Highway Charging Plan To Stay, Super Cruise Subscriptions, Klarna Hires AI?

8 days to Christmas, and we’re covering how Biden’s plans to add highway charging infrastructure will continue under President Trump. Plus, we look at GM’s latest subscription add-on and ask if it will work, and examine a company that claims it has stopped hiring because AI can do all the work.

Show Notes with links:

• The Biden administration’s plan to blanket U.S. highways with federally funded EV chargers will keep moving forward – no matter who sits in the Oval Office come next year.
  • The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program has already allocated about half its funding to states, with the rest preapproved.
  • So far, 11 states have opened 30 federally backed sites with more than 130 ports, aimed at creating chargers every 50 miles along major highways.
  • States manage their own programs, though 10 states have yet to submit project proposals, potentially slowing progress in certain regions.
  • Once the initial 50-mile network is complete, funds can go toward chargers in cities, suburbs, and rural areas, with faster, high-powered stations expected to follow.
  • Atlas Public Policy’s Nick Nigro says Congress doesn’t need to act: “Funding is already going out, and construction is underway.”
  • Loren McDonald, chief analyst of Paren said it’s too late to stop the momentum. “It would take almost an act of God for Trump or Congress to overturn it.”

• General Motors is facing a critical moment as introductory Super Cruise subscriptions start to expire, testing its long-term strategy to build a robust revenue stream from subscriptions.
  • Super Cruise is a Level 2 autonomy system and GM aims to generate $25 billion annually from subscriptions and services by 2030.
  • Our friend Jamie Butters wrote an op-ed about this for Automotive News and commented on the price point: ““At $10 a month, I’d consider it a no-brainer — even though I’m kind of a cheapskate and resistant to subscriptions. At $50 a month — as some Google searches indicate — it’s an easy no. The price listed on Cadillac.com is temptingly in between: $25 a month or $250 a year.”

• Klarna’s CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, recently touted AI’s role in reducing the company’s workforce, but a closer look reveals the buy now, pay later giant hasn’t fully swapped humans for machines just yet.
  • Klarna reduced its workforce from 4,500 to 3,500 over the past year, largely due to natural attrition and a hiring freeze.
  • Siemiatkowski claims, “AI can already do all of the jobs that we as humans do,” crediting AI with enabling efficiency gains.
  • Klarna is still hiring, with 50+ open roles globally, primarily for essential positions like engineering and partnerships.
  • Klarna’s press lead clarified the CEO’s comments,

Hosts: Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier

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Transcript

Paul J Daly: 0:01

Good morning, Tuesday, December 17. Got a lot going on this. We've got a press release going out. We got urine extravaganza on Thursday, talking about charging in the infrastructure super cruise, and Klarna, the company, not hiring a single person. And there's an interesting reason why that is. You're gonna want to stick around some wild stuff it is. I shared this with my team yesterday, not to make everybody afraid, but talk about the realities of this world.

Kyle Mountsier: 0:29

It's intense. Yeah, it is that was, that was not for everyone, but it's definitely intense. It's the reality of sinking it. That's

Paul J Daly: 0:38

true. It's about to be intense. Hey, look, we have a webinar on the schedule for tomorrow. We've been talking about it for the last week. You need to go to asotu.com and sign up for it, because we're talking about service to sales strategy. We're talking to an actual dealer, Shane Ohana ran GM at Chapman BMW Chandler, who has transformed his service drive into generating 3030, to 45 cars a month on the sales side. Great little thing. You want to hear about it from the person who's doing it. We're going to do that tomorrow at what is it? 1pm Eastern, yeah. 1pm Yeah. I mean, 2pm Eastern, we already have almost 200 people registered for this, by the way. Whoa. So if you're wondering whether or not people are interested in this. Interested. You know, 200 of your peers are mostly dealers as well. We looked at the registration list. So you want to be there, it's going to be an amazing conversation. We will be live. So you can ask live questions and heckle us live. Or if you can't be there, make sure you sign up so you get the recording and we can move forward from there. That's gonna be a good one man, it's gonna be gonna be great. What else you're in extravaganza this Thursday, December 19. Pull out your calendar app right now and just put it right in there. 1pm Eastern, you're in extravaganza. This is our fourth annual one. We're gonna be talking to a lot of great people that you may know or may not know, maybe some new people for you in this one hour program, a lot of well wishes, a lot of fun conversations. We teed up a couple of jokes. You Me and Michael Cirillo are going to do our best late night talk show hosts real. They're very real, real jokes. I know I well, they're real. We were kind of very real

Kyle Mountsier: 2:17

stories. They're real story.

