, Come on. Come on. And again, inexpensive car, you know, twenty you know, twenty thousand dollars. ⁓
Roberto Baldwin (04:55)
So yeah, it a lot of the the little things are he's like, Well, there's this but like, Yeah, but it's only, you know, let's look at the I didn't even look up the the the the starting price of this vehicle, so it shows you where I'm at this morning. And it is brrrr b twenty one thousand seven hundred bucks according to Chevy. So yeah. Yeah, no, it's yeah, it it's for what it is, you're like, Yeah, yeah, all right, sure. Okay. It does the thing it needs to do.
it's not fancy in any way at all. It is ⁓ but the the biggest problem with the Chevy Tracks is that it exists in the world with the ⁓ with the Hyundai venue, which to me is feels like a is a nicer vehicle and it's actually a little bit cheaper. It's a couple of hundred bucks cheaper, almost a thousand bucks cheaper. ⁓ the venue's a little bit I believe the venue is a little bit smaller. ⁓ that said
Roberto Baldwin (05:49)
Yeah, the back seat's pretty pretty tight. You know, the the the tracks is it's okay for the back seat. ⁓ you know, I'm not gonna be hanging out back there if I can help it. but you put those rear seats down, you got a little extra space.
⁓ yeah, it's yeah, it I don't it has a knob for the volume. It's it's a it has like it has knobs for and it also has knobs for ⁓ climate control, which I am a big fan of, versus the push a button up, push a button down, or worse, on screen push a button up, push a button down.
No, like turning like hotter right, colder left, hotter right, and my my BRZ has that. The Chevy tracks has that. And I'm like, this is so much nicer than what's it say the Hummer. So yeah, a big fan of of that. overall, yeah, the Chevy tracks, you need an inexpensive vehicle, you need a you know, a little bit more space. ⁓ you're not really you don't really care about performance because this car is not there no, don't don't don't even I don't think Chevy even tells us like a zero to sixty.
think you you can say the same thing, you know, about most entry level vehicle. Yeah, pretty much all entry level vehicles. None of them are particularly performant. But they're you know, they're adequate and especially, you know ⁓ if you you know, if you're like me, you know, old enough to remember when cheap cars, you know, were genuinely slow, you know, these these cars are they're not slow.
Roberto Baldwin (06:52)
Yeah. Yeah, you d you don't
Sam Abuelsamid (07:15)
You know, I mean they they all get to zero to sixty in like under eight ish seconds, you know, around eight eight seconds or so. Which is way more than adequate. I remember, you know, when a cheap c you know, ⁓ an entry level car, you would be lucky to get to sixty miles an hour in twenty seconds.
Sam Abuelsamid (07:36)
That you know, if you ever drove an old air cooled beetle, ooh. Yeah. It might get to sixty miles an hour eventually.
yeah, that you know, they air cooled beetles, it's yeah that's like a couple days. Like downhill with the tailwind. Like where are you going? What's your rush? What do you I remember my my ninety Honda Civic DX hatchback had like eighty six horsepower.
But it had a manual transmission, so I just you know, rolled the hell out of it while getting up there. But also I was like, Well, whatever, I got I got where I was going. I didn't, you know. ⁓ yeah, so yeah, it should be tracks.
Roberto Baldwin (08:14)
Cool. You know, it's you know, check you know, you're gonna check it if you gets the the kicks, which is like I love the kicks. HR V. HRV's a good, you know, vehicle. ⁓ But yeah, you know, the the the tracks. Inexpensive, you need to get where you're going. Hey, high five, you got there. If you're in a band, perfect vehicle. If you're a band you're not making a lot of money, ⁓ perfect vehicle. Yeah, there you go. Good, yeah.
if if you got, you know, dri young drivers in your family, you know, and you wanna buy them something new that's got, you know, some ADAS features on it, you know, it's not gonna it's not so fast that it's likely to get into a lot of trouble.
you know, but it it can, you know, get to school or whatever, you know, if you're sending off your your kid to college, you know, for for the freshman year this fall and you wanna get them a new car, ⁓ you know, something like this is great, you know, and it's
You know, I mean obviously, you know, we've we've raised the bar on what is entry level. It used to be, you know, I mean I can remember when it was, you know, ten thousand dollars and then fifteen thousand dollars and then twenty.
You know, now it's twenty five is, you know, gonna the entry point. You know, un if you can find if you can get stuff under twenty five and there's there's a a handful of decent vehicles that you can get for under twenty five grand.
Roberto Baldwin (09:35)
Yeah, yeah, there's some you know, there's some good little cars out there. Again, I you know, I talked about the venue. I mean the kicks, I love the kicks. I love a a nice inexpensive car because I think it's really, really hard to make a good inexpensive car.
It's not that hard to make a really good a luxury car because you just you can just keep cramming things on there to make it luxury and just keep raising the price. Now whether or not people buy it or not is a whole other issue, but like to make a good inexpensive car that you can make completely.
money off of, which is, you know, you know, the profit margins are are are are are are slimmer on an inexpensive vehicle. So, you know, they that's you know, whenever if if an automaker can you know make an inexpensive car and then no one buys it, they're like, well, we tried. And then they just like you know, all you get is mid-level. Yep. You know, it but, you know, if you make a good inexpensive car, what that means is that person buys that
You know, maybe it's their first car, ⁓ you know, maybe their parents buy it, maybe they buy it. ⁓ and then, you know, you you you hope that that translates to brand loyalty. I mean, my you know, ⁓ my well my first car was a Dotson Roadster, so that doesn't really count. But you know, second car was a Honda Civic and I love that, you know, then I got a Del Sol and we got a C R V and then, you know, once I got my my Subaru now I
you know, my WRX, and I got a BRZ, and then we got the Hyundai, you know, the Hyundai electric vehicles. It's just three Hyundai's in a row. So it's kind of like, these are really nice. I enjoy these.
I'm going to keep buying them. And that's sort of the the what, you know, the automakers want. And and you know, and for for the individuals that, you know, that want an inexpensive car, whether their second car, their their main car, because they really don't care about going fast or all the stuff that
the bells and whistles. And this has a lot of bells and whistles for the price. Then yeah, you're you're good to go. ⁓ I will say there was one thing that was like I was driving, I'm like, well this seems not great.
was I could put it in cruise control, but to put it in ⁓ adaptive cruise control, I had to push another button. And so it was telling me that, but like the thing would pop up just long enough for me to notice it was there and I'd look at it and go away.
that on some GM cars, that that interface that they have between toggling between regular crews and and adaptive crews is kind of weird.
Roberto Baldwin (11:58)
It's it's ridiculous because it like it's it gives you a it you know, it's like yellow lettering you know, letter ⁓ a yellow like wording or or text ⁓ that pops up in the dash cluster and by the time you look down you're like, Wait, what's going on?
What? What do I have to do that it's gone? You're like, ⁓ okay, hold on. So then you gotta keep doing it, and now I'm not watching the road at all. I'm like, Well this is not great at all. So I would say figure that read the book or something before that because it is
Roberto Baldwin (12:26)
I think you to push the cruise control, then push the turn off cruise control to put adaptive cruise like hold turn off cruise control to turn on adaptive cruise control. Is is is if if I remember correctly.
And then adaptive cruise control comes on. Because you just put on two control, you're just gonna slam into the back of somebody. And I was just like, my god, this is this is not ideal. This is actually unsafe.
so that's my big, big like, ⁓ what are you doing over there? Like what what's happening?
Roberto Baldwin (12:55)
So yeah, should be ⁓ the the tracks. Wait. Do you do you wanna do you wanna guess what the ⁓ destination fee was?
Sam Abuelsamid (12:59)
Good good basic transportation.
Roberto Baldwin (13:09)
1795 for the tracks. What are we doing?
it it it does come fr it is built in Korea. So, you know, they gotta ship it a little bit farther. But
Roberto Baldwin (13:20)
Yes. Yeah. I yeah, that's the other thing. I think people will buy this and they'll be like, cool. But yeah, it's made in good it's it's a
GM is probably hiding some of the extra tariff cost in that ⁓ in that increased destination fee too.
Roberto Baldwin (13:35)
Yeah, they you know, they they move all that stuff around and they sort of spread it out amongst all the, you know, vehicles and stuff, so Yeah, Chevy Pri tracks. Isn't a jet black with blue accents. It was a nice little color, you know. Or no, sorry, the the interior was jet black. it would the exterior is mosaic black metallic. Mm. It was nice, it looked good.
like it's made up of a bunch of little pieces all kind of glued together?
it's all like it's just like little tiles and just broke and glued on there. Anyway, yeah, save me tracks. Yeah. If you're looking for a cheap car for your yourself, your kids, whatever. you know, cross shop with some other ones. ⁓ I I still think the venue is probably the kicks. I don't know, I like the kicks a lot. I think, you know, Nissan makes a really good inexpensive car.
Yeah, they do. all right. Well I had actually had two different vehicles this week. ⁓ I had a a mav another Maverick. So a couple weeks ago I had the Maverick Lobo, which I thought was way too expensive for what it is. ⁓ this time I had a Maverick XLT hybrid with all wheel drive. So last year when they did the refresh of the Maverick, the mid cycle refresh
The they added ⁓ all wheel an all wheel drive hybrid option 'cause when they when it first came out, my my next door neighbors, you know, they they have a Maverick. they got an XL. But the for the first few year first three years of production, the hybrid was only available with front wheel drive.
You couldn't get it with all wheel drive. So if you lived somewhere where you had, you know, bad weather conditions and you wanted that extra bit of traction, you know, you'd have to go with the the two the two liter turbo ⁓ eco boost engine.
