00:00 Speaker A
You’re also on the board of of General Motors, I mean, a company I know very well. You know, I’ve talked a lot of executives there for a long time. Um, how did has a company like, well, first of all, what do you take from Tesla and bring to a company, iconic automaker like a GM?
00:19 Speaker B
Yeah, like that’s what attracted me was like there’s this iconic American company that’s super important to uh the GDP, but it’s super important to kind of the national psyche too. It’s got to it’s got to survive. It’s got to not only survive, it’s got to thrive. And that’s what motivated me to like be a part of it. And in terms of like what what to bring, uh so what I try to bring is I try to be super useful to the team
00:49 Speaker B
in a couple of ways. Sometimes I’m a little bit of a provocator and asking uh tough questions and uh and really trying to get underneath some of the decisions uh and decision speed uh and but they do a they do a fantastic job. Like we used to sit at Tesla and admire like a car that drove smoothly and uh quietly. Like you get in one of these cars that they make and they’re like
01:19 Speaker B
the ride dynamics are amazing.
01:21 Speaker A
I have a black wing. I have a Cadillac Black Wing and an a Corvette. So like I I I get it like
01:25 Speaker B
You get it. I can imagine. And we used to say like, how do these guys do this? Yeah. Because I get in the back of a Model Y like in the city here in New York and it’s like I need a kidney transplant again. It’s rough.
01:40 Speaker A
You said I wasn’t going I’m just gonna I was gonna hold that in. It’s rough. But yes, I I agree with you.
01:44 Speaker B
So so so GM’s got the they they’ve got this fantastic engineering base. Yeah. But they’re but they’re in a in now a race for speed and low cost versus China and Mary and the team, Mark, Sterling, uh Paul, etc. like they’re moving.
02:01 Speaker A
Paul Jacobson is no joke, CF.
02:02 Speaker B
They’re no joke. Like the whole team is no joke. Like you go you go across that senior leadership team and then you go a layer deep. The these people are really good. Really good. And so they’ve got they’ve got more than a fighting chance to come out on top.
02:18 Speaker A
How does how does a company like a GM, iconic American company, how are they how are they how are they can they compete effectively if we have a world of robo taxis or we have Uber now with drivelers cars?
02:35 Speaker B
Yeah, because I think our thesis is that there are there are at least two markets for autonomous cars. One is robo taxi. But given the way the demand curve works in robo taxi or ride share, everybody wants a car at the commute times. That’s when you need them.
02:53 Speaker A
Yes.
02:54 Speaker B
And so, if I have a car that’s autonomous, am I going to put it on the network at the very time I need to take my kids to school and go to work? No, probably not. So we our bet is there’s two markets for autonomous. One is robo taxi and one is personal autonomous cars. The cars you and I drive. So your black wing, your Corvette.
03:12 Speaker A
I am not putting that on the network. Don’t want no one’s touching that wheel but me.
03:15 Speaker B
Exactly. And nobody’s going to spill latte in the back or or something worse, right? And so, uh our bet is people are going to want personal autonomous vehicles and that’s going to be our market because that’s what we do, really, really well. We don’t make cabs, uh but we make great cars uh that people love to sit in and drive and so our autonomous play is going to be in personal autonomous vehicles. And so there’s a lot of action in Robo Taxi
03:47 Speaker B
right now, as you said, with Waymo, Tesla, Uber, etc. That’s that’s all fine and good. We’re pointed at a different market.
03:55 Speaker A
Is GM still, I’ll put a Ford, Tesla, should they be viewed as car companies because they are, I mean major software plays. Uh I look at GM, you know, when they were part of earnings, they are now touting or pointing out recurring revenue from software subscriptions. I’m like, this is getting into like real money for these companies.
