Automotive State of The Union

EU Gets 15% Tariffs, Toyota’s EV Roadmap, AI Privacy Privilege

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Episode #1106: Today we’re looking at a U.S.-EU trade deal that gives European automakers some relief, Toyota’s ambitious product roadmap with EVs and freshened favorites, and why Sam Altman says your ChatGPT chats aren’t nearly as private as you think.


Show Notes with links:

  • European automakers got a breather as the U.S. and EU struck a long-awaited trade deal, dialing back tariff threats that had been weighing on the industry.
    • The U.S. will apply a 15% tariff on EU goods, easing pressure from the previously targeted 25%.
    • Stocks of German automakers like BMW, Mercedes, and Volkswagen initially surged on the news.
    • Barclays analysts note the 15% rate is six times higher than pre-Trump levels.
    • The EU may cut its 10% tariff on U.S. imports, benefiting BMW and Mercedes, which export U.S.-built models back to Europe.
    • BMW and VW are also hoping for additional relief tied to U.S. investments.
    • Barclays: “Logging in 15% tariffs as a run-rate will still represent a year-on-year headwind in 2026 versus 2025.”


  • Toyota’s next four years will be packed with new EVs, freshened best-sellers, and a surprising push to keep sedans relevant.
    • The Highlander will go all-electric in 2025, following the new Grand Highlander.
    • A three-row electric crossover (bZ5X) will launch from Kentucky late 2025.
    • RAV4 redesign moves up to 2025 with new platform, safety, and infotainment upgrades.
    • Toyota continues investing in sedans — Corolla freshens in 2025, Camry will be redesigned in 2028.
    • A Compact Corolla-based pickup in development is set to rival Ford Maverick, expected in 2027.
    • Akio Toyoda’s GR Supra may end production in 2026, though emotions could keep it alive.


  • Millions are sharing deeply personal issues with AI, but a surprising admission from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has lawyers — and plenty of everyday users — buzzing. 
    • He admitted last week that ChatGPT conversations don’t carry the same confidentiality as talks with a lawyer, doctor, or therapist, raising big questions about privacy in the AI age.
    • Altman: “We should have the same concept of privacy for your conversations with AI that we do with a therapist or whatever — and we haven’t figured that out yet.”
    • Legal experts warn that without privilege, user data could be subpoenaed if OpenAI stores it.
    • OpenAI notes that with chat history off — especially on paid plans — data isn’t saved or used for training.
    • Enterprise-level ChatGPT offers encryption and compliance, but the free and Plus versions lack those safeguards.

0:00 Intro with Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier
1:43 Upcoming ASOTU Edge Webinar with CarRx
2:20 US Trade Deal With EU Is 15% Tariffs
4:30 Toyota's 4 Year Roadmap
7:42 ChatGPT Doesn't Provide Legal Confidential

Join Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier every morning for the Automotive State of the Union podcast as they connect the dots across car dealerships, retail trends, emerging tech like AI, and cultural shifts—bringing clarity, speed, and people-first insight to automotive leaders navigating a rapidly changing industry.

Get the Daily Push Back email at https://www.asotu.com/

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Paul J Daly:

Good morning, and welcome to the last Monday of the month. It's July 28 This is the automotive State of the Union. I'm Paul Jay Daly. This is Kyle mounts. Here today. We're talking about EU's tariff finally getting to the ground, and a couple other things as well. Everywhere I go, the kind of a lot of

Kyle Mountsier:

really matter, because this EU tariff thing was, was raising everybody's blood pressure. You know what I mean?

Paul J Daly:

You know? You know, sometimes when you you buy, like, an outfit, and you're like, This is gonna look great, and then you put it on, you're like, I kind of hate this. That's kind of how I feel about my new color grading on my camera.