⁓ now you can get the hybrid with all wheel drive. And it was always kind of strange that they did that because, you know, this is based on the same platform as the as the Broncos Sport and the Escape, which is now out of production. Escape always had a hybrid all wheel drive variant available. So they had the hardware. Why they didn't put it in the the Maverick at first, I don't know. But at any rate, ⁓ the map Maverick XLT hybrid that I had was ⁓
It was finished in this ⁓ light blue color, ⁓ that looks more baby blue. ⁓ it's it's it's a real pale blue color. ⁓ you know, it looks fine. you know, I like the darker blue on my neighbor's maverick, but you know, that it's whatever you know, whatever. It I I'm just glad they've got some interesting colors. and the pro the problem with this one, you know, it's still you know, the the maverick
you know, when they when they did it, when they designed it, they you know, it's all you know, to keep the cost down, it's all hard plastics inside. There's no really, you know, not much in the way of soft touch materials. ⁓ which I'm fine with on a less expensive car. ⁓ and that worked fine when the Maverick started at twenty thousand dollars or you could get, you know, nicely equipped one for twenty five grand. you know, and they did a nice job with the texturing of the plastic, so
doesn't really look super cheap. It's not like the old days, you know, when you would get ⁓ like a Chevy Cobalt that you know, it was all like smooth, grainless plastic that genuinely looked cheap. Yeah.
This is not like that, you know. So it it it looks decent and, you know, it still has all the features you had in the Maverick since the beginning with the the kind of little slightly odd armrest in the doors that with the cutouts so you had a space where you if you have an a an extra tall water bottle you could drop it down in there 'cause you had that
that gap in there in the in the armrest. Cool idea. ⁓ the but when you start adding up the price, you know, basically for the hybrid now you're starting at about twenty nine grand or almost th it's about thirty grand for the XLT, which is the second the mid level trim going up, you know, it starts at XL XLT. ⁓ and then you add on da or you add on the all wheel drive.
⁓ add on some other options like this one had spray and bed liner, it had ⁓ had the
Copilot three sixty eight S package. It had a hard trifold tonneau cover on it, same as the one that was on the the Lobo that I had. and all of a sudden this this thing came out to a grand total of ⁓ where's the page there? grand total thirty eight thousand six hundred and fifty five dollars.
Roberto Baldwin (18:23)
That's it's it's I mean that's the that I mean I i I I saw a coup you know I seen a couple articles where people are like, you know, if you put a lot of options on the slate, it costs a lot of money.
Like, yeah, that's how cars work. ⁓ but the the the i I I still you know, I think that our our issue with the Maverick was it came out as a very you know, as an inexpensive entry level vehicle at like, you know, twenty thousand, twenty one thousand and then it went up like forty percent.
Roberto Baldwin (18:50)
And then but but nothing really but like all the bits that like
Roberto Baldwin (18:55)
Yeah, you're just like ha ha like what?
the the only the only thing that really changed on that base XL model that was twenty thousand dollars that is now, you know, twenty eight and a half is they they made cruise control standard equipment. That was the one thing that my neighbors were ⁓ annoyed at when they got theirs and they realized, ⁓ this doesn't have cruise control on it. And you know, he Randy got a ⁓ an aftermarket cruise control switch, you know, that he got ⁓ got a mechanic to wire in for him.
like three hundred bucks. so no big deal. So it's twenty thousand three hundred dollars. You know, the cruise control is standard now across the board, but it starts at, you know, over twenty eight thousand dollars. And you know, this one, you know, the all wheel drive starts at over thirty grand. And then by the time you add in a you know a handful of options, you know, at thirty at almost thirty nine thousand dollars, this is still, you know, you know, it still feels
Sam Abuelsamid (19:57)
Like a twenty thousand dollar maverick, to be honest with you.
Roberto Baldwin (19:59)
Yeah, that's you know, and and I don't know. It's I I it I knew the price isn't gonna go back down. That's the worst part. I think, you know, ⁓ you know, a couple a cup couple people in my neighborhood bought Mavericks back when they weren't, you know more. And you know, it's a great you know, at the price and what it was and what it is, it's it's a great little truck. And then, you know, Ford saw that a lot of people are buying it. well let's just charge more.
Roberto Baldwin (20:29)
And I I don't know what the numbers are. I haven't I haven't bothered to look up their sales numbers. I mean if they're selling then yeah.
really well. I mean, I think they sold like a hundred and seventy thousand last year, hundred and almost a hundred and eighty thousand of them. So it's still yeah, it and just last quarter, you know, they sold forty eight, forty nine thousand. Yeah, in the second quarter of twenty twenty six. So it's still selling. But and
people still want a small truck. I mean, you know, for years people would come up to me like, I need a s I would like a small truck. When's it w when like I'm in charge of the the automakers. People you tell you're an automaker or an auto automotive journalist are like, You know, what happened to small trucks?
And I'm like, They don't you know, they no one wants to make 'cause, you know, they they they have to you know, there's regulatory stuff they have to deal with because they're smaller. they're you know, the the the profit margins are s are slimmer.
And then Ford and was like, Yeah, I guess we'll try this and then it went off like Gangbusters, like, you know what? Let's just raise the price.
Sam Abuelsamid (21:30)
Yeah. Well, you know, I mean if you remember, you know, a couple of years back, you know, when the Maverick first came out, you know, this was around the time that you had the chip shortages and and everything else and a lot of dealers were charging h insane markups on cars.
And you know, and the Maverick was one of those cars that was getting really big markups. And ⁓ I remember there was there was a listener that wrote into us, you know, complaining, I think he somewhere in Virginia
⁓ you know, he had ordered a ordered a maverick and it finally came in, you know, it took like six months or something, you know, to to finally show up. And then, you know, the the dealer said, you know, he got a notification from the dealer, Your truck's in, come on in, get it. Called to make an appointment to go pick it up. And when he got there he said, no, we sorry, we sold it.
know, and you know, they apparently sold it for quite a bit more than the price that he had agreed to pay for it. And
it it's funny because I feel like you know, for you know, I ha I have a friend who bought a who ordered a a Bronco when it came in. They're like, by the way, now you owe us seven thousand dollars more now And you know, and Ford like did s it it feels like almost faux like outrage because they just looked at that and looked at those numbers and like, you know what, we can just charge more for these vehicles.
th and that's what I think that's what Ford did with the Maverick. They were seeing dealers charging five to ten thousand dollars over sticker for these things. They said, We'll take that. We'll take that money and they just raised the MSRP. And it got to the point, you know, when you raise the MSRP enough the dealers couldn't get away with charging that much of a markup. So customers are paying the same amount, except it was going to Ford instead of the dealers. ⁓ yeah
Roberto Baldwin (23:12)
Yeah, yeah. Well Womp Womp Womp.
Sam Abuelsamid (23:18)
You wanna take a guess at the destination charge?
Sam Abuelsamid (23:24)
Close, eighteen forty five.
Roberto Baldwin (23:25)
Eighteen forty five. S so much money for these Yeah. Yeah. No, it's yeah, every once in a while, you know, and I you know I understand, you know, the Maverick starts if it was a twenty thousand dollar vehicle, let's say you take eight thousand dollars off the price you get you you know, a lobo or whatever, and so instead of being like thirty eight it'd be thirty two and like fine.
That's how cars work whenever you add, you know, options. The more things you add to it, the more the car's gonna cost. That's
Sam Abuelsamid (23:27)
That's another one that's gone up a lot in the last year. Yeah.
Roberto Baldwin (23:55)
how the whole system works, but I I get yeah I I love the faux outrage of like you know if you add every option to the slate truck like what are you doing? You're an automotive site. Come on you know how this works you're just it's those are just hate clicks you're looking for. That's that's that's you're you're you're you're doing clickbait. Come on. We we option you know or or you know a smarter way is like hey if you spend all I I do love it when people are like
Roberto Baldwin (24:21)
We put everything on and now the nine eleven costs three hundred thousand dollars. Look at all the cool things you can add to it. Instead it's more like can you believe how much money you have to pay extra if you add things to this vehicle? I'm just like
Sam Abuelsamid (24:36)
That's the way it has always been.
Roberto Baldwin (24:38)
That's that's kind of yeah, that's the way it it goes.
and I think, you know, what what annoys me more is just, you know, the increase in the base price. I you know, I don't I don't have an issue with, you know, you know, you you buy you get options, you pay extra for those, but
Roberto Baldwin (24:49)
All the iterations and Yeah.
Yeah, the increase in the base prices just it just feels like a like a you know, I again I really like the Maverick. ⁓ I really like that it's you know, they they were you know, Ford was very Ford embraced like the three D com pr three D printing community and sort of the the you know, the sort of the maker they didn't do a very good job.
They never I as far as I can tell, they never put like the three D files out. The the ⁓ the community had to come up with stuff because I w when when I had the Maverick
I did an a video about how it's a big it's a great truck for nerds and I kept trying to get Ford to send me the three D files and I ended up just using files that the community had created and then the files that Ford sent me were like it it was the opposite of what I needed. Instead of having instead of having like let's say you have a a ⁓ you know, like a hand and glove, instead of showing giving me the the S the the the file for the glove so I could put things into the
Roberto Baldwin (25:47)
into the gl you know for the hand so I can put things in the glove. They gave me the f the glove itself. I'm like, well that's the opposite. I need the other part. I was like, I don't I think you guys really embraced it and then you were like, didn't didn't carry you know as far as I know, that's where you have to get the files from is the community.
So you can still 3D print stuff. I 3D printed a bunch of stuff for it and then my neighbor's like son-in-law bought a Maverick so I just gave them all to him.
Sam Abuelsamid (26:14)
go. on the plus side, you know, even with the all wheel drive added on, you know, and the extra weight of the the the hard tonneau cover and things like that, ⁓ this thing is still really, really fuel efficient, as a hybrid. You know, I think the the Lobo I had, if I recall, you know, it was getting like twenty five miles per gallon. This thing on my efficiency loop got forty point five miles per gallon.
You know, and that's with air conditioning running 'cause it was hot out, hot and humid out. So I had the A C running and you know, almost forty one miles per gallon with this with this little truck. Yeah.
So, you know, it's still you know, it's gonna save you know, if you're looking for something really efficient, you know, that will carry four people and has, you know, a decent amount of space and I mean, you can you can easily fit, you know, a dozen bags of mulch in the back of this thing.
almost a thousand pounds of rocks in the back of the Maverick when I had it. Like, fill it up!
and the you know, the the the picture that I had ⁓ you know, with the lobo with, you know, all the the old decking material that I had loaded in the back of that thing. let's see, here we go. There it is. Yeah. So, you know, that one, you know, so you can you can put a lot of stuff in the back of this thing.
