The Automotive Troublemaker w/ Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier

Finally An Interest Rate Cut, Ford Karaoke, AI Goes Hollywood

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Finally An Interest Rate Cut, Ford Karaoke, AI Goes Hollywood


Description:

Dealers across the country breathed a sigh of relief this morning at news of the Fed’s interest rate cut. We’ll be talking about that, plus how Ford is adding karaoke to vehicles and a partnership between a big Hollywood studio and an AI video generator.


Announcement


  • Upcoming ASOTU Edge Webinar on Wed September 25 at 2PM - Don’t Miss The Signals! How Unresolved Complaints Turn Into Compliance Nightmares with the Association of Finance and Insurance Professionals and DealerResolve
  • Vincue Unleashed Sept 23-25 - ATAE Comms Nov


Show Notes with links:


  • After a long period of hesitation due to high prices and financing costs, the Federal Reserve’s September 18 interest rate cut of 0.5% could help revive consumer demand for vehicles. Dealers are optimistic that this move will spur more buyers into the market.
    • Cox Automotive found that 67% of dealers viewed high rates as their top issue, while Edmunds said that 62% of consumers planning to buy a car within 12 months delayed purchases due to high rates.
    • In August, new car loan interest rates averaged 7.1%, while used car loans hit 11.3%.
    •  TransUnion projects consumer demand may not fully recover until late 2024 or 2025 as interest rates and vehicle prices stabilize.
    • Jessica Caldwell, head of insights at Edmunds believes the cut may push hesitant buyers back into showrooms, especially with year-end promotions, saying “While the rate cut alone may not flood showrooms, it creates a more favorable environment for buyers.”
  • Ford is adding a new karaoke feature to some of its vehicles, enhancing road trip entertainment. A software update for the 2024 F-150 Lightning will introduce the Stingray Karaoke app, allowing passengers to sing along during drives.
    • The app uses sensors to detect if a passenger is present, allowing them to control the experience via a QR code and smartphone.
    • Initially available on the F-150 Lightning, the feature will expand to the Mustang Mach-E and select gas-powered Ford and Lincoln vehicles.
    • The touchscreen will display lyrics only when the vehicle is parked, promoting safe driving habits.
    • The Stingray app offers a wide variety of songs and lyrics in 38 languages.
    • "Our goal at Ford is to continue to improve the ownership experience for customers by delivering experiences like Stingray Karaoke that ultimately bring joy," said Chet Dhruna, Ford's connect and engage general manager.


  • Lionsgate, the studio behind the John Wick and Hunger Games franchises, has signed a deal with AI startup Runway to develop a custom video generation model, tapping into its vast library of films and shows. This partnership aims to help filmmakers enhance their production p

Hosts: Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier

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Paul J Daly:

Good morning, everybody. It is Thursday, September 19. I have I'm not gonna tell you who's in if you're just listening, you're gonna have to hear the guest services in a minute. But we're talking about an interest rate cut Ford karaoke and AI going Hollywood like side to deliver authentic license Hollywood. But first I need to introduce my host. Co host, Cue the music.

Unknown:

Here we go. What's up?

Paul J Daly:

JC, I get to go. Jordan. Cox, he's always ready on a dime. Everyone just so, you know, because this morning, Kyle's like, I totally forgot my flight leaves at nine east. Yeah. So unless we can run the show early and Jordan's, like, I got this, I got your pad all loaded up, what's up? JC,

Jordan Cox:

what's up? How you doing? Paul, good, good. Be back with you. I know you went a lot of places.

Paul J Daly:

You have been to you, and you and Nathan were at roryman this week. So, like, the asot team was in all corners of the country. Uh, what were you doing out there? Blowing

Jordan Cox:

it up at roarman. We were doing pre production, so Nathan and I went out to just go through and lay the groundwork for the upcoming episode that we're gonna film with ROM and automotive. So we spent some time in Lafayette, Indiana, going through their stores, meeting people, talking with them, spending some time with Ryan rorman, spending some time to Trey and the other guys. And really it's just saying, Hey, we're going to partner with you on this. We're going to go through and make this the best, best as possible. And we really just want to make sure everybody's on the same page. And it went so well. Paul, so

