The Automotive Troublemaker w/ Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier

Volvo Ditches Subscription, Waymo Expansion Plans, Shopify Roblox Integration

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It’s a brand new week and we’re heading to Will Guidara’s Welcome Conference in NYC. Before we get there, we need to talk about how Volvo is giving up on car subscriptions, more places you can take an autonomous rideshare, and more ways to buy physical items in Roblox.


Show Notes with links:

  • Volvo has officially ended its vehicle subscription program, Care by Volvo, which launched in 2017. The service offered a bundle of vehicle use, maintenance, and other benefits under a single monthly payment of $600-$800/month across more than 40 states.
    • Volvo announced on September 12 that the program is suspended "for the foreseeable future."
    • Volvo had previously marketed the program as a way to attract younger, first-time Volvo customers, with 80% of subscribers being new to the brand.
    • Existing subscribers can complete their terms and receive a credit toward a new Volvo purchase or lease.
    • The decision allows Volvo to focus on its core offerings and future product introductions.
    • Spokesperson Russell Datz stated, “This allows for concentrated focus on our core customer offers and the coming introduction of new products.”


  • Uber and Waymo are taking their autonomous ride-hailing partnership to new cities, Austin and Atlanta, with a rollout expected early next year. This marks an expansion of their driverless car services beyond Phoenix.
    • Uber will dispatch Waymo's all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles in the new cities with the fleet set to grow to "hundreds" of vehicles over time.
    • Shares of Uber rose 5%, and Alphabet's stock increased by 2% following the news.
    • This comes amid increased regulatory scrutiny of self-driving technology after several crashes.
    • "The expansion reflects Uber's ongoing commitment to EVs and autonomous tech partnerships,” Uber shared in the release.


  • Roblox has teamed up with Shopify to allow physical products to be sold in its metaverse, marking Roblox's first major e-commerce integration.
    • The partnership enables developers and brands on Shopify to sell physical items directly within Roblox games.
    • The pilot program starts this year, with a full launch expected by early 2025.
    • The collaboration builds on Roblox’s past shopping experiments with brands like E.l.f. Cosmetics and Walmart.
    • Shopify highlighted the importance of this integration for Gen Z entrepreneurs, stating, Commerce happens everywhere.
    • Roblox aims to capture 10% of global gaming content revenue, with plans for future e-commerce integrations across various platforms.

Hosts: Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier

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Paul J Daly:

Oh my gosh, we are back in the saddle. It is Monday, September 16. Kyle and Paul are going to be doing the show for a while every single day, but we're going to just get warmed up back in fact, for a minute,

Kyle Mountsier:

the people really want to know are cool. They said it's not allowed. You have to do the show more often together. Two and a half weeks of not running the show together is not okay.

Paul J Daly:

It's such a rhythm for us, and I think we forget about it. I'm so thankful for all the guest hosts who step in, and it's so much fun to do the show and get the variety. But there's something calibrating about this time we spend together every morning and the time we spend with our team where they build the show it, there's something about it, I don't know. I guess you just you take it for granted when you don't do it. Yeah,

Kyle Mountsier:

you take for granted those like rhythms that kind of like set your day, and especially because we do it every morning, right? There's like a there's like a way that the morning starts, and that kind of, like gives you the trajectory in the day. I love, you know? And one of the reasons why we do this show is because way back, over three years ago now, well, almost three years ago, we we just, we did this every day anyway. We talked about what was going on in the automotive industry, what we were excited about next. And so we just want to give that same energy to everyone. And I think it's just, it's, it's like the way we start the day. So we just invite you into it, and we're so glad you're listening. It's

Paul J Daly:

so good. So there's so many things going on right now, right now. Nathan and Jordan are on location at roorman. We're getting ready to to announce some big things and partnerships there. We we released a social media clip last week of us making 547 shirts. I think that's the number for our friends at Beaver Toyota, because now we're issuing these love people more than you love cars with the dealership name underneath. My dream, my dream, and I think this is more than a dream, it's probably more of like a goal, is that we have 100,000 dealership employees wearing love people more than you love cars with their unique dealership name. Yes. So if you're feeling that we already had a couple people just DM saying, like, Hey, can you send me a proof? Yes, we can, if you just DM us on LinkedIn, or actually just send an email to crew at asotu com, let us know what you want, we'll mock you a shirt up. Give you some really great volume pricing. And that's a really great way to bring your whole store together around this principle. Love people. This is the first, by the way, this is the OG.

