The choices we make today shape our world tomorrow.
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 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 Despite some new car announcements from Honda, this year’s Consumer Electronics Show reveals a stagnant automotive sector that seems to have lost its way in the transition to EVs. Co-host Sally Dominguez, Special Correspondent Drew Smith and Mark Pesce find a few bones to pick with the future on offer in Las Vegas – but a surprise from Sharp left the team smelling roses. It’s Las Vegas, baby – with the pedal to the metal, and one foot in the future.
Author mpescePosted on The Consumer Electronics Show is one of the biggest conventions in the world, featuring gadgets of every size and description. It’s also the most important car show in the world. Cohost Sally Dominguez, special correspondent Drew Smith and host Mark Pesce share some of their highs and lows of this year’s show.
Author mpescePosted on The year of ‘brolectrification’, artificial intelligence working its way into car dashboards, a Chinese EV invasion – and Cybertruck’s domination. At the end of 2023, what have we learned? Co-host Sally Dominguez and Special Correspondent Drew Smith sit down with Mark Pesce to augur the entrails of a very weird year, then look forward to the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show.
While they’ve worked together for five years, Mark, Sal and Drew have never met face-to-face – until this show. Eyeball-to-eyball they ask one another some ‘hard questions’, and learn some hard truths about the state of micromobility, EVs – and the future of the transition that may be better for the auto industry than for the planet.
Author mpescePosted on No comment The Next Billion Cars – Horace Dediu in conversation with Drew Smith UNCUT BONUS EPISODE. We were so happy with Special Correspondent Drew Smith’s rich and powerful interview with Horace Dediu, we wanted to share an episode featuring their complete, unedited conversation.
Drew Smith sat down for an hour-plus interview with Horace Dediu, the ‘father’ of micromobility – Horace coined the word! – exploring its origins and future. Along the way, Horace offers a blistering critique of the failure of the automotive sector to embody the new design possibilities offered by micromobility: transportation choice in our urban centres, and a powerful framework to rethink our transportation networks and cities.
The Next Billion Cars is proudly made possible by our sponsors GIO Insurance and BMW.
What is ‘micromobility’? It’s a philosophy that emphasises choice and urban-centered design in our transportation networks and transport options. Drew Smith speaks with Horace Dediu, the ‘father’ of micromobility, about its origins, his critique of the new generation of EV companies, and the way things must change in order to provide a transport future that we can all enjoy. Mark looks at the ‘wheel’ of transportation that takes developing nations from bicycles to scooters to cars – and back to bikes again? Sally Dominguez makes a heartfelt and well-observed plea for micromobility solutions that don’t favour able-bodied young men by design. In the round-table, Mark, Sal and Drew analyse everything they’ve learned in this series: Are we any closer to autonomous vehicles? Pervasive electric vehicles? Commercial hydrogen vehicles? Micromobility solutions that work for everyone? A huge final for this series of THE NEXT BILLION CARS.
The Next Billion Cars is proudly made possible by our sponsors GIO Insurance and BMW.
Long-promised as the ‘fuel of the future’, hydrogen fails to live up to its hype. Co-host Sally Dominguez looks at the the future for big hydrogen-powered vehicles, speaking with Brendan Norman of Australian hydrogen vehicle startup H2X. Mark speaks to Romesh Rodrigo at Daimler Trucks Australia about the future of ‘liquid’ hydrogen – a fuel that needs to be cooled to within 20 degrees of Absolute Zero, and ‘bleeds off’ quickly, leaving storage tanks empty. Finally, Special Correspondent Drew Smith looks at the collapse of Toyota’s long-held ambitions to transition seamlessly from petrol-powered to hydrogen-fueled vehicles.
The Next Billion Cars is proudly made possible by our sponsors GIO Insurance and BMW.
Produced by Ampel.
Author mpescePosted on The number of electric cars in Australia doubled in 2022 – yet it remains nearly impossible to buy the model you want, and the nation’s public charging infrastructure remains on the drawing board. Big things will need to change, quickly. Co-hosts Sally Dominguez and Drew Smith dive into the systemic changes needed to get these ‘batteries-with-wheels’ charged and charging into the future. With contributions from Richard Hackforth-Jones, Joe Simspon and Daniel O’Brien. Can you drive across Europe in an EV? Can you charge an EV in your kitchen? Are swappable batteries the answer for ‘range anxiety’ – or can we try to rid ourselves of this ‘big-is-better-ism’ that automotive manufacturers have used to lure new buyers for half a century?
The Next Billion Cars is proudly made possible by our sponsors GIO Insurance and BMW.
In 2016, Telsa made a video touting their ‘self-driving’ software – faked. Every major manufacturer promised self-driving cars by 2021 – none are even close. Will the nirvana of driverless cars ever come – or will it remain a temping mirage, forever just over the horizon? Mark is joined by co-host Sally Dominguez and Special Correspondent Drew Smith as we speak to GIO boffin Steve Cratchley, and reconnect with Ken Goldberg – does Ken still believe autonomous vehicles are a decade or more away? Are we advancing toward autonomy – or stalled in the high-speed lane?
Here’s the deeply disturbing footage of the 8-car pileup on San Francisco’s Bay Bridge on Thanksgiving Day – possibly due to a failure in a Tesla’s self-driving feature.
A Tesla engineer testifies that the firm’s 2016 video touting its self-driving software was faked. That led to Tesla warning its investors that it’s being investigated by the US Justice Department.
Mercedes is the first car maker in the US cleared for ‘Level 3’ autonomy – in Nevada.
And back in 2022, Mercedes told the press it would be taking full legal responsibility for its driver assistance features…
And of course y’all should be listening to Drew’s other podcast, “Looking Out“…
Thanks to series sponsors GIO and BMW Electromobility.
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