Automotive State of The Union

AI Showdown, Sedan Comeback, and ChatGPT’s Legal Curveball

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Episode #1237: Today we’re talking about BMW and Mercedes battling it out at CES with next-gen AI, a surprising sedan surge in the used market, and how ChatGPT is causing headaches for doctors and lawyers alike.

Show Notes with links:

https://lnkd.in/dNJMNGBk
Two German giants are trading blows in Las Vegas. CES has become a high-tech battleground for BMW and Mercedes-Benz as they push the envelope on AI and digital experiences in their latest vehicles.
BMW is the first automaker to integrate Amazon's Alexa+ AI into its Intelligent Personal Assistant.
Launching with the BMW iX3 in 2026, the assistant offers conversational voice interactions and can handle multiple queries at once.
Users can link Amazon accounts to access streaming and news directly through the assistant.
The AI is central to BMW’s Neue Klasse EV platform, with CES once again serving as its innovation stage.
“The vehicle becomes an intelligent companion for its users,” said Stephan Durach, SVP at BMW Group.

https://lnkd.in/eb_v_mY6
Are sedans back in style? Pickup trucks still rule the used car market, but a surprising sedan surge and shifting EV dynamics brought a few fresh twists to 2025’s top sellers.
The Ford F-150, Chevy Silverado 1500, and Ram 1500 held onto the top three spots.
Chevy Malibu shot up from No. 29 to No. 8, likely due to rental fleet sell-offs after GM ended production.
Toyota Corolla cracked the top 10 at No. 9; Equinox and Camry stayed strong.
Tesla continues to dominate used EV sales, with Model 3 and Model Y leading.
VW ID.4 and Hyundai Ioniq 5 made big jumps, while the Chevy Bolt slid to No. 7.
“The rankings show minimal variations from 2024, though the dominance of full-size trucks is shrinking,” said iSeeCars analyst Karl Brauer.

https://lnkd.in/eWeNSd7a
ChatGPT Is the New WebMD, And It’s Driving Experts Crazy. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT are becoming the go-to for legal and medical questions, giving everyone a second opinion—but not always the right one.
AI is now widely used for symptom checking, legal strategy, and even therapy prep.
One in three Americans consult AI weekly for health advice; 57% use it or would for legal issues.
Professionals report clients showing up with AI-generated legal gameplans or diagnoses—often filled with emojis.
AI’s authority and 24/7 availability make it feel more trustworthy and convenient than waiting weeks for an expert.
“We have to dispel the information clients were able to obtain vs what is actually going on and kind of work backwards,” said New Jersey attorney Jamie Berger.

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.

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Paul J Daly:

Good morning. It is Wednesday, January 7. We're coming in all the way today. We're talking about an AI showdown, a sedan comeback and chat. GPT, legal curve ball, or medical curve ball, or any other curve ball you want to throw a jet. GP fix your whole life. Kyle, did you know that? Apparently, apparently. And it always tells me I'm doing a great job, and I have great ideas. Who doesn't want to be around that person, who doesn't want to be around that, who doesn't love an encourager? I tell people that, right? Who doesn't love an encourager, someone comes around, encourages you chat. GPT is taking the cues. You know, that's how they that's how they get in, and that's how the robots take over,

Unknown:

and then the robots take over you.

Paul J Daly:

And then, you know, Arnold Schwarzenegger shows up from the past, tries to kill you, and, you know, and then the whole thing, Skynet Kyle is like, where are we going with this? Oh, hey, we have a webinar today two days. So if you're hearing this, we should go, Yes, before two. If you're hearing this before 2pm Eastern, or even after, you can still get the webinar recording. We're do webinar AI that works as hard as you do practical tips for faster sales, with Danny valise and Sarah Hicks from automotive mastermind, everyone's got the AI questions, everything you can learn about it, even little nuanced things, are going to make you much better in your selection and execution. Moving forward, you should be at this webinar two o'clock, or you should get the recording. You can do either of those by going to asotu.com it's right there at the top of the page. Learn a little something. Will you we need to learn a lot of somethings.

