The choices we make today shape our world tomorrow.
Author mpescePosted on We’re starting a newsletter to keep listeners abreast of all of the most important bits of the future – the facts you need today to make decisions for a better tomorrow. The Practical Futurist offers clear, practical advice on how to navigate the possibilities, opportunities – and pitfalls – of a future that’s heading for us so rapidly it’s merging with the present.
Author mpescePosted on “How did you go bankrupt?” begins the oft-quoted line from Hemingway. “Two ways. Gradually – then suddenly.” That’s how the automotive sector feels at the end of 2024, with Nissan maybe preparing for bankruptcy and Stellantis firing its CEO and VW struggling with strikes and low sales and GM shuttering Cruise and on and on and on. Sally Dominguez and Drew Smith join Mark Pesce in studio to explore what’s really happening – and what it all means for THE NEXT BILLION CARS.
We mentioned a few things during our conversation – here are the links:
2) Chinese Carmakers Are Taking Mexico by Storm While Eyeing U.S. (New York Times)
Author mpescePosted on In 2018, Nick Hazell founded v2food – an amazing startup making plant-based substitutes for meat that got extensive coverage on THE NEXT BILLION SECONDS. Six years later, it’s getting difficult to find their product on supermarket shelves – and there’s been a broader roll-back from plant-based alternatives. What’s happened? Nick Hazel doesn’t have all the answers – but he asks some of the right questions…
Author mpescePosted on The impacts of global heating have become persistent and profound, so we need to do as much as we can to lesson those impacts, as quickly as we can. The best paths forward lean into existing, natural processes – and this is exactly where Nick Hazell has arrived with Algenie. Can algae restore balance to our ecosystem? Is it the moonshot we need to transform our future?
Author mpescePosted on In this final year in review episode, Sally Dominguez, Drew Smith and Mark Pesce address the big, smelly elephant in the room: The change of government – and direction – over in the United States of America. Could massive tariffs plus ‘drill, baby, drill’ together land a knockout punch on the US EV industry? Plus – predictions for 2025. We’re bringing the year to a thrilling close on this episode of THE NEXT BILLION CARS.
Author mpescePosted on Whenever Mark, Sal and Drew get together, sparks will fly. So much has happened since our visit to CES 2024, we reckoned it time to draw all the year’s threads together: Are we pulling back from EVs? Will China dominate manufacturing? And what about all that data vehicles are collecting? It’s been full on – enough to require a bit of a ‘group hug’. Part one of two.
Author mpescePosted on In 2016, Tesla CEO Elon Musk instructed his team of engineers to ‘hard code’ the first demo of what would become ‘Full Self Driving’. A faked video drove panic across the entire automotive sector, leading to massive (and mostly failed) investments in technologies for autonomy.
Author mpescePosted on What does it mean to walk away from the dream of a lifetime? For series co-host Drew Smith, this is exactly what he’s doing. For over 20 years, he’d dedicated himself to driving positive change in an industry that has resisted it at almost every turn, and he’s done. In this episode of The Next Billion Cars, he explores how the automotive industry has become its own worst enemy, and what might happen next.
Author mpescePosted on Series co-host Sally Dominguez examines at the data hungry nature of modern vehicles. What does privacy look like in the age of ‘artificial intimacy’? You have nothing to hide, right?
Author mpescePosted on In just three years, China has overtaken Japan, Germany and the United States to become the largest exporter of vehicles. Terrified governments look to tariffs to protect legacy automakers – but what’s the future for any manufacturer that wants to compete against China? Drew Smith and Mark Pesce confront this sudden shift – and chart a path forward.
Author mpescePosted on ZEEKR launched their EV brand in Australia at SxSW Sydney. Drew Smith – who worked for predecessor of ZEEKR – scored The Next Billion Cars a live interview with head of brand Gustaf Gunér. What does it mean to launch a new car brand? And how does a brand establish itself within a market for EVs where everything is… very much the same? A deep conversation about design, brand, and the future of the car industry.
Author mpescePosted on Google’s new NotebookLM digests documents to create AI summaries, and provides an incredible new way to search a vast set of information. One little throwaway feature became a viral hit – “Audio Overview”, which creates a ‘podcast’ featuring two clever, chipper – and entirely synthetic – personas, engaging in a ‘deep dive’ on the content within NotebookLM. In the spirit of Halloween, we uploaded the scripts for the first four episodes of Series 2024 – and NotebookLM rose to the occasion. Is this the future of podcasting? And — HAVE I JUST BEEN PUT OUT OF A JOB?
Author mpescePosted on Next Billion Seconds host Mark Pesce had a nice gig writing for COSMOS Magazine – until he got replaced by an AI. In a live conversation with MIT Technology Review CEO and Publisher Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau – recorded at SxSW Sydney – they explore the automation of creative endeavours – highlighting the significance of ‘humans in the loop’ – and shine a light on how ‘generative’ AI has already shaped the future of work.
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