No, it's again, I think we we we all like the Maverick. We're just sad that w have Ford sort like haha
Roberto Baldwin (27:48)
Yeah, it was almost like ⁓ so anyway.
Sam Abuelsamid (27:51)
Alright. So the other one that I had was the new Subaru Uncharted GT. so the the Uncharted is, you know, the third model in Subaru's E V lineup. It's based on the same architecture as the Soltera and the the Trailseeker and the Toyota B Z and B Z Woodland and CHR. And in fact, you know, this is essentially a rebatched version of the CHR. You know, it's got
the different front fascia that ⁓ that you know that has the new Subaru headlight headlight design with the six element LED lights in the front, you know, echoing the the six stars in the Subaru logo. and you know it's it's shorter, it's about six and a half inches shorter than a Soltera. ⁓ and has a a fastback design so it's a little sportier looking. So if you
You know, if you need you know, if you're looking for something like the Soltera but you want something a little you know, a little more fun looking, the ⁓ the the Uncharted's got you covered. ⁓ and ⁓ yeah it
Yeah, so can see the the headlights here if you're watching the video. and the ⁓ the the door handles, you know, on the front doors it's got there no no electromechanical door handles, they're mechanical. So you got conventional ones on the front doors, on the back doors, the ⁓ the the the rear door handles are kind of hidden in the C pillar, but it's still a mechanical door handle. It's easy to grab to pull open. so you know, it's it works works well.
Sam Abuelsamid (29:32)
there's a decent amount of room inside. Even though like I said, six and a half inches shorter, has about ⁓ three and a half inch, three and a half or four inch shorter wheelbase than the Soltera. ⁓ it actually still has a decent amount of rear seat leg room. so you know, again if you're watching the video, this shows you the rear seat with the front with the driver's seat position for for me, you know, I'm about five eleven. and I had still had plenty of h of
Head and leg room in this thing. I had a couple inches to spare for my knees. I had headroom clearance. So no problem at all there. so there's plenty of room inside this thing. There's good cargo space in the back. ⁓ the one of the things that was nice to see on the the G so they have three trim levels. They have premium, which for Subaru is their base trim level on most of their models.
that the base levels premium. You're like I don't that's not how words work.
Sam Abuelsamid (30:31)
And then sport and then GT is the the top trim. ⁓ so the premium is the only one of the Subaru EVs, actually I think it's the the only Subaru currently offered in North America that is front wheel drive. ⁓ so it's a single motor front drive. That one starts at thirty-five thousand dollars. ⁓ it's two hundred and twenty-one horsepower, you got seven point ⁓ seventy-four point seven kilowatt hour battery.
⁓ it's about three hundred and seven or eight miles of ⁓ range. ⁓ and ⁓ you know it has a decent amount of cargo space in behind as well, even with the the fastback design. ⁓ and then the ⁓ the sport and the GT are both dual motor all-wheel drive, three hundred and thirty-eight horsepower. ⁓ the sport has eighteen inch wheels. The GT
⁓ gets you twenty inch wheels ⁓ and a little bit more a few a few other options that aren't on the the sport. ⁓ one of the features that was in this one is there's an outlet in the rear cargo area ⁓ which is ha it's a fifteen hundred watt one twenty volt AC outlet. so basically it's a vehicle to load, but unlike with the Hyundai's and Kias
Sam Abuelsamid (31:55)
you know, where you have to use an adapter plugged into the charge port. This just gives you the outlet straight in the back so you don't have to mess around with any any adapters for it.
the they have one in the like the highest trims for the Hyundai's and Kiyas that's like between the sea it's almost like the air like an airline, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Which this which actually is kinda it's it's I think it's better, to be honest. Because you're gonna like if you especially if you know, you're a Subaru owner, so you're out doing adventure things and so you're like hanging out outside your truck and you wanna or your your truck.
Sam Abuelsamid (32:09)
Yeah, it's a yeah, it's in the in the passenger area. ⁓ so this one is in the cargo area. so
Roberto Baldwin (32:30)
You're hanging out again, I'm very tired. Hanging outside your vehicle and you plug in your I don't know, margarita machine. Whatever you n whatever you do when you're out with your Subaru. Coffee maker. There
Sam Abuelsamid (32:38)
Coffee maker. Yeah, you take your drip
coffee maker. Or you take your microwave with you on a camping trip. Yeah. Yeah, there you go. Some hot popc hot pockets and some popcorn.
Sam Abuelsamid (32:50)
So yeah, you got a fifteen hundred watt outlet in the back, just you know plug in you know, plug in whatever you need to back there. so that's very handy. ⁓ I took it on my my same the same range test I did with the ⁓ with the Maverick and with pretty much all the other vehicles I drive. and it averaged four miles per kilowatt hour. So
I was I did the math and it was like three point eight just now. Four miles. That's like that's some great if again, that's you know, the Subaru and the Toy the it's Toyota, you know, like you said. And Toyota just like come out fighting with their efficiency, which is outstanding.
Yeah, no, it's it's really good. ⁓ so the ⁓ the you know, the range on the G T the official range on the G T is two hundred and seventy three miles, which like you said, I think is about three point seven or three point eight miles per kilowatt hour. I got four miles per kilowatt hour. and I wasn't really babying it, it was just driving it normally. Had the AC on because again, it's hot this week. ⁓ and you know, that works out to just
Yeah, like two hundred and ninety nine miles of range. So, you know, you're gonna get, you know, in like obviously in winter you're gonna get a little bit less. ⁓ but you know, in most normal driving conditions, you're gonna get roughly around three hundred miles, probably. Somewhere between two hundred and ninety, three hundred and ten miles of range, even even with the GT trim. and the the GT has or actually all of them, all of the the uncharted.
⁓ have ⁓ two wireless charging pads. so you know when they redid it when they redid the Soltera last year, they got the same interior in this one here. It's got 14 inch center touchscreen is standard, seven inch instrument cluster display in front of the driver. the the Soltera or or the ⁓ yeah the Soltera and the Uncharted get sort of a a squared ish squared off steering wheel flat top, flat bottom round sides.
⁓ but you know that square ⁓ that flattened top part gives you clear access or clear visibility to the instrument cluster display, which is right up pushed right up to the base of the windshield. So it's almost like having a heads up display. ⁓ but now it's no longer blocked by you know, half blocked by the steering wheel like it was in the original Soltera. You got two wireless charging pads below the fourteen inch infotainment screen. ⁓ you know, it's it's very handy, very convenient.
Sam Abuelsamid (35:28)
⁓ it drives really well. you know, I was really impressed by ⁓ by how well it drives now. so it's you know, it it's a really nice EV. so even if even if you get the the tr the print the base premium model, you know, you're you're gonna have over three hundred miles of range. it's got ⁓ J thirty four hundred charging port that is on the ⁓ right front fender, the passenger side front fender. ⁓ I took it over to the supercharger station.
Sam Abuelsamid (35:59)
nosed into the charging bay and even with those short little cables that Tesla insists on using, ⁓ I was able to plug it in, no problem at all. Yeah.
Yeah. My only my I I think I had the was it the Outback? Yeah, I had the Outback. It has the same sort of charging situation. Which it is yeah, yeah, it's fine with the flat, you know, it's it's wireless charging. But if you do subaru things with your Subaru like since your wireless charging just kind of plops, you know, your phone just blopping all bopping all over the place. I will say with the with the tracks, it's like a little channel that like dives into the dash.
Roberto Baldwin (36:35)
And you can slide your your your phone in there and it's at an angle so it can't like pop out. So I did like that. So ⁓
Sam Abuelsamid (36:41)
Yeah, this one, ⁓ they've got ⁓ ridges. ⁓ there it there's there's like a divider between the two charging pads. So it kinda keeps the phone from moving around very much. so that's that's that's handy.
Roberto Baldwin (36:55)
Yeah, for most of for most of your driving you'll be fine. It's if you you know, when you go do the out you know, you can shove it underneath in that little cubby so it doesn't pop out and and yeah.
I'm what someone has one where you slide it in. Who is that? Cadillac. Yeah, I really like the Cadillac one. And then you can you you can't look at your phone at all because it's slid into a slot you can't even so which to me, which I think is a is a bonus to be honest.
Sam Abuelsamid (37:09)
⁓ Cadillac. They've got like a slot. Yeah.
you don't have that temptation. So yeah. Yeah, I suppose to get the Trail Seeker soon. So I'm I'm looking forward to that. ⁓ 'cause I haven't driven any of Subaru's Eve's. Yeah.
Sam Abuelsamid (37:33)
Yeah, so the the Trail Seeker's got more power. It's got three hundred and seventy
five horsepower versus the three thirty eight. But even you know, the three thirty-eight is plenty, it'll do zero to sixty in about four and a half seconds. The the base single motor version, it's about six and a half seconds, zero to sixty, plenty quick enough, and because it's an E V, you've got that instant responsiveness right off the line. So it feels quicker than it is. So it's you know, it's really nice to drive. The ride quality's good.
Yeah, I didn't do any I haven't done any off roading with this thing. But ⁓ when I did the the drive program for the Soltera last year, you know, they took us on a pretty you know, pretty decent off road trail. And, you know, some of the roads that we were on were actually more aggressive than the you know, in terms of the rocks and stuff, you know, we were out in Colorado. ⁓ so we were on we were on some some un unpaved roads that were pretty challenging.
and it you know, it had no problem at all. And that that car doesn't even have ⁓ all terrain tires on it, and neither does this one. The the Trailseeker and the BZ Woodland have all terrain tires. These are just basic all season tires and it does great. The you know the X mode traction control works really well. ⁓ so and you know, eight and a half or eight point four inches of ground clearance ⁓ compared to the ⁓ Ionic five XRT pro XRT is only seven inches.