Paul J Daly:

excited. I feel like I know these guys, and I haven't met any of them yet. So this is one of those things where I'm going to feel a little starstruck when I meet them for the first Yeah, we go in there, because I've seen so much stuff that you've the vlogs that you've made, and then just stuff from you and Nathan being out there, hey, we want to say happy birthday to our friend, Anita Carroll. Oh, in the comments today Friday, because it's her birthday tomorrow. So Happy Friday. Anita, spending your Friday with us. Just actually a Thursday. Alright, we have a few things going on. Next week. We have our next asotu Edge webinar. These are the Quick Shot 2030, minute webinars, where Kyle and I host them. We take questions, we make sure they're moving basically. Don't miss the signals. How unresolved complaints turn into compliance nightmares. We're going to be just talking about current FTC enforcement landscape, how to avoid regulatory, regulatory attention, right? That's what you really want to do, is avoid the attention and then get some best practices. Take some questions, have a little fun. You can go to a soda.com and just sign up for that webinar. And if you can't make it, sign up anyway. That way you will get the recording as soon as it's done, get the replay. On Monday, I'm going to be on the ground in Kansas City with our friends at vincu. That's been Q unleashed. I've never, I've never been to Kansas City. So Wow. So I'm going to be to Kansas City. I'll be there Monday, Monday, Tuesday, yeah, maybe get some barbecue. Gonna be on a panel with Bob Lanham, Bob, now formerly meta, Bob and and Katie Mars. So it's be Bob and Katie going to rip it up a little bit and talk about kind of the human side of the business, but there's a lot of great people and panels there, so I'll bring you what I can from there. But I think we need to get into some news. Let's do it. Hey, this one is been much, much anticipated. After a long period of hesitation due to high prices and financing cost, the Federal Reserve meeting yesterday, they cut the interest rate, not by quarter percent, by a half of a percent, helping to revive consumer demand for vehicles. Dealers are optimistic that this is going to spur more buyers into the market. We talked about this yesterday. Cox automotive found 60 67% of dealers viewed high rates as their top issues. And Edmonds, the story we referenced yesterday, says 62% of consumers planning to buy a car within the next 12 months have delayed purchases because of high interest rates in August, the new car loan rate was 7.1% on average, while used car loans were 11.3% Wow, TransUnion is projecting consumer demand that it might not fully recover until 2024 late 24 or 25 as interest rates and prices stabilized, Jessica Caldwell, head of insights at Edmunds, believes that cut may push hesitant buyers back into showrooms, especially with urine promotion, saying while the rate cut alone might not flood showrooms, it creates a favorable environment for buyers. So this feels like good news,

Jordan Cox:

I would say so anytime the Fed makes moves like this, from my perspective, they always do it in small pieces. They don't just go cut everything one percentage or one five. They really ease into it. And I don't think that it's going to change that monthly payment a whole lot for customers, but because it's in the news, it's going to be in every consumer's mind, and they're they're thinking, Oh, interest rates drop.

Paul J Daly:

Things are getting better. Things are getting better. I can pull the trigger to purchase. We've talked about a lot of buyers being on the sideline, and that really being a thing that can continue to feed the momentum of sales throughout the rest of this year and into next year. So this seems like a good step in that direction, but it's done just like everything

Jordan Cox:

we'll see. Is what happens. It's good start. It

Paul J Daly:

feels good to see something, something that's actually moving. Speaking of things that are moving, there you go. Karaoke singers. Ford is adding a new karaoke feature to some of its vehicles, enhancing road trip entertainment and perhaps entertainment on one side, or if you're the listening party, it might enhance your update for the 2024 f1 50 lightning will introduce the stingray karaoke app, allowing passengers to sing along during drives. It'd be cool if a little microphone pops out of the glove box. That's right. The app uses sensors to detect if a passenger is present, allowing them to control the experience via a QR code on their smartphone. How cool? Initially available in the f1, 50 lightning, it's going to expand to the Mustang Mach E and then select gas powered Ford in Lincoln vehicles, they're going to get this feature last the touchscreen will show the lyrics only when the vehicle is parked. Boo, yeah, driving on the back screens the stingray app, like, who's going to park their car and sing? The Stingray app offers a wide variety of songs and lyrics in 38 languages. Here's Chet Derna Forge, connect and engage. GM, he said, Our goal at Ford is to continue to improve the ownership experience for customers by delivering experiences like Stingray karaoke that ultimately bring joy.

Jordan Cox:

The first thing I thought of was James Corden when he used to do carpool carrier. My gosh, yes, yeah. Now everybody can do it.

Paul J Daly:

I feel like if Elena cicatelli is listening to this, or she comes across this, and we need to tag her in the post, when we put it out, we're gonna call you out. We need to get in one of these vehicles. This is the masoda crew, and you and we need to test out this, this carpool. Yeah, and I don't know who's gonna get to pick the songs, but, you know, I wonder if they have fly Eagles fly,

Jordan Cox:

they'd have to, you know, the words have to have all the good ones.