Paul J Daly: 2:20

And we're gonna do our best. If you ever wanted to see what it looks like to just toe the line between being canceled and not you wanted to write on the line, we put a lot of character like, can we say that? Let's not say that they're really nice people. Let's not say that that's mostly what the conversation. This is some

Kyle Mountsier: 2:36

of the most fun we have all year. Just if you can't tell already,

Unknown: 2:41

can't tell already,

Paul J Daly: 2:42

all right, I think that's good for now. Way to watch that, by the way, go to LinkedIn. Look for ASOTU, our account. Follow us anyway. Click on events. There you go. Attend. Invite all your friends. The more the merrier. We have a blast in the comments as well. So that's probably half of the fun is being in the comments with the people. All right, let's talk about some news. The Biden administration's plan to blanket US Highways with federally funded EV chargers will be moving forward no matter who sits in the Oval Office next year. I mean, we are we do know who's gonna be sitting there. The national electric vehicle infrastructure. Then nevi and Evi program has already allocated about half of its funding to states with the rest already pre approved. So far, 11 states have opened, drum roll please, 30 federally backed sites with more than 130 ports only cost 2.4 billion aimed at charging creating charges. How to put that in there? Creating charges every 50 miles along major highway. So obviously, there's a lot of infrastructure work going on as well. States are managing their own programs. Though, 10 states have yet to even submit project proposals, slowing projects in certain reasons. North Dakota, right? I don't know if they didn't, but I doubt they did. Once the initial 50 mile network is complete, funds can go towards charges in city, suburbs, rural areas to make sure they're faster, higher power stations expected to follow. So Laura McDonald, chief analyst of parents, said it's not it's too late to stop the momentum. At this point. It would take almost an act of God for Trump or Congress to overturn it. Basically everything's already been allocated and approved. So the money is going out. I think the use of the money is going to change.

Kyle Mountsier: 4:18

Yeah. I mean, either way, there's we still need more chargers. Like, it doesn't matter to me if it's the private or the public sector right now. Like, the only way to get more EV adoption is to reduce range anxiety and not have people worrying about where they're charging, specifically on trips, so that it's not just the second vehicle, it's the primary vehicle. So like, Hey, I don't know where the 2.4 billion went, but more chargers. Not

Paul J Daly: 4:48

a lot of people do. I have a feeling, though, that the new administration is going to be a little more, let's say, accountable with where the money is being spent, which hopefully results in a lot more chargers. And, uh. A good, solid level of V adoption. Want to say hi to some friends on the live stream. Katie mares, Good morning, gentlemen. Excited that I finally caught alive. We're excited that, yeah, welcome to the live stream thing. This is what we do every morning. We're just here and Brian Ortega is razzing me because I have a colored shirt on. Don't get yourself too excited. This is a flannel shirt. It's got like a leather patch on this. It's not that fancy. It's not that it's a little woodland. I

Kyle Mountsier: 5:27

guess we are gonna go fancy for year in extravaganza this week we are, ladies and gentlemen, just show you something. Kyle, oh no, oh boy, if you're not watching, Paul has run off screen. It gets weird sometimes. Oh, he I brought a

Paul J Daly: 5:44

Christmas tree. Look at this thing.

Kyle Mountsier: 5:47

This guy, I think that's a real Christmas tree. He had a pot and everything. That's unbelievable. Was that in an actual Potter,

Unknown: 5:57

he can't hear me yet. No, is that in an actual Potter? No, no. It looked like

Kyle Mountsier: 6:03

it. I was like, Man, this guy brought an actual realtor. I mean, he's got the flannel on. Maybe he just, like, went out, cut that down, like old Paul Bunyan and brought it on. Well, that's

Paul J Daly: 6:11

why I put the flannel. How to put the flannel?

Unknown: 6:17

This show just got weird

Paul J Daly: 6:18

halfway through. It's great look when you when you interrupt your wife's Christmas decorations, and I'm like, Oh, I'm leaving the house and I run and I'm like, oh, oh, I need to borrow this for today, like, walk out with the Christmas trees.