And the Machie Rally is only six inches of ground clearance. So, you know, you got a decent amount you know, it's not you know, you're not gonna be, you know, doing anything like driving around Moab or going to the Rubicon Trail with this. But you know, it's it's gonna handle, you know, any, you know, typical trail that most people are gonna use. ⁓ yes. Yeah.
Roberto Baldwin (39:20)
It's an appropriate amount of ground clearance for what for
what ninety percent of people are doing, especially Subaru people, 'cause they're super people like, I gotta go through the snow, I gotta do a you know, a a dirt road, I gotta do Yeah, you you know, we I think Subar of of all the people who ha who who when they blow out and buy their all you know, their sort of outdoor adventure car, I think Subaru people are more likely to actually do the outdoor adventure thing like, I just need something to put my bike on, to put my kayak
Sam Abuelsamid (39:31)
You're you're not gonna get it beached in the snow.
Roberto Baldwin (39:50)
Do the thing. Like you buy a Subaru, they give you a dog, and then like something to do with your body. Like, what do you want? Did you want the bike? Do you want the kayak? What do you what do you want? What do you want? What do you want? Wait, surfboard? What do you you want board? Here you go. And here's your golden retriever. See ya later.
Sam Abuelsamid (40:02)
you want both? No problem. We'll put a roof rack on for your kayak and and the dog can go inside. And
then and then you can I think you can get a hitch on here to put a a rear a hitch mounted bike rack on there. ⁓ so you have your bike on the back, your kayak on the roof and your dog in the back seat. All good.
You're living live living a Subaru lifestyle. I I I'll tell you the most active I've ever been was when I had my Subaru W R X. I was surfing, I was snowboarding, I was doing all the things.
⁓ so like I said, the ⁓ the the premium, the base premium, starts at thirty five thousand dollars. the one I had which was ⁓ and the other thing I like about the this car, the color, I mean it's mostly boring colors, but they've got a couple of cool colors, like this Abanero orange metallic. And it got the two tone. ⁓ so the grand total came to forty six thousand two hundred and fifteen dollars.
⁓ you wanna guess at the destination? Fourteen fifty.
Ooh. That's I shouldn't be like excited about that. That's still too hot. That is still hot.
Sam Abuelsamid (41:15)
⁓ nine hundred and seventy bucks for the the the two tone paint. ⁓ and then, you know, the base price on the G T was forty three seven ninety five. So ⁓ you know, this yeah, if you're if you're looking for an E V that, you know, is kinda fun, very practical, ⁓ you know, has has plenty of good features. Yeah, they like you said, with like like they did with the Soltera and the B Z last year, you know, this has
huge number of improvements. It's way more efficient than the original Soltera and B Z four X were. ⁓ the charging is a lot better. ⁓ you know, it's still only a hundred and fifty kilowatts, but you know, you can go from ten to eighty percent in about twenty eight minutes, ⁓ on a on a suitable charger. ⁓ and you've got the NAX charging port so it works with all you know, most of the the supercharger stations as well as, you know, the ⁓ the other chargers
you know, that are incre you know, the other companies that are increasingly putting ⁓ Knaxx connectors on their on their chargers like Walmart and IANA are you know they're all dual connectors, CCS and Knaxx. E V Go is starting to deploy s you know, putting them on a bunch of theirs now. ⁓ and it also comes with two charging adapters. So you get a C C S to Knaxx and a seventeen seventy two to Knaxx charging
weird now that you can get it like I think the bolt you have to like buy the connectors with when you get the bolt. Which which seems sort of like, come on. Come on. Especially with like the second automaker to be like, sure, we'll go to Max. Come on.
Sam Abuelsamid (42:45)
Yeah, Chevy doesn't doesn't bundle the connectors, the adapters.
Roberto Baldwin (43:01)
So yeah, I got two different two adapters with my Hyundai and you know, everyone else is like, Yeah, here you go, here's your adapters, you know, whatever. And Chevy's like, No, you gotta buy those. Like, come on.
I I charge this thing up. Yeah. Right now I'm I've got a ⁓ Electron Nexus ⁓ charger that they sent me to try out. And it's got ⁓ it's got a J thirty four hundred connector on it. ⁓ plugged it in, start charging, no problem at all. You know, works great with that one. ⁓ when I use that with with our car with our E V six I I have an adapter that have to use with that, but otherwise, you know
Sam Abuelsamid (43:43)
Works yeah, works great, ⁓ straight up with ⁓ NAX equipped cars.
All right, let's carry on. ⁓ so did you ⁓ did you see Joel Fetter's story in the d and drive this week?
As someone who's been pulled over and asked to step out of a car over the loudspeaker, it's all it's it it yeah, it's it it can be unnerving. And again, I'm I'm very happy you know, like Joel says, I'm happy who wasn't he didn't have his kids. 'Cause that's just that's you know, that's terrifying for your children, especially in, you know, the now of America. So ⁓ yeah. No, and it it makes complete sense to be honest, because you know, AI is not
Roberto Baldwin (44:37)
Great, doesn't work correctly, and then everyone's relying on it and the fact that, you know, you know, police officers are not, you know, tech people, they are police officers. ⁓ and the fact that it's like, Well, this is just the thing that says we're just doing the thing we're supposed to do and now Joel gets Yeah. Yeah, sorry.
Sam Abuelsamid (44:54)
So so maybe we should back up a little bit and explain
explain to everybody what what we're talking about. ⁓ so Joel Fratter is a friend of ours. He is the director of editorial content, I think, at the Drive. ⁓ and ⁓ he lives in Minnesota. He lives outside of Minneapolis in Plymouth, Minnesota. And last week he was driving a Range Rover, hundred and fifty five thousand dollar Range Rover. And one of the things about the
A lot of the cars that we get, a lot of the press cars that we get, have manufacturer license plates on them, which typically have different numbering patterns on them than standard license plates. Yeah, it it it varies from state to state. You know, Michigan they just throw an in the middle of, you know, so you have like a two digits, an and then three digits. ⁓ you know, California's are different. again, the ⁓ because
Roberto Baldwin (45:32)
It's all weird. So the little numbers and big numbers and yeah. Yeah.
Sam Abuelsamid (45:50)
Jaguar Land Rovers, U.S. headquarters is in New Jersey. The New Jersey manufacturer plates are on there. And the Jersey manufacturer plates are like 3-4 in the standard size numbers. And then a small two-digit number in the middle. And then I think it was DTM on this one. And again, in the larger ⁓ numbers or larger letters, the standard size letters. And yeah, they ⁓ he
had been driving it for several days, around ⁓ around ⁓ around Minnesota and he had gotten flagged by the Flock license plate reader cameras. So there are currently ⁓ as of let's see, where is it here? There are currently a hundred and fourteen thousand three hundred and forty five license plate reader cameras, mostly from Flock, ⁓ that have been mapped.
in the US. We don't know exactly how many there are in total. But there's at least a hundred and fourteen thousand three hundred and forty five that we know of. And there's a site called D Flock. so if you want to know where the Flock cameras are, you know, if you go to DFlock dot org and there'll be a link in the show notes.
⁓ you can you can zoom in on your region and your area and see exactly where where these cameras are located. And yeah, if you spot one of these cameras and you you can add it, you can
⁓ add add the information to to D Flock. You can submit it there. ⁓ and contrary to what the CEO of Flock says, this is not a terroristic organization. Just an information site. Yeah. These are not terrorists.
These are just people providing information. You know, if you want to protect your privacy, you wanna know where the Flock cameras are. So these are automated license plate reader cameras. And they're using AI to track all kinds of other stuff.
So they're not just reading your license plate. Yeah. They're
If you've got bumper stickers on your car or you know, I mean it's identifying what type of vehicle it is that you know, when it when it snagg when it sees something, the license plate number, ⁓ bumper stickers that are on your car, what kind of bumper sticker.
⁓ I was looking at something this morning, somebody posted a picture from Flock camera that had it tagged, you know, it was a Toyota Tacoma, had a ⁓ Las Vegas Raiders sticker on the back and it identified it as Las Vegas Raiders sticker, you know.
on on the on the on the back. Yeah, all kinds of other information. If there's dents on your car, it'll tag all of that information. So it's tagging all kinds of information. and when Flock saw this Range Rover driving around, it ⁓ it decided decided that it had stolen license plates on it.
⁓ because you know, like I said, you know, they you know these manufacture plates, you know, are typically a different configuration from most regular plates. and somewhere in the Los Angeles area, another JLR vehicle with ⁓ with similar license plate, but had you know different two digit small digits in the middle. Instead of the ten, it had I think it was O three. ⁓ the they
It had the plates had been reported as stolen. They were not in fact st or missing. Yeah. Yeah, missing or s yeah, lost or stolen. What yeah. And you know, it and it turns out that ⁓ you know, it had been I think it was the plates had been removed for a photo session with the car. And you know, somebody had entered the information into Flock without those two
Roberto Baldwin (49:12)
Well, I think it was missing. I think they were just they just lost ⁓ They lost it Yeah.
Sam Abuelsamid (49:36)
center digits. So it all it had was the three four DTM. And so basically Flock was tagging every vehicle it saw across the country and basically every JLR press vehicle that had these license plates on there were being were tagged and being reported as driving around with stolen license plates. And ⁓ apparently ⁓ you know ⁓ Joel, you know well Joel had one of these and he and his wife were running some errands
And as they were about to pull out of a parking space in the mall, ⁓ in Minnesota, four police cars converged on them. Now why the why you need four police cars to to stop one car that supposedly allegedly has stolen license plates is beyond me. I mean, you know, the the overreaction of police to nonsense like this is ridiculous. But ⁓ you know, four police cars converged on ambushed told
Him and his wife to c told Joel and his wife to get out of the car. They were on opposite sides of the car. They were each being interviewed separately. Their stories lined up. He explained, you know, hey, I'm a I'm an automotive journalist.