Kyle Mountsier:

Actually learn to learn a little lot of somethings. Hey, also nada parties. There's like, the spike happened? Did it yesterday? Everybody's like time to check out the parties. It's coming head to nada. Parties.com you can see exactly what's happening outside of the show floor. Nada, obviously, there's a lot of time to connect and be around. If you're an industry partner and you're like, Yo, my party's wrong. We had someone reach out yesterday. I got to fix it this morning. The time was wrong. If you want to add your party to it. Make sure and do that. Reach out to us. There's little like party adder on on the on the site, and then it check them out. Find find a place to connect with people. Nada parties com,

Paul J Daly:

thanks to Claire boy for weeks from today, will be dead center of nada. Show week, Russia, dead center. All right, let's talk about some news, because it's ces week right now, and two German giants are trading blows in Las Vegas as CES has become a high tech battleground for BMW and Mercedes as they push the envelope on AI and digital experience in their latest vehicles. BMW the first automaker to integrate Amazon's Alexa plus AI into its intelligent personal assistant, launching with the BMW IX three in 2026 the assistant is offering conversational voice interactions and can handle multiple queries at once. That's impressive. Users can link Amazon accounts to access streaming and news directly through the assistant. The AI is central to BMW new Klaus EV platform, which ces once again serving as the stage which you're launching this innovation. Here's a quote from Stefan Durack, Senior Vice President at BMW Group, says the vehicle becomes an intelligent companion for its users.

Kyle Mountsier:

But can you buy stuff? I haven't tried, yeah. I mean, I haven't tried Amazon's Alexa or Alexa plus AI. I'm guessing it's pretty good, because Amazon is actually powering with AWS so many AI interfaces so they understand the complexity of data, and they've been doing some level of AI intelligence when they when you think about recommendations, for so long. So they're not new to the game. It's kind of funny, like you just don't think about Amazon and AI, but they're, they're like they were way early to the game of of engines around machine learning. So I, I the the intelligent companion for its users. I think that the the attachment of AI usage systems, systems bringing forward information and autonomy are going to be hand in hand, right? Because, as I don't need my eyes and hands on the on the vehicle or on the road, all of a sudden, I can take a step back and start to, like, ask questions and discover things, and you actually utilize the AI past just like, call my mom.

Paul J Daly:

Yeah, right. I was in, I was in LA over the weekend, and I ran out of Tesla for a day because I didn't want to Uber anywhere. I'm gonna drive around this place a little bit. And I saw the little like, oh, I can, like, use grok in this car. I was so excited, until I realized premium connectivity only. But I know, I know. But the reality is, some AI connected where I can just talk to it and have a have a do a thing, like, have it map me around, like my question is, is how integrated is with the car's functionality? Can I tell it to roll down my windows? Can I tell it to map me a route and then find me some coffee afterwards and have it if it can do that. I mean, I would just be happy with it, understanding the first thing I said, which. You know, no car without me having to yell, call my mom, called my mom, calling Kyle Mountsier, no, no stop. And then I just get fed up. And then, you know, you do all the things you're not supposed to do, like pick up your phone, all those things, all the things, speaking of all the things I know we're out you we're out. Question is our sedans back in style. Pickup trucks still rule the used car market, but a surprising sedan surge and shifting EV dynamics brought a fresh new twist to 2025, best sellers, the Ford, f1 50, Silverado, 1500 and Ram, 1500 held on to the top three spots. We love our trucks here. Chevy Malibu shot up from number 29 all the way to number eight. They're saying likely due to rental fleet sell offs after GM ended production, Toyota Corolla cracked top 10 at number nine equinox and Camry stayed strong. Tesla continues to dominate EV sales with model three and why leading the VW ID four and Hyundai IONIQ five made some big jumps on the list, while the Chevy Bolt went down to number seven. Carl Brower from IC cars said the rankings show minimal variations from 2024 though the dominance of full size trucks is shrinking.