Kyle Mountsier:

You got, like, explain to the people, well, first off, you don't know what color grading is. It's all about the fact that lenses need a little bit of like

Paul J Daly:

light bodies are different. Yeah, all the whites look white, and the skin colors need to look skin color, and all the way. So Sony has a hard time with skin tone. Sometimes cannons on a Kyle's on a Canon camera. Now, if you're listening, you have to go watch this. Kyle's on a Canon. I'm on a Sony. And I was like, Yeah, my shirts looking kind of yellow. So Nathan came in, we adjusted it. I mean, granted, the picture is really small. We were adjusting. We're like, looks great. Now that I'm big, now my shirt looks like, you know, I washed it with something orange. It does. It does, yeah, I

Unknown:

know, yeah. But your skin tones look better. Look at your face. My skin

Paul J Daly:

looks beautiful. You look like you've been at the beach. This last looks like on February upstate New York, pale. If we make my shirt look and that's not how I look, we'll figure this out. Wait. What a way to start away. Get it. I know. Look. We have a next week, we have an upcoming ASOTU Edge webinar. These are our Quick Shot webinars, 2530 minutes with our friends at car RX, driving loyalty data, with Shane Wilson and Levi Beatty. This is going to be Wednesday at 2pm but you can go to asotu.com register now. You can be there live, or you can get the recording. You know how webinars work, and these are always a ton of fun.

Kyle Mountsier:

Just, yeah, this one's really great. It's near and dear to my heart talking about anything retention, anything loyalty. You know, it's the way to stay in business. How to

Paul J Daly:

Win you that's how you win the long game. Yep. All right, speaking of the law game, European lawmakers got a breather from the US, and as the US and EU struck a long awaited trade deal dialing back tariff threats that had been weighing heavily on the industry, the US will apply now a 15% 15 one, five tariff on EU goods, easing pressure from the previously targeted 25% big difference. Stocks of German automakers like BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen, initially surged on the news. Barclays analysts note the 15% rate is six times higher than pre Trump levels. So what is that? What is it like? 3% two, 3% the EU may cut its 10% tariff on US imports benefiting BMW, Mercedes, which export us built models back to Europe. BMW and VW also hoping for additional relief tied to these investments they're making in the US. Barclay said, quote, logging in 15% tariffs as a run rate will still represent a year on year on year headwind in 2026 versus 2025 so there's still going to be a little bit of a headwind. But I feel like everyone can, like, get to get to work now,

Kyle Mountsier:

yeah, you can at least breathe knowing what the what the stakes are, right? The difference between that 15 and 25 it's the it's almost the difference of the two and a half to the 15. So still, a stark difference in what it takes to get these goods into the US. You know, if we talk to our friend John Sacco, I'm sure this has a major impact on his business, maybe not as much as as the 25% would, but it's still going to have a lot of manufacturers, goods producers, importers, kind of struggling to meet the balance of like, consumer pricing, demand, the you know, the taxes on these goods coming in but, but definitely, it's like, Okay, now we know where the stakes are. Yes, here's where we can put stuff in the ground, and here's how we can move forward

Paul J Daly:

anytime a conversation like this gets to ground. Finally, like a lot of times. The worst part of all of this stuff is the uncertainty, is the consumer sentiment. And what should I be thinking about, right? Once all this gets I think 3060, days from now, we just won't be talking about it anymore, hopefully, and it'll just be part of doing business from the consumer standpoint, and the retail dealers will be able to just get on knowing a little bit more certainty about their inventory and what they can expect. So there you go for we'll call that forward progress, yeah, speaking of forward progress, right,

Kyle Mountsier:

there it is a real one, too.