This is a press vehicle. It belongs to Jaguar Land Rover. I don't know anything about stolen license plates. You know. And they spent an hour interrogating him and his wife about all this before it finally got you know, before they finally let him go.
also warned them that you might want to stay out of you might want to not drive this car anymore 'cause it had been being tracked by Flock for four days before they finally caught up with him. 'Cause it was going in and out of regions where the flock cameras were seeing him. And so, you know, they it didn't necessarily know, you know, where he was at all at all times yet. ⁓ but they you know, they they he said, you know, you probably you know, wanna stay out of Minneapolis with this car.
⁓ because, you know, the situation might have been very different there. ⁓ yeah, the police did not draw any guns on them. They could have. That's, you know, something that is not unheard of, unfortunately. ⁓ and you know, it it was a ridiculous situation and it turned out that, you know, somebody like I said, had somebody had incorrectly entered the information into the flock system about the license plate. So they had a bunch of different cars with
you know, that were all thought to be the you know, the same license pl the same allegedly stolen license plate. ⁓ and
that's the craziest part about this is that the Flock system's like, Okay, we found it and they're gonna ping the local police department. But it also found the same ⁓ allegedly the same car in different parts of the country. And it couldn't like figure that out. Like it was like, Okay, this car's stolen but also it's telling other police departments in other regions that the exact same car, according to the Flock AI system ⁓
Is also over here. It's also in like say Nevada you know, California, it's also in New York, it's also in Seattle, it's also in, you know, Detroit, it's also and it was like, Yeah, that's that we that's not important information. Maybe maybe we should double check our data.
Sam Abuelsamid (52:45)
Yeah, yeah. When you when you recognize something like that, you know, in the system it it should flag that as hey, you know, get get a human to take a look at this and you know, compare these and see what's going on.
And you know, then a human would have ⁓ you know, hopefully pretty quickly noticed the difference in the license plates. ⁓ but yeah. So you know, this is this is a an insane story. Yeah. ⁓ I've never had anything quite like this, although I ha I have had
an interaction in the past with police ⁓ while driving a press car. Back in 2008, I had ⁓ a Dodge Charger police car that ⁓ Chrysler had in their press fleet at the time. They you know it was in the press fleet and they also used it for demos to police agencies. And so you know it had their police package on it, had the lights and the sirens and everything. And it was painted black and white and had a big Dodge
Dodge City Police logo on the sides on the doors. You know, so I mean it looked fr you know, at first glance it looked like a genuine police car. And technically it it was a genuine police car, although it did not belong to a police agency.
But it had also had stickers on the windshield and the back window said out of service. ⁓ and so I was driving back from an event in Detroit and I stopped in Dearborn to get some gas, as you'll do, you know, with a five point seven liter Hemi charger because, you know
Sam Abuelsamid (54:10)
It's not very fuel efficient. so I pulled into a gas station in Dearborn. As I pull up to the pump, a police officer pulls across in front of me and jumps out and says, Why are you know why are you drive as I get out of the car, so why are you driving that car? And so I'm going through the same kind of thing Joel did explaining that I write for autoblog. This is from the the the Chrysler press fleet.
You know, they gave it to me for and they loaned it to me for a week to to evaluate it and do a review of this thing. you know, said Does the do the lights work? Do the sirens work? I Yes, but I don't use them because I'm not stupid You know, and then had to and this was like after hours, this was like at you know, five thirty, six PM, you know, trying to call ⁓ the the fleet company, the fleet manager, you know. ⁓ he was out of the office, he was gone for the day.
trying to call, you know, PR person at at Chrysler, and you know, to to explain, you know, why I was driving this car. And ⁓ you know, she finally ended up calling her supervisor and after about half an hour they let me go. Yeah, but it was a ridiculous situation, you know, and
Roberto Baldwin (55:21)
It and you know what, when they they have the little computers in the car, so I had a a situation with the Honda's ⁓ the Honda Civic. ⁓ that it wheels had been stolen off of it.
⁓ and they called Honda. You know why? 'Cause they put the license plate into the machine and the machine said, this belongs to Honda. So they called Honda who then called the fleet people, who then called me.
So they no like two seconds, you know, do your job, look it up. this belongs to X.
Instead it's just like I'm just gonna jump out and go half cocked and just yell at people. I'm like, come on. Look it up. It takes two seconds. It's literally your job.
let me double check. ⁓ okay, so the yeah, I just pulled up a picture of it. It this one did not have ⁓ manufacture plates on it. ⁓ it just had regular Michigan license plates on it. But ⁓ yeah. Yeah, it would have been registered to Chrysler.
Roberto Baldwin (56:14)
But if it was if it still belonged to to to to Chrysler.
I don't think that Honda had manufactured plates that I was driving. I think it just had regular California plates. And they still knew it belonged to Honda. The cops found out 'cause again they called Honda, who called the fleet manager, who called me.
Sam Abuelsamid (56:31)
Yeah. so, you know, it's one you know, it it's a it's a weird situation that people who do what we do, you know, might sometimes encounter. But the thing is, you know, we're seeing a lot of scen scenarios where just regular people are getting flagged by systems like Flock. ⁓ you know, and you know, the co the the coun the whole country's being turned into a surveillance state.
Yeah, we're we're tracking way too much information, way too many people for no good reason.
Roberto Baldwin (57:06)
Yeah. It's yeah, it's it's you know, it's that that's my you know, my big privacy paranoia. I remember ten, twelve years ago, Sausolito put up an ⁓ automatic license plate reader and I like, Well, I guess I'm not going to Sausolito.
That was that was like my big like, well, I guess I'm not going there if you're gonna be doing that. And it was a big deal, and now that same system is just absolutely everywhere. There's one up the street from my house.
If you go if I go to Deflock, there's there literally one right, you know, five blocks from where I live.
And I'm like, that's a main road. What am I supposed to do? I don't have yeah.
Sam Abuelsamid (57:41)
Yeah, th you know, and the township where I live does not have a contract with Flock. ⁓ the but yeah, there are private businesses that do have contracts with Flock, you know, that have have these cameras in their parking lots, for example. ⁓ the Lowe's, that's about a mile and a half from here, ⁓ has like four flock cameras in their parking lot. ⁓ and then across the street from that the Meyer grocery store has half a dozen flock cameras. So even even if you're
your local municipality isn't using Flock, there's a good chance that you're being captured on on these cameras from their hosted by private businesses. ⁓ yeah, and there's an increasing number of cities now that are canceling their contracts with Flock. And even you know you know like just last week, just this past week, ⁓ Westland, Michigan, about twenty miles ⁓ east of me here, ⁓ just declined to renew their contract with Flock.
Sam Abuelsamid (58:40)
Other I've seen in recent weeks, you know, other ⁓ other cities, you know, that you know, Flock wouldn't let them cancel the contract or remove the cameras. So they just went out and sent out their city crews to just put trash bags over the cameras. Yeah.
Roberto Baldwin (58:52)
Yeah, they're just bagging them up. They're like,
well I mean you have you go you know, you you you complain to your city, you say, Hey, this isn't cool. This isn't a thing that, you know, we should be doing to the public. you know, there's you know, we as as individuals we have rights. ⁓ and so yeah, that's my my big thing. there was a so I had a family member who was in the hospital and they had one of those little flock set ups.
Roberto Baldwin (59:15)
And it would if you didn't leave within a certain amount of time, it would have a like a loudspeaker that would be like, You are on private property. Please leave. The ridiculous part is was that the hospital had like a little grassy area and they had like a little like and people would go and you can only have so many people inside the room.
⁓ so if a whole family would come, like they would all take turns and so people would have like little picnics outside the hospital in the grassy area, and the hospital seemed fine with it. I never saw anyone be like, you can't do that.
But the whole time they just like flock cameras just like Please leave the area. You are in a public letter And when I would get out to my car, like I'd have to talk to doctors and stuff and so I would take notes and then I would send those notes to like other family members to keep them updated.
So I'd sit in the car and I'd sit down, I gather my thoughts and I start texting people. And while I'm in the car, please leave the area. You are in a private Yeah. I was just like, What are you doing?
Like wait like one person like, you know what, we need heightened security for the for the hospital parking lot. And while everyone else in the place is like, you know, people go out to their cars and, you know, maybe they're grieving or maybe they're contacting other people or maybe they're kinda like getting ready to go inside and some people are are are hanging out and picnicking and you know, we c we only allow two people in at a time, so we can't have all these people up there.
person was like, We know what we need? We need a camera that takes up an entire parking space and then yells at people who are having a bad day, to be honest.
⁓ so like I said, if you wanna if you wanna see where where the cameras are around you, go to dflock dot org.
⁓ all right. Let's see. But don't leave this area right now where you are right now.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:01:14)
⁓ all right. Car loans. ⁓ Jalopnik had a piece this week. ⁓ let's see. Almost let's see. Twenty three point nine percent of new car buyers are now opting for car loans of eighty four months or more. That is ⁓ it came from ⁓ came from d admins initially from from their data.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:01:43)
So the average car loan is now forty four thousand one hundred and fifty six dollars. that's how much people are financing on average. and let's see,
Yeah. ⁓ yeah, car because prices are going up and customers ⁓ have less money to put down on a down payment, because everything else is getting more expensive too. so yeah, the fifty eight hundred dollar ⁓ down payment is down six hundred dollars from the second quarter of twenty twenty five.
⁓ and this you know, this is this is an issue. I mean, we talked about it before. You know, it's not just the car prices themselves, but it's also the interest rates because interest rates have remained stubbornly high.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:02:29)
excuse me, stubbornly high. ⁓ that's you know, that that's a that's an issue for for consumers and you know there's you know a lot fewer people that can afford to buy a new car now.
and that that's a problem, you know, because you know, okay, you get pushed to the used car market, but if there's fewer people buying new cars, that means there's gonna be a smaller population of used cars to choose from in in the coming years.
And we're already seeing that and used car prices are going up as well.