Unknown: 6:30

Too good. She's just like, Whatever, whatever.

Paul J Daly: 6:34

All right, let's go. We need to keep moving. I think, keep it moving. Keep it moving. So this is an editorial written by our good friend, Jamie butters, editor of automotive news. We thought it was an important topic that we would cover. His perspective on it is really, I think, timely General Motors facing a critical moment as the introductory super cruise could subscription. So super cruise is their level two autonomy system. You know, it's kind of like it drives itself. The subscriptions that came with the vehicle are now starting to expire. GM has said they were looking to generate 25 billion annually from subscriptions and services by 2030 I think originally, they were like, we're going to generate 50 billion. Half of that was autonomous vehicles, which they just scrapped, you know, two weeks ago. And now descriptions subscriptions are expiring. Our friend Jamie, he said, quote, at$10 a month, I'd kids because he has a truck with super cruise. He goes to $10 a month. I consider it a no brainer, even though I'm kind of a cheapskate and resistant to subscriptions. At $50 a month, as some Google searches indicate, it's an easy no, the price listed on cadillac.com is temptingly between $25 a month and $250 per year. He concludes with so far, GM is OnStar and Ford Pro, with its suite of logistical and diagnostic software designed for commercial fleet managers, seem to be the only automotive units that have tapped sustainable revenue streams. The key is offering a service that adds value for the consumer, whether owners of Cadillacs and other GM vehicles see super cruise as an additional value or something that should just be included with the original price, is going to be interesting. But I'll say this, it's got a shot. Yeah,

Kyle Mountsier: 8:12

when I think about the shot that it has to take, it has to take the shame same shot in the budget line item as like a a streaming service, in my opinion, like going to that 25,

Paul J Daly: 8:25

3050, more expensive than the thing that keeps your kids quiet all month. That's

Kyle Mountsier: 8:30

right, that's exactly it like, like, it's the same thing, actually, right? Like, super cruise allows you to turn around and whack kids without worrying about it, right? Or you got the Hulu subscription one of the two, they do the same thing, yeah, I you know, obviously we've seen the bumps and bruises that automakers have taken when looking at subscription services over the last four to five years. I do think that some level of increased, like capacity for driving is there's like a precedent for that, right? But also, you see it kind of like with Tesla, they just kind of upgrade you you pay the upfront. So I think there has to be some balance of like, Hey, maybe I want to pay for this monthly, or maybe I want to pay for it all up front, because it is just a feature that you unlock, right? And so I wonder,

Paul J Daly: 9:25

bundled. It's got to be bundled. You have to include it with because I have a newer GM vehicle, and it's got, like, the four year subscription to OnStar and the internet works. But I don't have super cruise. But even so, it's like seeing a line item for super cruise at 25 I still even, no matter what it is, I still can't see a subscription, even if it includes, like, internet on Star services. Man, once you get over that, like, $16 a month level, right? Like, it's just gonna start to depreciate.

Kyle Mountsier: 9:52

Yeah, you, you're seeing like, Apple TV and some of the and Netflix get up into that, like, $13 range right now. For just this mindless subscription. And I think that that's where automakers, if they want to really make this work, they're going to have to stay in there or actually undercut it to be able to, like, get into the market. I just can't see 25 or$50 nailing it.

Paul J Daly: 10:13

Me neither. Uh, answering a question from the live stream, James Raymond says, What city was Nathan's EV adventure film? Oh, so good. Well, that was, believe a trip from Richmond, was the Richmond airport to John Foley, and then we went to Charlottesville. So it was in the state of Virginia, if anyone's asking. And if you haven't seen it, where is that? Is that on an ASOTU channel? Or is that Nathan? Nathan

Unknown: 10:36

on ASOTU? I repost it so you can find it by searching me

Paul J Daly: 10:40

on LinkedIn. He's he's rocking his LinkedIn game lately, this dude, he's. He just had awesome post about interstellar yesterday. That was my favorite, because that movie is my favorite. All right. Speaking of things, leaving the office, no box office.

Kyle Mountsier: 10:58

Clarinet. CEO Sebastian, you ready for this?

Paul J Daly: 11:01

What does Clark let everybody know? What clarity is. It's like a tech company, yeah? Fintech.