Paul J Daly:

Were you like a karaoke family? I know there's a lot of music in your family because of what your dad does and all that did, you

Jordan Cox:

know, we never did karaoke, ever, Paul and when, when I was man, when was the first time I did it? So when I was, when I was working at gates automotive in my 20 group, our favorite thing is we would find the karaoke place to go to in that city, and we would just go watch it. Some people would get up and sing. I never got up and sang one, but it was just cool to be a part of that. So technically, I've never participated in Oh, okay, well, although I do sing karaoke in the shower every day, does that count?

Paul J Daly:

Like, that's karaoke. There's no lyrics, there's no audience. Hopefully, that's right, yeah, I know, but I think this is a great move by Ford, especially the EV models, right? Tesla has all these entertainment features in this car, and a lot of fanfare kind of set the tone there. So Ford, coming up with something new and something cool is pretty awesome. Now, the question is, like, you know how the Teslas, you can broadcast things outside the car? Yeah, imagine broadcasting karaoke outside the vehicle. That's right, that's a good way to get in trouble. Speaking of good ways to get in trouble, segway, gotta continue the entertainment thread right now. Lions Gate, the studio behind you know John Wick Hunger Games, they've signed a deal with AI startup runway to develop a custom video generation model tapping into its vast library of films and shows. The partnership is looking to help filmmakers enhance their production processes through AI technology. Basically, these models will help filmmakers in pre and post production using lions gates existing content to develop tools for creative augmentation. Their Vice Chair, Michael Burns highlighted the deal as a way to create, he says, quote, capital efficient content creation opportunities with some filmmakers already showing interest. Their CEO, Cristobal Venezuela, Valenzuela, emphasized the model's role in providing new methods for filmmakers to bring all the stories to life. And so this is coming amidst a lot of ongoing debates about AI's impact on jobs partic, particularly after last year's sag, after strike, the writer strike, which raised concern about AI replicas of performers and writers.

Jordan Cox:

So if they're going to do this, they better put chat GPT in the credits of the movie in the series itself, right? It's

Paul J Daly:

really fun. They probably would. Well, if you haven't seen runway, we follow this. Nathan and I follow this quite a bit on LinkedIn. The guy's name is Rory, Rory Flynn, and he does all this stuff. Well, he'll take an image that's generated from AI in like dolly or now you can upload an image, and then you can put this image into motion, into different scenes, scenarios, product shots, variations of a scene, like I just saw an ad for, like, Red Wing shoes or something, where their boots walking through water. It would just started with a picture, and then this boot is walking through like a riverbed that looks very good. And then they change all the seasons. Do it in fall, spring, right? And you think of what that would actually take to shoot, plan out shoot. And it's staggering how fast you can generate this type of stuff. And now with this licensing partnership, you actually have real movie content, a vast library used to train these things, without a doubt, man, things are. Things are changing in the content

Jordan Cox:

world. Oh, for sure, one of the cool things I saw that someone was doing was the storyboarding process. So a lot of times when someone's creating something that's scripted, even if it's unscripted, a lot of times they create a storyboard, yeah, and that's just like a scene with either camera movement or the characters, with the blocking or just the shot composition, and they've been using images that are generated by AI to do that. Yeah. And this is just taking it the next

Paul J Daly:

step it is. And I think this, this tech, the fact that we have such early adoption from major players, obviously, you can save a fortune by doing it, and that's always what technology does. It makes the market more efficient, makes tools available to more people. You know this is going to make its way into the auto industry very quickly. Already is, if you know how to use these tools, you can already do it. Yeah, your head, you can already do it. So but I'm just saying these we're going to see more and more automotive tech companies, especially the ones that do photos and videos and display ads and all these things. They're going to integrate this tech first, and the ones who do it first, they're going to be vast winners, because they're going to be able to pump out a massive amount of high end content or things that look really sharp with very little effort and at a pretty reasonable or low cost, so that we're going to see that in the next 12 months. Yeah, for sure. Maybe not, not by this nada. Maybe somebody will, like, get something in there. But by nada, 2026, I think this is going to be commonplace in the auto industry, which means, once it's commonplace, it levels the playing field. That kind of goes back to the fact that, like, the way you care about people, the way you do things, your brand, your people, is that's what makes the difference. Thanks so much for joining us. JC, Thanks for stepping in. It's always good to be thanks for having me. All right, everybody. Go out there. It's Thursday. Go get it. Except for Anita, it's her Friday. You

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Kyle Mountsier

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Paul J Daly

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