Roberto Baldwin (1:02:58)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's it's yeah. Everything it just it snowballs because you know, gas is more expensive. You're like, Well, you know, my car now gets like ten miles a gallon 'cause like twenty years old, so maybe I should get a new car, but then you look at the new car prices and you look, my gosh, how much is this?
okay, so I don't have enough money because I'm paying more for everything else for a down payment. So now I have to get this really, really long loan in order to afford my monthly payments, but in the long run you're paying way more money because the interest rates are so high and your loan is so bl you know, long, seven years. I mean, by the time you get to like year four, you're probably already underwater on that car. I mean you're underwater as soon as you walk out
Sam Abuelsamid (1:03:39)
Actually probably by year
year two, even year one or year two. You're probably underwater. You know, so you know, and and the bad thing about that is if something happens, you know, if your car gets stolen or you get into a get into a crash or something, ⁓ you know, the you know, typical car insurance pays you, you know, what the replacement value of that car or pay pays you what what the market value of that car is, not necessarily what the replacement value is. So, you know, if you've got
Sam Abuelsamid (1:04:08)
two or three year old used car and you owe you know thirty five thousand dollars on it but the ⁓ you know the the value of it is only say twenty five or thirty thousand dollars you know then that's what the insurance company's gonna pay you. Now you're you know five or ten thousand dollars in the hole and you gotta go buy a replacement vehicle ⁓ and you're not getting enough money from the insurance to
Roberto Baldwin (1:04:38)
Yeah. So yeah, so it's it's
Yeah. Yeah, it's not great. Things aren't great peop Sorry.
you know, go buy a Nissan Kicks or a Chevy Tracks instead of in instead of, you know, something more expensive. Or a Hyundai venue.
Roberto Baldwin (1:04:52)
Get a Nissan kicks or a Chevy Tracks, you know.
Or Hyundai venue. I mean I think it's it's I mean we all want the new shiny, you know, this is really cool, this is really nice. But at the end of the day, ⁓ getting the cheap car I mean, you know, again I you know, I I think we all know I I really like the slate. I'm all I can only afford to slate because I'm selling my BRZ. That's it. And then, you know, and then I can use that towards buying the vehicle. That's that's how I can afford it. I'm not gonna get another
e you know, X amount of year loan for you know, was five thousand dollars down, that would I that's that's like no. No, I'm not gonna do that.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:05:36)
⁓ all right. ⁓ moving on. ⁓ yeah. ⁓ let's see. a Swedish ⁓ organization did some testing. They did this a couple of years ago, where they they ran a bunch of tests to look at how long it takes, you know how how long it takes to do a bunch of typical tasks ⁓ with cars that have
Roberto Baldwin (1:05:39)
It's a real downer today.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:06:06)
touch screens in them. And their baseline ⁓ was a two thousand five Volvo V seventy, where most most of the stuff is obviously physical controls. And so they they they for eat you know they'd measure the time that it takes to do each of those tasks while you're driving the car, ⁓ at sixty eight miles an hour. So at highway speeds. ⁓ and in the V seventy, ⁓ it took you know, for all the different tasks combined, took
three hundred meters to do it. which is about seven yeah. ⁓ yeah, so three hundred meters. The average over all the different vehicles they tested was eight hundred and thirteen meters. All of the newer cars that had all these touch screens in them all took a lot longer to do these tasks. Like turn signals and, you know, changing temperature and a variety of other tasks that you would are commonly done while you're driving.
⁓ the Mazda C X sixty ⁓ was actually the worst of all the vehicles this year. took eleven hundred and thirty seven meters to to do this stuff. So you're you're talking you know, about three quarters of a mile for all these tasks combined. You know, that you're not and this is the time that you're looking away from the road in order to execute these tasks. ⁓ Mercedes CLA, eleven hundred and sixteen meters.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:07:36)
Toyota Corolla Cross, a thousand and twenty-four. And you know, then went down from there. ⁓ Kia EV three was about eight hundred and twelve. ⁓ Tesla model Y was actually better than I expected. They've they I guess they've made some changes in their interface design, ⁓ but it still took six hundred and eight meters, which is more than double what the V seventy took. ⁓ so you know, again, you know, stop putting everything into the touch screens, you know.
Roberto Baldwin (1:08:04)
I I it's stop it. Yeah, exactly. Put more in it. That's why I like the Chevy tracks. It's had all the knobs and I don't have to like well okay, well, I need to change the temperature and then I hit a bump and my finger moves, so then I have to readjust my finger or I have to brace it on something and during that thing I'm not looking at the road.
I'm looking at a screen. That's not how the word that's not how this should work. That's not how it should work at all. That's how n none of this should work like this.
Everyone was like, hey, let's put screens and everything. I'm like, yeah, there's there's there's things for screens. But also put some buttons back. Put them back.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:08:45)
⁓ okay, let's see. some good news for farmers. ⁓ the John Deere, ⁓ which has been fighting right to repair for many, many years. They've been at the heart of the whole right to repair ⁓ argument for probably a decade or more because they you know, they started putting all these ⁓ electronics in their tractors and making it, you know
Sam Abuelsamid (1:09:15)
largely impossible for farmers to repair their own tractors or, you know, even for, you know, local mechanics, local technicians to come out to a farm and repair the tractor. Basically you had to get your service done by official John Deere technicians. and last year I think yeah, it was last year, ⁓ you know, there was a lawsuit that got settled, ⁓ but yeah, it was you know, the settlement was kind of ridiculous, I think
John Deere agreed to pay ninety nine million dollars, which seventy nine million went ⁓ was left over after legal fees. split around split between two hundred thousand farmers. They got three hundred and ninety five dollars apiece.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:09:59)
Yeah. ⁓ but amazingly enough, the Federal Trade Commission did not give up. ⁓ you know, this was a case that was started under the previous administration under Lena Kahn when she was chair of the Federal Trade Commission. and ⁓ they ⁓ they have now ⁓ got a settlement with with John Deere where you know they they have to provide tools and
like diagnostic tools and parts and everything at fair and reasonable prices ⁓ to any anybody that wants to buy them. ⁓ and unlike the the legal settlement last year which left fair and you know fair and reasonable very open ended. ⁓ this in this deal it's ⁓ much more constrained and so now you know they they have defined what the pricing's gonna be for all this stuff.
And so John Deere, you know, is basically gonna have to sell parts and sell diagnostic tools at at reasonable prices to farmers or, you know, to local repair people that can support these t tractors going forward. So good news for them.
Roberto Baldwin (1:11:14)
Yeah, and it's good foods for everyone 'cause it sets a precedent for this sort of, you know, right to repair. ⁓ you know, I th I think it's if you have the means and you know and for you know, there are some you know, I don't want you don't don't try to repair like your E V battery. But you know, there shouldn't
you know, unless you're a trained technician, trained to do that sort of thing. You know, if you if you work at a dealership or a shop and you've been trained in how to handle high voltage batteries, then you know, go go ahead, you know, work on your own your own EV. But for all the rest of us, ⁓ let the professionals do it.
there's a lot of things that, you know, that I feel like I remember when I had my mini, I remember getting angry every time I had to work on it. Like like, I need a replace a headlight. I have to buy, you know, a special you know, there's a torx instead of a regular, you know, it was a Torx screw.
I'm like and I had the tool, but I was just like, if I'm a regular person with just like the regular, you know, set of tools, I'm not gonna have that. And then for the for the the spark plugs, they use the twelve point spark plugs.
So you couldn't use a regular, you know, spark plug, ⁓ Yeah. So I had to go out. And so you had to go to mini site and it was like eighty dollars. I'm like, nope. And I went to Lowe's and it was like fifteen bucks.
But I was so angry that entire day because it's just one more thing. We're like, well you s you should just take it into the dealership. Just bring it into the dealership and do and you know, we'll we'll fix it for you.
And you know, all of that is leading to like getting people to not fix their own vehicles, have someone else
Sam Abuelsamid (1:12:19)
Did twelve points spark plugs on the mini?
Roberto Baldwin (1:12:46)
in a very sly way or spending a r an insane amount of money for something you can get at Lowe's for like fifty bucks cheaper. And I was just like every time I had to do something on that car, I would just get angry at BMW for their sort of like, ⁓ yeah, you gotta buy a special tool for this and which all those things none of those things I bought like just the regular, you know, ⁓ socket sized ⁓ spark plugs for that car.
I was like, nope, I'm not getting your t stupid twelve bucks.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:13:17)
Just out of spite. Just a spite BMW.
Just just like the next person who gets his car, you know, the next person who got that car, they you know, they could just get their regular old, you know, spark plug socket with a little rubber thing inside and change the spark plugs and have a very nice day. As opposed to me who's like just in there like trying to get it to to seat and I'm like, What is going on? And then finally I take a light and I'm like, What the hell is this?
Sam Abuelsamid (1:13:42)
Mean why would you even put twelve point you know, twelve point ⁓ hex or well not I guess a dodecogram, whatever. A twelve point thing on a spark plug, you know, 'cause the last thing you want is your socket slipping on it. And the more points you have on there, the more likelihood you're gonna get something wrong and strip it. You know. Just make it simple.
It's it it was a very you know, so they the mini also had it had like a plastic ⁓ dream plug. So instead of the metal one. So the local I don't change my own oil. I'll fix I'll swap an engine before I'll change my own oil. It's 'cause I'm just like this is not worth my time for the the amount of money I'm saving. So I would take it to the local like Jiffy Lube and the ⁓ and the dudes they came out like, Hey, so you have the plastic
And we won't change those 'cause they strip real easy 'cause it's plastic. And then we have to wait because we have to go find one and we have to go to the dealership, we have to bring it but so you should just take it to the dealership. So I was like, Fine. So I took it to it ended up being cheaper at the dealership and they washed my car. But the idea that I had to be f I was forced to go to the dealership still never sat well with me.
