Looking Out #34
Everyone's laughing at GM and Autopilot's finally coming unstuck, but we're looking to the future with a beautiful notebook in hand.
20th December, 2023
Welcome to Looking Out, where we connect the dots across the automotive industry, mobility, design, and culture. Looking Out is brought to you by Joe Simpson and Drew Smith of The Automobility Group. If you like what you see, tell your friends!
Catch our latest podcast on YouTube or your favourite audio platform.
Announcements
Drew’s going to be in:
L.A. from January 4 to 7
Las Vegas for CES from 7 to 11
The Bay Area from January 12 to 20.
And he’d love to meet up. Drop him a line if you’re keen.
Drew’s also been taking a look back at 2023 and forward at 2024 with Sally Dominguez and Mark Pesce over at The Next Billion Seconds.
This is going to be our last email for 2023! Thanks so much for reading, listening, and watching along with us. Your emails, comments and pledges (thanks Grant and James!) have all put huge smiles on our faces. We’re so grateful to be able to share Looking Out with you all, and we’re looking forward to what 2024 might bring.
Auto
GM claims CarPlay and Android Auto cause “unsafe” driver behavior
Why it’s interesting: GM’s latest reasoning for abandoning car play is that it’s not safe and it needs to design its own interface to make sure you don’t get distracted looking at all the screens it’s putting in its cars. They’ve also claimed that world’s most popular in-car interfaces don’t work properly, either. Stop laughing at the back.
10 Genius Predictions for 2024
Why it’s interesting: Michael Dunne’s New Year predictions seem pretty solid. We’d wager some money on Ford’s exit from China, Barra’s exit from GM, China’s entry to the U. S. via Mexico, and increased trade barriers for Chinese cars in the EU.
ETHERLOOP system revealed by Tesla engineers & Sandy Munro
Why it’s interesting: In our most recent podcast, we touched on the significance of the combination of the 48v electrical architecture and ethernet networking in the Tesla Cybertruck. This short video frames the technology as a bridge head for new tech that will fundamentally change the future of the car.
Exclusive Tesla Cybertruck Factory Tour Shows How The Engineers Made It Buildable
Why it’s interesting: We could mention Dolly Parton’s famous line about how “it’s expensive to look this cheap”, but that would be to distract from the fact that we’re both in thrall to the way the Cybertruck is made (if not how it looks, or what it says - see above podcast). It was touring Mercedes’ Sindelfingen plant as a kid fanned the flames of Drew’s auto obsession. This blow-by-blow breakdown of a tour of Tesla’s stainless steel body plant is adding new fuel to the fire.
Car wars
Why it’s interesting: We talk a lot about Chinese car makers here at Looking Out. Why? Well, Noah Smith, economist and author of the superb Noahpinion newsletter has penned a superb breakdown of the impact of Chinese car making and what it means for the global industrial order. Pair with this great read on what it means for Drew’s home market of Australia.
Mobility
How Bogotá Tried to Lead the Way for Better Bus Systems
Why it’s interesting: A beautifully human story of the promises and pitfalls of Bogotá’s Transmilenio rapid bus network. It’s also a cautionary tale about focussing on the shiny new thing at the expense of something that’s fundamentally sound.
Elon Musk’s Big Lie About Tesla Is Finally Exposed
Why it’s interesting: Autonomous vehicles are supposed to play a major role in how we move people and things about. And if you’ve taken a ride in a Waymo recently, you might be inclined to believe the hype. It’s a shame then that Elon and Tesla (and Cruise, as mentioned in our last edition) is doing so much to undermine trust in the technology. A powerful piece by friend-of-Looking Out Ed Niedermeyer.
Cheap EVs for everyone: France launches ‘social leasing’ at €40/month
Why it’s interesting: It’s often said that the major shifts in mobility tend to come at the cost of those who can least afford to partake. This initiative in France aims to ensure that nobody is left behind in the transition to EVs.
Bollards and ‘superblocks’: how Europe’s cities are turning on the car
Why it’s interesting: At peak hour in Paris, there are now more bikes than cars on its famed boulevards. Barcelona has turned over 2km of a major cross-city street in to an urban park. And yet all is not rosy for city centres looking to evict the car. Pair with this recent piece by freind-of-Looking Out Sam Livingstone on the village car.
Design
iA Writer in Paper
Why it’s interesting: From the makers of Drew’s favourite presentation and note taking software, an elegant new notebook with watermarked lines. Billed as a scaffold for writing. Pair with iA’s detailed series on how they’re addressing the use of AI in writing.
Dieter Rams pointing at things he doesn't like
Why it’s interesting: Because while there are plenty of zingy one-liners like:
“I like orderly confusion very much. But this is neither orderly nor properly confused.”
… it’s the shrug of the shoulders that says it all.
Ford and New Balance | Is The Traditional Design Workflow Dead?
Why it’s interesting: Sponsored by Gravitysketch, a fascinating conversation about how a new generation of design tools are upending how designers create. Pair with the collapse of the Adobe/Figma deal.
Taste: The Secret Ingredient
Why it’s interesting: As Alex Smith, the author says:
By learning to appreciate we learn to discern. And by learning to discern we learn to decide. And by learning to decide, we learn to strategise.
Pair with Billy Oppenheimer on the Modified Emulation of creativity
Culture
Layers of Time: Pace Layers of Work
Why it’s interesting: As many car companies try to become more agile, it can be helpful to understand how the culture of an organisation evolves. Work ecologist Stowe Boyd builds on Stuart Brand’s Pace Layers to show that culture is one of the slowest-moving elements of an organisation, and therefore is one of the hardest to change.
Therapeutic Nationalism and Other Opportunistic Decouplings
Why it’s interesting: A superb long read exploring how the traditional symbols of the “woke left”, such as wellness and positive affirmations, are now being adopted by the hard right. As the author says ““Woke, but conservative” is not an impossible future.”
Nostalgia Is a Curse in Life and Tech
Why it’s interesting: Nostalgia is something Drew thinks about a lot, especially within the frame of making more positive futures, rather than trying to remake pasts now thought of as positive. As Craig Mod so eloquently puts it:
I believe technological change is like a freight train of a certain unstoppable momentum, and we have two broad choices:
Stubbornly stand in front of the train and try to push it back (sometimes possible, but requiring tremendous coordinated and concerted efforts, often in the face of actors with near infinite resources)
Accept the train and be a force laying railroad ties which place it on a better course
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That's it for this issue. We love feedback (positive and negative), and to answer any questions you have. So email Joe or Drew and we’ll get back to you.