Kyle Mountsier: 11:07

Okay, yep, so, Sebastian, see Mike kowsky. Did I get it? See, Mike kowsky Recently touted AI's role in reducing the company's workforce. But a closer look reveals the buy now, pay later. Giant hasn't fully swapped humans for machines just yet, so they came out saying, hey, look, we're not hiring anyone that isn't AI. They did reduce their workforce from 30 4500 to 3500 over the last year, but there was a hiring freeze, some natural attrition. He was claiming that AI can do all the jobs that we as humans can do, but they are still hiring. They have 50 plus open roles globally, primarily for essential positions like engineering and partnerships, the CEO's comments, press lead, or the press lead for them, commented and said they've stopped actively recruiting to expand but back fill critical role. So they're not actively, yeah, pursuing expanding with humans. They're pursuing expanding continually with AI, obviously he has been, like, put up on this pedestal of like, Oh, wow. You really think that you can build a company off of only AI?

Paul J Daly: 12:27

Well, here's Nathan. You pull a picture back up for a second. First of all, I need to say the picture, he looks like a stand up comedian about to deliver a really funny joke. Just nail it. I mean, I don't know if he does, but it just caught me that way. But basically the company has a 20% attrition rate. They just stopped hiring silently over the last year, right? So this is actually a story where they're talking about what they already did, not what they're about to do, which I think is more impactful. They said, We just stopped hiring with the 20% churn we naturally, you know, digress from a 4500 person company to a 3500 person company. The business didn't shrink. The business actually grew a little bit. And now they have aI doing the work of, get the, I don't know if we had this in the notes, doing the work of what they say would have taken 700 humans to do.

Kyle Mountsier: 13:14

Yeah, just, just via chat, chat. GBT, the other crazy thing that that they did is in order to deliver, deliver the financial results. And maybe this is why the photos a little funky. Is all of it was done by a deep fake of himself, right? To show

Paul J Daly: 13:31

him, that's right, he made a deep fake of himself to deliver the video. So this, this is actually sent a little bit of ripples. I shared this with my my team at congruent, the agency yesterday, and people had a really mixed response to it, like, I'm like, one person says this actually makes me really scared, right? Which, yeah, which is one of the I didn't share it to scare people, and I said this. I didn't, I don't share this to scare you, but I share you to say there's also a stat in this article if you click through the link that says, or no, we covered it yesterday, how companies are using chat or using AI only 6.5% of companies are using AI tools, 6.5 so I said to my team, and I say this to everyone in the audience, if you start to deploy AI tools in your company, you are in the Leading six and a half percent, which means you're ahead of 94 ish percent of everyone else. So that's why I said, don't let it scare you, let it motivate you to the fact that, because you're using these tools, you are in the lead, and your company is going to be able to grow and scale with the

Kyle Mountsier: 14:35

people. Yeah, I mean, and, you know, I mean literally, I was having a similar conversation in the tech company yesterday, and you know, one of our senior architects for the entire company shares a link internally, and there's a UTM source chat GPT, right, which means he found that link by searching for it in GPT, and it solved a pretty hefty development problem for. Us like in minutes, which could have taken a developer, you know, a few hours to research. Historically,

Paul J Daly: 15:07

developers are cheap these days, don't they?

Kyle Mountsier: 15:11

Not at all. So no, because, yeah, that's a whole other story.

Paul J Daly: 15:14

It is but, but talking about that how boils down to what we are doing in the automotive industry. There are countless ways to deploy AI tools, but you have to be paying attention to it. We're trying to help that a little bit. Didn't intend to plug this here, but we started an AI newsletter called auto industry.ai always gonna pull up the graphic. He's fast, and we didn't even talk about this auto industry.ai you should get on that email list, because we're trying our best to just drip feed you every week, some of the things that are happening, some actual use cases in automotive, some really great prompts which are next level to plug into, even just simple tools like chat, G, P, T, to help you, write scripts, answer calls, solve problems. And we just want to say everybody in this community should be at the lead period. Should be at the lead should be listen. Thanks for tuning in with us, especially you first timers on the live stream today, we're here every morning. Remember, we have a webinar tomorrow, and we have year in extravaganza on Thursday, but we'll be back here tomorrow morning with another version of the show. Go, crush it.

Unknown: 16:22

You.