⁓ all right. The ⁓ National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ⁓ is ⁓ finally starting to make some moves when it comes to automated vehicles. well, hey, you gotta start somewhere. Yeah. So, ⁓ in case you haven't been following the you know, what's been going on with robotaxis of late, ⁓ you know, as we get more and more of these things on the road, you know, and and
Roberto Baldwin (1:15:04)
Listen, they wrote a letter.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:15:22)
Waymo's got close to four thousand of these things now in operation ⁓ across I think you know, between they've they've got like ten cities in normal commercial operation. They got four more starting in the next few weeks or they're doing they're they're operating now with employees and soon opening up to the public. And by the end of this year I think they're targeting about twenty cities. So they've got about four thousand robotaxis out there on the road. and
yeah, and then you got, you know, a few dozen Teslas and you got some Zooks, Robo Taxis, and various others. The more of these you get out there, the more problems you're gonna encounter. And one of those problems is when a robo taxi ⁓ encounters ⁓ an emergency responder, whether it's police, firefighters, paramedics, ⁓ you know, when there's nobody in the driver's seat,
Wha you know, how do the emergency responders, you know, get these vehicles to move out of the way? You know, when when when a human is driving a vehicle and police are, you know, directing traffic, you know, around a crash or something like that, or there's firefighters, you know, they can stand out there and wave their hand, you know, give nonverbal communications, go tap on the window and say, Go that way, you know, whatever.
and that's a little bit harder when there's nobody in the driver's seat.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:16:48)
⁓ and these vehicles don't all respond in the same way. ⁓ and so NHTSA ⁓ sent out a letter to all these different companies and said, You got until the end of the month, we're gonna then we're gonna start bringing you all in for some calls to figure this out and try to come up with some standards for how how these vehicles should interoperate with ⁓ with emergency responders.
Roberto Baldwin (1:17:13)
I've been telling people whenever people are like, Well, self driving cars, I'm like, Okay, here's the here's how the problem with self drive and I always bring up the person in the street waving you on.
Like as a human, because you have a l you know, you have a lived experience, you understand, ⁓ it they want me to go. They're pointing, they're doing whatever. The car doesn't know what that is. They just all they see is human.
Block. Little block, little human that's been tagged. They know what it is. Machine learning has told them, Don't hit that human. ⁓ yeah, and so
Sam Abuelsamid (1:17:37)
Try not to hit that block.
Roberto Baldwin (1:17:42)
you know, in and and when it these things get bunched up in places or they like who do you get in? Do you drive it? Like it's do you are you making first responders drive these cars, taking o like forcefully taking over the car? Like what do you do at
that's what's happened with some of the Waymo's, 'cause the Waymo's all still have steering wheels and pedals. But, you know, now you know, you got the Zooks robo taxis, Tesla is testing their cyber cabs with no no wheels and pedals in there. ⁓ NHTA has even said, you know, they're gonna change the rules. They put out a notice of proposed rulemaking to allow the companies to pull out the pedals. You know, what do you do when there are no controls for
Sam Abuelsamid (1:18:25)
a police officer or a firefighter to get in and move the vehicle.
Roberto Baldwin (1:18:29)
And they're blocking, you know, access to to to events. To you know, they're blocking, you know, one firefighter one one truck shows up, others have to show up, but now they're being blocked by Waymo's, they're being blocked by these self driving vehicles. And it's it's a you know again I it the the idea we're we're we're allowing beta testing on public roads without any sort of real hardcore regulatory framework and you know and and these are not edge cases like
Things happen all the time with emergency vehicles. That's literally yeah, that's that's how the world works, you know. ⁓ and so if these vehicles can't figure that out, then you know, maybe you shouldn't have your vehicle on the road. If you can't do the the basic get out of the way then you're d you failed is essentially what I'm saying. You have failed as a company if your car does not know how to get out of the way of first responders.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:19:30)
let's see next. ⁓ there's a new cheap car available now for sale in the US. Sort sort of sort of I mean it's cheap. It's sort of a car. ⁓
Sam Abuelsamid (1:19:45)
Yeah. It's the Fiat Tapolino, ⁓ which is a vehicle that's actually been around for a few years in Europe. they've sold it as the Citroen Ammy. ⁓ they actually were using them for a while. ⁓ Free to Move, which is ⁓ mobility subsidiary of Stellantis, was operating ⁓ a car sharing service in DC using these vehicles ⁓ for a while. I don't know if they still are.
But you can you can go buy your own Topolino now. ⁓ it's a tiny little vehicle. ⁓ in Europe it's what's known as it's it's classified as a quadricycle. So these are vehicles that have a maximum top speed. you know, they have a body, but you don't necessarily need ⁓ a regular ⁓ full blown driver's license to operate one of these. 'cause these, you know, the Tolino is limited to nineteen miles an hour, I think. Yeah. Yeah.
Roberto Baldwin (1:20:41)
You'll see kids driving these. You'll be driving
along and all of a sudden you'll come up a behind a vehicle that's going like twenty kilometers like really slow.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:20:49)
Well, I mean, in an urban
Roberto Baldwin (1:20:53)
Yeah, you're not going in.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:20:55)
and ⁓ it's got a it's got an electric range of just forty six miles. but it's tiny. You can you can park it pretty much anywhere. ⁓ and they're they're available now ⁓ for th well it's thirteen nine ninety five is the is the sticker price, but then I think with delivery, I think it's about it's about fifteen thousand dollars with delivery. and
Roberto Baldwin (1:21:28)
Yeah, it's a strap and then like a like one of those cloth ⁓ sunroofs. I forget what they're called. The the Yeah, y you know what they're called. yeah. I I want a car with ropes for door it's just a rope.
I want a car with ropes for doors and you can get so it's the top speed is nineteen, but they'll they'll they'll make it twenty five for free. But that's not gonna happen till later. But you can just like if you're driving around town, I need to go to the Trader Joe's.
Roberto Baldwin (1:21:56)
I need to go do a couple things. This this is I I can see these like especially like in in a like a senior community like my in laws live in like a little gated it's like a low level prison for old people, but they live in a gated community. ⁓ and we all drive they all drive ⁓ golf carts everywhere. And Yeah, and golf carts are expensive. This is only like a few grand more than a new golf cart. Like
Sam Abuelsamid (1:22:15)
Yeah. This this is basically a fancier golf cart. Yeah, yeah.
Roberto Baldwin (1:22:24)
Of a regular golf cart. Like if you get like a fancier one with four seats, those are like about the same price. This only has two seats, so it's just you and your friend. But ⁓ I don't that seems I don't know. I like the door. It's just cute. You're gonna have the cutest golf cart in the k in the retirement community.
I wonder if that lets you drive it on the golf course.
And you know, it's it's classified as a low speed electric vehicle and th you know, those have different regulations than conventional cars. ⁓ you know, so and and the the the limit for those is twenty five miles an hour on most US roads. So
⁓ okay. a bunch of new ⁓ safety regulations have gone into effect this week in Europe. ⁓ the and these you know, these were first proposed a couple of years ago and they took full effect on seventh of July twenty twenty six, so you know, this past week. ⁓ and ⁓ so any new any newly homologated vehicles have to meet all these requirements and then other vehicles over the next couple of years will also have to meet them. So
Any new vehicles that are launched ⁓ have to include advanced emergency electrofan advanced emergency braking systems that detect pedestrians and cyclists. That's a good thing. ⁓ advanced driver distraction warning to keep drivers focused. So this is a driver monitor system. So kind of like what we've seen on you know, on cars with hands-free systems or Subarus, ⁓ or or actually a bunch of Hyundai's and Kias have them as well. and
Sam Abuelsamid (1:24:03)
So, you know, with those, you know, if you look away from the road for more than three and a half seconds, you know, it's gotta start giving you alerts and eventually bring the car to a stop. ⁓ improved forward vision requirements. ⁓ and y an interesting one ⁓ is new tests for worn tires to ensure safer perfor safer performance. So, you know, typically the you know the the official, you know, tire performance ratings, you know, are based on
Sam Abuelsamid (1:24:33)
Brand new tires with full tread depth. what ⁓ what this new regulation says is that when a tire is ⁓ worn down to one point six millimeters tread depth, you know, which is the the legal limit, it still has to exhibit eighty percent of its wet weather braking performance that it had when it was brand new. So ⁓ you know, they this you know, this is really more on tire makers right now.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:25:03)
⁓ you know, to make sure their tires, you know, even w you know, at when they're down to their their wear bars, ⁓ still have, you know, eighty percent of their braking wet braking performance. ⁓ but, you know, this is the only one that's also gonna affect used cars because as people replace their their ⁓ older tires, they're gonna get new tires that meet these requirements. ⁓ and so that'll that'll be safer for everybody.
and you know, one of the things that they said, ⁓ you know, I was reading some of the documentation is this will also help prevent some premature replacement of tires. that you know you know, people were replacing them before they were, you know, down to the wear bars, ⁓ just because the the the wet performance had degraded so much that, you know, they couldn't really drive with them. So this will keep keep tires on the road longer, ⁓ and you know, still maintain a decent level of safety.
Cool. Yeah. I think the that the the advanced driver distraction warning system, the sort of in car I know that there's there's some there there even Bosch has talked about those issues with, you know, everyone has a different face. Everyone has different, you know, resting eyelid situation. So that's where, you know, you get into some some weirdness with that thing where, you know, some people are gonna have, you know, false like you're not paying attention to the road when they really are.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:26:28)
Well this this is where, you know, the software for these things is getting more advanced, you know, so that it's you know, it's modeling each driver that uses the vehicle, you know, to figure out what is the baseline for this particular driver. ⁓ you know, so that you know it it it knows when there's a variation from that baseline. The one one one part of the regulation, the the European regulation ⁓ for that is that the systems must be all
Sam Abuelsamid (1:26:55)
closed loop in the vehicle. So it can't it's not allowed to send any of that information outside of the vehicle.
And that's the that's that's to to me that's the most important part 'cause I don't need, you know, what my face looks like being sent to somebody. That's not cool. Again, yeah, Europe has some pretty has has has way better privacy ⁓ regulations for for their for their their people versus us. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, California has good stuff.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:27:07)
Yeah. Except for all the people on the internet.