Kyle Mountsier:

Is that the OG? So, just so, you know, I already, I talked to Patrick on Friday. They're already in for some more orders they got, like, family members want none. It's wild. Yes, that's

Paul J Daly:

great. Yeah. So let us, let us know. We'll show you the samples today.

Kyle Mountsier:

We are we're headed to the welcome conference, if you were con this last year. We got to hang out with will Gadara for a little while, and he puts together an entire day of some of his best friends. Donald Miller is going to be there some incredible restaurant tours. You know, New York's Times, you know, type, type, level people and and, like, we're going to soak that up the hospitality industry and just bring it back to you this week. Yeah, we are, yeah. I

Paul J Daly:

mean, the, you know, you know, it's like, the real deal when we don't recognize like, three quarters of the names and they're wills friends, we're like, oh, we're gonna, we're gonna get some outside influence, got it into the industry. So we'll be in New York City today, all day, at the conference, only a one day conference. So we'll fly out later tonight, and I'll be watching the Eagles game on the way home. I don't know what you're doing. Let's get into some news. Volvo has officially ended its vehicle subscription program care by Volvo is what it was called. Was launched. Oh, when was it? Launcher back in 2017 offering a bundle of vehicle use, maintenance, other benefits in a single monthly payment between 608 $100 a month across more than 40 states. They announced that, just like late last week, that the program is suspended for the foreseeable future. They previously marketed the program as a way to attract first time buyers, Volvo customers with 80% of subscribers were actually new to the brand, so it sounds like they did it. Existing subscribers can still complete their terms and receive a credit toward a new Volvo purchase or lease. It's letting them focus on their core offerings and future product introductions. Spokesperson Russell that's stated quote, this allows for concentrated focus on our core customer offerings and coming of introduction of new products. So they're saying, we're making room, we're clearing up the communication lines, doing new things. Yeah,

Kyle Mountsier:

it's really interesting to me, because obviously, if you've got, you know, like you see this with and Lithia has talked about this, right? You've seen, like, Sonic talk about this with their Echo Park brand. You see Volvo talk. About this, when you introduce these new ways to purchase a vehicle from a brand, you attract a new subscriber, like a new potential customer, because that's who, that's who was always looking for that way to purchase. I think what we're probably going to learn from this is that things like fare before it, and then care by Volvo, the Volvo specific one were, are gonna be kind of, like a little too much, a little too early type thing. Yes, you think about, you also think about, like, how they're digging into finance pockets, how they're digging into insurance pockets, you know, at the dealer side, or the insurance it's a tricky kind of, like web to weave, but I think we are going to see someone kind of figure this out at the tier one to tier three level at some point. Because you, you know, we're actually, I think we're in Florida, talking to an Uber driver, and they were like, Oh man, Uber puts this whole thing. I don't even have to worry about it. Like I get tired. I got care.

Paul J Daly:

I got Miami. Yeah, as commercial

Kyle Mountsier:

starts to come to res, come to, you know, residential, it'll, it'll flow to where I think people expect this as an option at some point, but so I'm kind of sad to see it. Yeah, I know a

Paul J Daly:

lot of people try. It does feel like too this pairs really well with, like, this EV adoption curve that we're trying to, like, see what it does and understand. So it really makes sense. First time buyer trying something out, short term leaf lease, one payment, everything's included, if they can get the insurance figured out. Because EV insurance also, maybe that's a reason why they're not because the insurance is expensive and it would like make the payment go up. So maybe that's one of the reasons they're staying away from it. But I think, I think you're right on the money, right? This kind of thing attracts a new person, person that always wanted to buy that way. And kudos the Volvo for 80% of that. It seems like they hit the target exactly of what they wanted to do. And now let's see if they can convert those Volvo customers, those new ones, into repeat Volvo customers. So yes, I guess we'll see what happens once they do it. But I mean, they're definitely pumping out good product, and I've seen a lot of these Volvo EVs on the road. They look really good to me. I like that. They do look good. They do all right. Speaking of, I don't know. I don't know. Progressing, I don't know. Okay, we'll go progressing. We need a good segue. Uber. We gotta give her a hold. Guys, give us a minute. Uber and Waymo are taking the autonomous ride hailing partnership to new cities now, Austin and Atlanta, with a rollout expected early next year. I know Atlanta, we get to try it. Maybe now we're gonna have to travel outside the radius. I know it with a rollout expected early next year, marking an expansion of their driverless car services beyond Phoenix, where every time you and I've been in Phoenix, we've always had to go outside the radius. So we always get sad Uber's gonna dispatch way most vehicles. So you book it through the Uber app dispatches a Waymo vehicle, an all electric Jaguar. I pace with vehicles with in new cities, with fleets set to grow into the quote hundreds over time, shares of Uber are up 5% on the news. Alphabet stock also increased by 2% creator, Owner, Waymo, following that, it's coming with increased regulation, increased scrutiny of all the self driving tech out there because of these crashes. Here's a quote from Uber in a release. The expansion reflects Uber's ongoing commitment to EVs and autonomous tech partnerships. That's pretty straightforward, I guess.

