Tech. Cars. Machines.

Has any company made a bigger impact on the automotive sector in the last decade than Tesla? Love them or hate them, Tesla has masterfully used the extraordinary latitude it’s been afforded by investors and customers to disrupt the profit, supply and dealership structure of the industry.  This latitude is also potentially the Company’s biggest weakness, contributing to Groundhog Day execution problems and unnecessary “self-driving” claims. We revisit and offer updated commentary from our original Everybody Hates Tesla episodes of a few years ago.  

Note the “skip to” audio time stamps below.  You can read the related article here in 3 minutes.     

Host: Ali Tabibian of GTK Partners.  

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(0:00) Updated introduction 

(6:27) Beginning of “Everybody Hates Tesla, Part 1”  

(10:00) Electrification 

(15:40) EVs are inherently premium vehicles

Can your AI make life-and-death decisions? Mercedes-Benz’s Drive Pilot can.  Does your AI vendor take legal responsibility for those life-and-death decisions? Mercedes does.  Drive Pilot is the only certified Level 3 passenger car system globally.  Georges Massing, global head of the company’s automated driving and cabin technologies, tells us how.  We hear his thoughts on how the technology ecosystem can work with Mercedes.

You can read the related article here in 3 minutes.

Mercedes-Benz’s global website is here.  Host: Ali Tabibian of GTK Partners.

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(0:00) Introduction to Mercedes

(4:05) Introduction to Georges Massing

(12:50) The Mercedes brand

(17:42) The user interface

(23:25) Autonomy

(44:38) Mercedes & the ecosystem

Reilly Brennan, author of the must-read Future of Transportation newsletter and partner at Trucks VC, returns to Tech Cars Machines for a discussion on recent trends in transportation investing. We discuss financing round sizes and valuations, AI in autonomy and robotics, the promise of hydrogen combustion engines, the EV market, and much more.  

Host:   Ali Tabibian of GTK Partners 

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China, EVs, vehicles that are too big and too heavy, autonomy, the future of transportation and lessons from history.  We cover hot news and trends in all these sectors with Marc Amblard, Partner at Orsay Consulting, the well-known San Francisco-based advisor in automotive technology.   He is the author of the widely read Mobility Revolution monthly newsletter. Host: Ali Tabibian of GTK Partners.

Note the “skip to” audio time stamps below.  You can read the related article here in 3 minutes.     

On some podcast players you can click to jump to the timestamps below. 

(0:00) Introduction to Marc  

(4:31) Introduction to Orsay Consulting  

(6:45) The Mobility Revolution newsletter 

(11:39) Electric vehicles 

(24:15) China auto makers 

(34:00) Autonomy 

How do you start a new business in a large corporation and quickly scale it to hundreds of millions of revenues? Savi Baveja, President of 3D Printing and Chief Incubation Officer at HP, Inc. told me how.  Focused on production, with markets in auto parts (custom Porsche seats), personal medical devices and drones, Savi gave me insights as only a Bain & Company veteran could.  

Note the “skip to” audio time stamps below.  You can read the related article here in 3 minutes.

The HP 3D printing website is here.  Host: Ali Tabibian of GTK Partners.  

Here are the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you can click the timestamp to jump to it. 

(0:00) Introduction 

(2:23) Intro to Savi and HP  

(9:19) 3D printing synergies with HP 

(11:13) HP 3D printing overview 

(23:33) Customers and applications 

(33:18) Sustainability 

(37:48) Innovation in large companies 

(46:09) Related Tech Cars Machines episodes 

Interested in a piece of a $400 billion pie from which Tesla once took a $465MM bite?  Chris Creed, Chief Investment Officer of the Department of Energy’s Loan Program’s Office spoke to me about how the pie is made available to innovators or scalers in renewable energy and energy infrastructure.  He discussed suitable projects, financial metrics and loan terms.   Recent LPO facilities include the subject of our Episode 33, the ACES Delta hydrogen storage program,  $2.2BN for Nevada’s Thacker Lithium Mine, and GM’s Ultium and Ford’s BlueOval battery efforts.  Chris works with Jigar Shah, Director of the LPO and co-founder of Sun Edison.  

You can read the related article here in 3 minutes.    The LPO monthly activity report is here.  

Time stamps below. On some podcast players you can click the timestamp to jump to it.

(0:00) Introduction

(2:26) Chris Creed and intro to the LPO

(6:30) Chris’ background

(9:55) “Bridge to bankability”; innovation; infrastructure

(14:40) The kinds of risks LPO will take

(21:57) Terms, conditions & diligence

(27:01) Community benefits

(29:19) The role of large/small companies and private debt/equity

(36:37) Related Tech Cars Machines episodes

Host: Ali Tabibian of GTK Partners. 

GE’s “fuels guy” and current Global Hydrogen Value Chain Leader at GE Vernova, Dr. Jeffrey Goldmeer, shares his 23 years of experience and insight on energy generation, energy transition, the electric grid, and the role of hydrogen.

We got technical in an accessible way about electric grid characteristics and how the transition to carbon-free sources influences them. One thousand six hundred miles of existing hydrogen pipeline, 50+ years of experience burning hydrogen as a fuel (100,000+ hours at one GE installation alone), and a vast ammonia transport network for fertilizers imply that technical breakthroughs aren’t the main gating items — infrastructure investments and subsidies are.  Jeff is a natural teacher and host of the Cutting Carbon podcast.

You can read the related article here in 4 minutes.

The Cutting Carbon podcast is here.

GE Vernova’s hydrogen-fueled turbines website page is here and very informative.

Host: Ali Tabibian of GTK Partners.

You get a billion! And you get a billion! And YOU get a billion! (repeat 4 more times).

The Department of Energy recently announced seven recipients of a total $7 billion who will build hydrogen hubs around the U.S.  The auto and steel sectors, concentrated around Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, are covered by the Midwest Alliance for Clean Hydrogen (MachH2).  Neil Banwart, MachH2’s CIO, talked with Ali Tabibian about how the hub will use scale to demonstrate the economics of hydrogen across diversified production methods and applications.  We discussed green, blue, pink and white hydrogen, and applications in heavy-duty transportation, marine and air travel.  We touched on the program’s commitment to social justice as the Inflation Reduction Act prescribes.

You can read the related article here in 3 minutes.

Host: Ali Tabibian of GTK Partners.

Cars that drive themselves not enough for you? How about trucks? 80,000 pound trucks.  Flying down the highway.

Peter Vaughan Schmidt, CEO of Torc Robotics, an independent autonomy holding of Daimler Truck, describes his “no hobbies” focus on long-haul, Class 8 applications. From, “no hobbies”, to  scalable commercial deployment in 2027, to “no limits” afterwards!

You can read the related article here (3 minute read).  More information on your host Ali Tabibian and GTK Partners.

Cars that drive themselves not enough for you? How about when they do it at 192 MPH? And head-to-head on a racetrack. With no remote intervention. In total darkness.

Paul Mitchell, Chairman and President of the Indy Autonomous Challenge, and I talk at the Las Vegas International Speedway. He tells me how this is possible, what it means for all of us, and what’s next.

A raw transcript is here.  More information on your host Ali Tabibian and GTK Partners.