Kyle Mountsier:

Yeah, I think that this is not our sedans back in style. I think it's is affordability back in style is the reason here. And when you see the second half of the year demand a lot on affordability. You know, heard Brian Ben stock talk about the Honda vehicles that are in in high demand is primarily sedans that are under$30,000 that people can afford. So I think that that's kind of the pivot here. I think everyone wishes they could afford high priced SUVs and trucks, but they've, guess, they've driven the market up. That's why the new car average monthly payment is over $700 and so people are, I think, looking at, you know, well, one rental fleets are getting, are getting big again, and people are looking at affordability,

Paul J Daly:

and Sony's launching a $90,000

Kyle Mountsier:

sedan. So,

Paul J Daly:

oh, Sony, Honda will say, so this is my that silly face. Yeah, that's a silly if you're just listening. Kyle just made, is that silly face? I remember a few years ago when we were saying, like, there's no sedans left like it's all SUV. But affordability matters more than everything else, because if you can't afford it, you can't drive it. So you drive what you can not necessarily what you want to drive, speaking what you want to what you want to hear, segue, talking about what you want to hear. Back to the beginning of the story, chat.

Kyle Mountsier:

GPT is the new web. MD, and it's driving experts crazy. Generative AI tools like chat, GBT are com becoming the Google and medical questions giving everyone a second opinion, but not always the right one. AI is now widely used for symptom checking, legal strategy and even therapy prep haven't done that. One in three Americans call assault AI weekly for health advice, 57% use it or would for legal issues, professionals are reporting clients showing up with AI generated legal game plans or diagnoses, often filled with emojis

Paul J Daly:

and M dashes. I'm sure AI's authority

Kyle Mountsier:

or seemingly authority and 27 24/7 availability make it feel more trustworthy and convenient than waiting weeks for an expert. New Jersey attorney Jamie burger said we have to dispel the information clients were able to obtain versus what is actually going on. Kind of work backwards.

Paul J Daly:

Okay, so I've used chat GBT for all this stuff. You and I have used chat GBT for all this stuff together. And what I will say number one, you need to make sure your chat GPT Master System instructions are trained properly. You need to tell it to not mirror your personality, not be nice for nice sake, but to give you direct answers based on facts and not assumptions. Never make things up. You can tell it to not use emojis too, if you if you don't want to do that, but this happens regular in an entrepreneur's life. Just the other day, I was talking to an accountant, and I was like, Hey, can you help me do this calculation? And they were like, Oh, well, that's out of scope. You know, our rates $300 an hour, if you want. I can run the calculations. It'll take me a few hours. And I said, Can you just tell me these two pieces of data from my records? And they did. And I went in chat GPT, and I got exactly the answer I needed, and I actually know it was correct. And so it's like, what accounting is not listed here, but anybody anything where someone bills you by the hour for thinking about things, and there's large documentation on the internet somewhere where it has you can actually, if you're smart about it, make a lot of progress, but you have to watch, and this

Kyle Mountsier:

is like for us. Our encouragement to anybody that's utilizing this stuff is research things like project instructions. Yes, you know, personal instructions, the prompt that you get that you give it to make sure. That it's researching real things or learning from, you know, authoritative documentation, not making stuff up, not hallucinating, getting, you know, getting all of those structures in place. The worst thing you can do is go into a non paid GPT account and be like, I'm having a headache. What's wrong with me? Oh, you know,

Paul J Daly:

like cancer.

Kyle Mountsier:

Yeah, cancer for sure, for sure. You know,

Paul J Daly:

just just here, would you like me to help you draft

Unknown:

a will, right? I mean, that's what, that's what it was gonna do. I can be very helpful. Listen, I hope this

Paul J Daly:

was a little bit helpful for you today. Made you smile, laugh, maybe encourage you. But whatever you sign up for the webinar, learn about AI, asotu.com, we'll see you tomorrow. You.

Contributor

Kyle Mountsier

Host
Contributor

Paul J Daly

Host