Kyle Mountsier:

Man, I I'm just like, I can't wait to try it. We're gonna do it. I mean, Austin and Atlanta, I'm pretty sure we can get there a little quicker than Phoenix. Phoenix is a little tough, although there's a couple opportunities. Atlanta

Paul J Daly:

seems like a sketch place to ride one man like, that's icy.

Kyle Mountsier:

It's dicey there already with just like regular autonomous, I don't know, Phoenix

Paul J Daly:

seems like a friendlier place to try a driverless vehicle. Again,

Kyle Mountsier:

this is just another like way to get people comfortable with the reality of not just autonomous, but just with EV it is like expanding the comfortability matrix of whether or not me being in that type of car more often is okay. I think these are the types of things that as if EVs are going to take some level of market share, and again, I don't think they're going to get to 100% by 2030 even 2035 but some level of significant market share over the 11 or so percent that we see right now. You're just going to have to get more comfortable in rentals or in this driverless, autonomous technology or other ways to, like, get them in that vehicle and experiencing what it's like to drive and be in one of them without

Paul J Daly:

a doubt, you know, and what, what I was thinking of when we're talking about Uber booking way most vehicles just thinking back to, like, what Tesla is doing and how they're talking about the robo taxi, and, like, bringing the two together. So I wonder if this is a little bit of like, hey, we see this competitor over the horizon, and we're going to try to like crew up a little bit to see if we can, kind of like join forces, to have a have a little bit of a thing ready when, when it does hit. So I like it. It's great to watch happen.

Kyle Mountsier:

Speaking of Joining Forces, right? Hey, Roblox has. Teamed up with Shopify, which is very smart, to allow physical products to be sold, sold in its Metaverse marking Roblox is first major e commerce. Metaverse. I said Metaverse because basically what Roblox is, I mean, I mean it is.

Paul J Daly:

When the last time we said Metaverse on the show was, I'm curious,

Kyle Mountsier:

that is kind of wild. The partnership enables developers and brands on Shopify to sell physical items directly within Roblox games that hey, look, we're a Shopify store. My you know? Oh, my God, Roblox. Oh, my goodness, it's the perfect place for that shirt. Hey, the pilot program starts this year with a full launch expected by early 2025 the collaboration builds on Roblox past shopping experiences with Browns like Elf Cosmetics and Walmart. And Roblox aims to capture 10% of global gaming content revenue of plans for future e commerce integrations across various platforms. So can't just buy stuff in Roblox, but now outside of Roblox, I

Paul J Daly:

mean, you said it before, like Roblox was kind of like the OG metaverse. It was the place where our kids were transacting, even if it wasn't physical stuff or real money, yet they you could do fake jobs on Roblox, like deliver pizzas and things like that, and earn money that you can then exchange for other items. So they were doing that way, way, way back, and now that it's real credits and real money. And when your kids first, my kids first came up to me. I mean, now it was a lot of years ago, like, Dad, can I have $10 to buy robux? I'm like, I'm giving you real money and you're buying fake money. It was so they could change. So it's like this Gen Z came up on Roblox. You're comfortable with it. ROBLOX now they have all these concert integrations with major artists, releasing albums, selling T shirts and swag and physical items. Just make sense. And wouldn't it be funny if Roblox is like, really the first one to unlock, you know, transactional commerce through the metaverse. I would bet on that horse.

Kyle Mountsier:

I would bet on it because the the the user is native to that, that exchange of goods, that exchange like as a transaction, right? They already trust that that exchange works.

Paul J Daly:

It's a done deal. I don't know, baby, can you buy Roblox on the stock exchange?

Kyle Mountsier:

Probably, I mean, like, I mean, they're basically like Bitcoin, you know,

Paul J Daly:

no, just Bitcoin. I think Roblox is probably a more stable bet than Bitcoin. I don't know. We're not advisors. Don't take any of our advice. Don't

Kyle Mountsier:

take any of that advice. Give some advice, though. Well,

Paul J Daly:

if you're going to take advice on one thing, it's like on the screen right here, over my shoulder, it says a soda con, go to asotu con com. Be the first to know that email list is filling up really quickly, because it's going to be here before you know. But we have to get to New York City see.

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Kyle Mountsier

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