Paul J Daly:

Toyota's next four years we packed with new EVs, freshened best sellers and a surprising push to keep sedans relevant. The highlighter is go get the now we've always asked why, what the differentiation is some of these models, but now we know the Highlander will go all electric in 2025 following the new grand Highlander, a three row electric crossover. Oh, next line, a three row electric crossover, Bz 5x will launch from Kentucky. Key late 2025 that's like, kind of, is that like, kind of like a model Y competitor, right? We would consider that rev four design is moving it up to 2025 with new platform, with a new platform, safety and infotainment upgrades. Toyota has continued to invest in sedans. The Corolla freshens in 2025 the Camry will be redesigned in 2028 a compact Corolla pickup is in development, set to rival the Ford Maverick expected in 2027 and a Kyle Toyota's gr super may end production in 2026 though emotions could keep it alive. Yeah. I mean, people love that

Kyle Mountsier:

car. It's kind of sad that the super may end in 2026 I don't know if we'll see that happening. The stark thing for here, for me here, is that we're talking about changes in a line in 2028 and this is the thing that I think the Chinese manufacturers are challenging the rest of the world with, with these 12 to 18 month development cycles, completely refreshing brands, manufacturing facilities, builds in those timelines, because the available technology, the body style, differentiation, all of those types of things have to keep up with consumer demand. And you still see some of the legacy automakers making 345, year challenges and changes and pivots. And I just don't think that that pace is going to keep up with the way the consumer likes to interact. You see Apple, they've already struggled with the fact that one year over one year and changing their the you know, their hardware and their software is starting to wane in its ability to keep customers excited. So we'll see if they'll if OEMs can do the same.

Paul J Daly:

You know, I think a derivative effect of what you just mentioned, this significantly increased production cycle, where products go from concept to market in 18 months. It's going to wreak absolute havoc on the used car market. That's right, you know, and especially when the Chinese brands now thinking a little more internationally here with the Chinese brands, with all of these EV makers, likely going out of business, like so many, I don't, 120

Kyle Mountsier:

oh my goodness, cars just sitting on the road. Wow. We're

Paul J Daly:

like, what is that? Again? What was that? You know, like, the used car market. I mean, we've seen pictures of like, EV boneyards, right, where all that stuff out there, and it's not going to get any better. But I think Toyota obviously just a staple, so savvy, so ahead of the curve by just being patient and reacting to the market, or predicting the market, yeah, I don't know that they predict the market as much as they react. Like, Gary talks about this like, he's like, people think I see the future. He goes, I'm just a great counter puncher. I just understand what punch is being thrown first. And I think that's Toyota.

Kyle Mountsier:

And you watch it quickly and move quickly, yeah, that's the difference. That's true,

Paul J Daly:

yep. Speaking of moving quickly,

Kyle Mountsier:

almost, almost too quickly, too late. Yeah, millions are sharing deeply personal issues with AI. But surprising admission from open AI Sam Altman has lawyers and plenty of everyday users buzzing. He admitted last week, the chat GPT conversations don't carry the same confidentiality as talks with a lawyer, doctor, therapist, raising big questions about privacy in the AI age. His his quote last week was, we should have the same concept of privacy for your conversations with AI that we do the therapist or whatever, and we haven't figured that out yet. Legal experts warned that without privilege, user data could be subpoenaed if open AI is storing it open. I did note, however, that with chat history off, especially on paid plans, data isn't saved or used for training. Enterprise level chat GPT offers enter encryption and compliance, but the free and plus versions laugh, lack those safeguards, so even people on the plus versions aren't getting that full level of encryption and free man, if you're in a free account and you're sharing consumer data, personal conversations, questions about whether or not you should do something dramatic with your life, any of that like, Watch out. Watch out, fam.

Paul J Daly:

Should I go to Coldplay concerts? Oh, yeah,

Kyle Mountsier:

should have asked. Definitely should

Paul J Daly:

have asked. You know, basically what I've seen about this is, you know, the temporary chat function, if you're asking something, it does, it's not supposed to save the chat history, right? The big so if the they were saying, if the data doesn't exist because the chat history isn't preserved, then what is there to be subpoenaed? The flip side is, like, the utilitarian nature of keeping chat history on is the fact that now you can actually have a deeper, more meaningful, more beneficial and helpful conversation, because context is saved, right? So, yeah, I think it will take, like people are talking about this. I think it will take the first real life example of somebody subpoenaing chat GPT data, chat history, and using that, submitting it as evidence, and it's going to happen high profile case, you know, I mean, the same rules always apply, like, just don't do anything that's illegal, and you probably do much better stuff, but, but realistically, I think Sam Altman's, you know, position on this, he's like, Well, it's kind of if we're using this. As a therapist, like we need the same legal confidentiality, but it's tricky.