Well, I I think yeah, just just to say that they have privacy regulations makes it better than than the US. So Yeah,
Roberto Baldwin (1:27:28)
But the rest of we all. Sorry.
let's see. MG, ⁓ you know, you r if you remember MG when they made you know little sports cars, little little roadsters, they're the brand is still around, but since since the early two thousands, it's been owned by SAIC, Shanghai Automotive Industries Company. ⁓ which based on that, as you might guess, it's owned by the Chinese now. ⁓
MG brand has continued to sell cars ⁓ in China and in Europe and and other countries as well, but obviously not here. you know, and a lot of them, you know, are cars, mostly cars and crossovers. They have they have one sports car, the Cyber Stir, which is an electric roadster. But they this week at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, ⁓ they showed a concept ⁓ called the what what is it?
called the MG Go concept. ⁓ which you know is meant to be kind of a modern ⁓ take on the the old MGB G T. and doesn't really look much like the the MGB G T but is basically an electric hot hatch.
Roberto Baldwin (1:28:47)
Yeah, it yeah, it looks cool. I dig it. I mean we won't get it, but I lo I dig it. This looks really cool. It's like a lot of fun.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:28:49)
Yeah. I like the design a lot.
a and the go has like a little exclamation point. Like the go like the Go team, the band from the I guess two thousand early two t early two thousands.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:29:01)
There it is. There's the MG Go.
So probably people in Europe will will get this in you know, a year or so and in China.
we'll and we'll just like stare at them from afar. We're like, Well, we got other things.
Roberto Baldwin (1:29:27)
We got Hellcats, so we got that going for us, you know. We got Hellcats.
Toyo Toyota was also at ⁓ Goodwood this week. ⁓ they had the GR G T and the GR G T three, which is their new G T three race car that's coming next for next year's season. ⁓ and they also brought out the the new Lexus L F A. So we saw the L F A ⁓ at the Japan Mobility Show in Tokyo in in October.
And this is the first time that it's been seen in motion. ⁓ the LFA shares its basic architecture with the G R G T, but where the G R G T has a twin turbo V eight and a hybrid, the LFA is all electric. And so they had these three cars, the G R G T, the G T three, and the LFA running up the the hill at Goodwood this week. And ⁓ apparently this is gonna be the first ⁓
Toyota vehicle to actually use solid state batteries. ⁓ yeah. And yeah, there there's not, you know, obviously not gonna be very many of these built. It's gonna be a very low volume car, 'cause it's gonna be very expensive. but it'll be the first one with ⁓ with solid state. And you know, they're saying that they want to ⁓ win over E V skeptics with the feel of a V ten.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:30:58)
They don't really give any get given in any details on what exactly that means. ⁓ but you know, they you know, presumably it's gonna make some noise and, you know, do some simulated shifting stuff. but we'll see.
Roberto Baldwin (1:31:18)
I they listen, the solid state, you know, it's gonna have to go into expensive vehicles for V for cars first probably, 'cause it gives you the opportunity to to to work on the technology, get it into production and and figure out your little issues and you know, a a low you know, I even you know, the donut people.
Again, they were only making three hundred of those bikes. It wasn't like they're making people like I can't believe they're there's no way. I'm like they're not making ten thousand motorcycles, guys.
They're making three hundred. Maybe. So, you know, same thing with this where he's just Yeah, and maybe not at all. Well st we're still like, you know, they keep doing their little like, Hey, I do not don't believe this, which is pretty funny.
Their their website to sort of debunk everyone who's going after them. ⁓ but you know
Roberto Baldwin (1:32:06)
with with this it's s you know it's the same sort of thing. You know, you're you're only you're making a short run, you're you're you're proving that the the t the the ⁓ the technology works and you know the people who who buy this are gonna be like I got this thing, I got the first solid state battery.
And I think some of are gonna accept the fact that like, hey, we might you know, we're gonna it's gonna be expensive and, you know, we're probably gonna have to, you know, maybe we'll have to swap your battery or, you know, after so long.
that's the issue with solid states, is that they don't last
their life cycle isn't as long. It has nothing to do with charging, discharging. It has to do with during charging, discharging, it creates things called dendrites, which cause short circuits, which kills the lifetime of the battery. ⁓ and that's what everyone's trying to fix.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:32:50)
All right. And then we got one final story for this week, ⁓ which is a new bill in New Jersey, ⁓ related to ⁓ automated vehicles and robotaxis. And ⁓ so you know there's there's not a lot in terms of regulation around automated vehicles, safety regulation around automated vehicles in the United States. we don't have anything at a federal level. There's no there's no specific regulations that govern
autum you know, f motor federal motor vehicle safety standards that govern them. But this bill ⁓ in ⁓ in New Jersey ⁓ would require companies seeking to operate fully autonomous vehicles in New Jersey to use cameras plus two other sensing technologies. ⁓ and right now, you know, those those two technologies that you typically find on these vehicles is radar and LIDAR. and ⁓ so, you know, but it doesn't have to be those.
You know, if you can if you can come up with something else, like ⁓ there's a company called Terradar that's doing a ⁓ a terahertz sensor that is supposed to give you most of the benefit of LiDAR, but closer to the cost of radar. you know, that you know, that could be used or you know, in Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. There's all all kinds of ways you could do it. You know, strap a few bats to the around the perimeter of the car.
Roberto Baldwin (1:34:08)
Echolocation, like you could just shove bats on your car.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:34:18)
⁓ but you know the the key thing is there you have to have at least three different sensing technologies for a fully automated vehicle. and you know for the most part this really only affects Tesla, because Tesla insists that they can do this with just cameras.
Roberto Baldwin (1:34:36)
Well, you know what I like on the road? Redundancy for my robots. I don't care what Tesla says, I don't care what Tesla ⁓ you know, well we could just do with the cameras, which A, not true. ⁓ but B, ⁓ you know, you're you're driving around where there's children and people and bicyclists and other cars, but mostly pedestrians, and I would like as many sensors as possible. Like I want redundancy. That's the whole point of this is redundancy. R Tesla like
Roberto Baldwin (1:35:05)
had this big event once years ago where they're talking about how their computer systems like, we have redundancies. I'm like, you can't sit there and talk about redundancy when you refuse to use la RIDAR LIDAR and radar. Like that's come on. Come on.
I mean they used to have a ra a radar sensor. They didn't even have surround radar. They just had a single radar sensor. And they got rid of that. And they got rid of their ultrasonic sensors, which were basically useless anyway for for automated driving. But they even got rid of those.
beep beep beep. That's when you know when you're backing up and you're trying to park and then also the car goes beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep those are ultrasonic. Those are the bats. Those are the bats. I was never mind. One ping only. Anyway, so yeah, so no, it's if it you know, Tesla if Tesla wants to get into this business, then Tesla needs to up its game. Period.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:35:38)
Those little button looking things on your bumpers, those are yeah. Little sonar sensors. One one ping only.
Roberto Baldwin (1:35:59)
You I I ⁓ I understand why New Jersey wants ⁓ there to be redundant systems. Because you are you know giant hunks of metal and plastic and glass, you know, flying down the road at sixty miles an hour. Well, most of these are in town, so thirty five, forty miles an hour. Doesn't matter. I want as many things
Sam Abuelsamid (1:36:18)
Doesn't matter, y you hit a pedestrian at
thirty five miles an hour, still gonna do a lot of damage.
Roberto Baldwin (1:36:22)
Yeah, I th yeah. It it's just do the just do the redundancy thing. Make it safer. The safer you can make it, the better it is.
The the bill sponsor, ⁓ Senator Andrew Zwicker, said this is not anti Tesla. ⁓ I'm pro New Jersey safety. So safety's good.
Roberto Baldwin (1:36:40)
See, that's that's a smart thing.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:37:12)
For any vehicle from a company that's not based in California, ⁓ like, you know, let's say Ford or General Motors or Hyundai, you know, new the new vehicles have to be priced less than fifty thousand dollars, ⁓ and used has to be under twenty five thousand dollars. But if the company is based in California, it's headquartered in California, ⁓ then the pri there is no price cap. So you can get the the rebate on, you know
a hundred and fifty thousand dollar Tesla or Lucid Air Grand Turing, you know, or a hundred and twenty five thousand dollar Rivian R one quad. ⁓
Sam Abuelsamid (1:37:55)
whatever. I mean it's not
there's not many people buying those anyway, so whatever. ⁓ but of course, you know, since Tesla moved their headquarters from Palo Alto to Texas, they don't you know, they're limited to the fifth yeah.
Yeah. But also yeah, the the the two car makers that are in the in in in California are both pretty you know, Lucid is you know, that's that's a premium automaker and Rivian is the Patagonia of of Eve's. So it's it's also a premium automaker. So both of those are expensive vehicles. So people are buying those like, I guess I got thirty five hundred dollars off. Cool.
if if you can aff if you can afford one of those vehicles, you know, you probably shouldn't be getting a rebate. But ch ch chances are at this at this point, if you're buying one of those vehicles, it's probably not your first EV anyway. So you still wouldn't qualify. So it's only for first time EV buyers. ⁓ all right. That's it for this week. If you got questions, comments, send them to us at feedback at wheelbearings.media.
Roberto Baldwin (1:38:35)
You're fine. Yeah, you don't need this. I mean you'll you'll do it anyway.
Sam Abuelsamid (1:38:59)
we'd love to hear from you. ⁓ and we will talk to you all next time. Bye.
About this episode
Sam Abuelsamid and Roberto Baldwin kick back with ice-cream talk, then shift to what they’ve been driving: the Chevy Trax LT. They frame it as an affordable, practical SUV aimed at people who just need to get around—especially musicians hauling gear, budget-conscious buyers, young drivers, and first-time car shoppers. Roberto praises the Trax’s wireless CarPlay/Android Auto, physical climate knobs, and decent EPA fuel economy, while noting the transmission can feel odd. They also debate how entry-level cars have improved and how tough it is to make a genuinely good cheap vehicle.
This week Robbie was driving the Chevy Trax and Sam had the Ford Maverick XLT Hybrid AWD and Subaru Uncharted GT.
In the news we discuss our friend Joel getting tracked by flock for an allegedly stolen license plate on a press car. We also have longer loans, right to repair, testing driver response time with touch screens, AVs and first responders, the Fiat Topolino, new EU safety rules, an electric hot hatch from MG, and a proposal to require multiple sensor types for AVs in New Jersey.