Kyle Mountsier:

Well, I think, I think the big thing to note here for especially for any one in retail auto, where you're not like a tech company and your people are experimenting with asking questions of any large language model, yes, anything, having strict guidelines and education internally on how, when and where to use these things, right? Especially with PII floating around dealerships like it does, do not let your contrast people, yeah, yeah, be uploading this stuff into like I would say, you should be paying for all of your employees to have some AI that is like a generalized AI. Maybe you have maybe you have Google Gemini, or maybe you have chat GPT, whatever it is, pay for one so that you can direct them to use it because they want to use it no matter what, but make sure that you pay for them at least, so that you can say that's the only one you're allowed to use, and you must be logged in into our business plan, so that you don't have stuff exposed.

Paul J Daly:

Brian Ortega, you got my Run DMC reference. I almost let it drag on longer than it did, but it's tricky. I think, I think I might need that as a new trigger pad that's strong, that

Kyle Mountsier:

would be good. I mean, if Brian's listening, I bet you he's got you covered.

Paul J Daly:

Will YouTube flag that if I just, like, play the little bridge, if it's tricky, well, like, it's like a second, it's like, proper of seconds. No, I think you get, like, three seconds.

Kyle Mountsier:

We'll get someone to we'll get someone to research that figure it out. Maybe we gotta throw a little flair in it, you know,

Paul J Daly:

because we have, we have a second I saw, so we, we talked about, I'm gonna release a YouTube post on this soon about my first use of the AI agent. Oh, right. And so I have this little fit. It's fun. It's a lot of fun. And it's gonna end in a real world, physical thing, which is the coolest part in my mind, Oh, that's great. However, I read an article today talking about how AI people are starting to like seed websites that AI agents may be scrubbing with instructions to get the AI to do things you didn't intend it to do. So like, I have my agent out there going to a site, and it's reading the data, and the data instructs the AI to take an action or ask me for something so it can, like, fish it out. I was like, you

Kyle Mountsier:

suckers, Watch out. Watch out. Y'all, I know I'm telling you, look this. This is the reality, and I think this is maybe the clamp on all of this is over the next two, three years, as more and more people are leveraging this type of service in person meetings, whether it be because they're worried about whether or not that's a real video, or whether that's you actually talking, or how you're interacting with the world, or like shopping in person, in person. Events going to go into the local eatery, whatever it may be, are going to be more and more important to our daily lives, and they're going to be sought after. And so create, create community around those is what I would say. Yep,

Paul J Daly:

there you go. Brian Ortega, I took your advice. He said, Ask chat. GPT how many seconds we can use the Run DMC clip and we went temporary chat. I don't need any of this getting subpoenaed now says there's no safe number of seconds, even one second, you need explicit however, it's often quoted that 10 seconds. Maybe it's a riff, it's a myth. It's not a law. What might be permitted is transformative uses like critique, parody or news more likely to qualify, just like this little segue button, stop, segue. Okay, now the stop is definitely from MCM actually, Brian retire made that. So I think he made a copyright safe version. Come on now. I also don't think it'll be competing with the

Kyle Mountsier:

original. Make us another version. Brian. Hear us from across the interwebs.

Paul J Daly:

Got him all right. Listen, we're just doing all kinds of craziness on the last Monday of the month. Listen, the month close is here. Lean in. Make it count. Think about what those customers are going to do three years from now, not just this one time year server, though.

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Kyle Mountsier

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Paul J Daly

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