In Black America; The Future of Automobiles, with Frank Washington, Part II

From the University of Texas at Austin, KUT Radio, this is In Black America. First of all, everybody says that there are too many car makers out there. And where I see it heading is that basically, I think they're right. We're going to see some more downsizing because GM has to downsize for downsize in terms of, you know, at one point in time, forward on Aston Martin on Volvo and a couple of others down Mazda. And they had to let go of all that. GM closed down for brands, many for brands because they're closed on Saturn, on Saturn, Pontiac, something else out there that I forget.

I think they're closing down. They've got a brand in Australia that they're closing down, I think. So I think you're going to see a lot more consolidation, they're getting bigger, they're getting faster because, you know, from beginning to end, they used to take close to four years to come up with a new car. Frank S. Washington, managing partner and editor of AboutThatCard.com. AboutThatCard.com is all things automotive. The website features columns on diversity in the automotive industry, safety issues, regulation affairs, people profile and feature stories and reports on all related automotive matters. Today's automobile industry is not your grandfather's auto industry. Things have changed a lot over the years. The big three, Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors no longer dominate the industry. With mobile devices a part of the global population. The industry has effectively succeeded in dashboard to Google and Apple.

Hybrid cars are becoming more popular and self-driving cars are only arising. I'm John L. Hansen, Jr. and welcome to another edition of In Black America. On this week's program, the future in the automobile industry with Frank S. Washington, managing partner and editor of AboutThatCard.com.2 in Black America. Today's cars, you know, a fully equipped car has more computer power. They're probably main brains of yesterday. A lot of the stuff, you know, they've got lane departure warnings. But the car will try to steer itself back into the lane. They've got adaptive cruise control. It's going to follow the car in front of it, so forth, all these kinds of things. So, just from a technology standpoint, today's cars are very close to being able to drive themselves. Because you got adaptive cruise control. That means the car will, you know, I remember once I drove from here to Chicago.

I mean, from here, we had Chicago. That's about 2775 mile drive. And once I set the adaptive cruise control, my foot never hit the brake or the accelerator. I drove all the way until I got to the city and had to brake. So, what I'm saying is that autonomous cars are not that far away from a technological standpoint. They're really not. According to auto industry experts, by 2020, growing digitalization and advancement in technology, will have increased the automotive industry investment to $82 billion. The industry has learned that they must meet consumer demands for a digitally enhanced experience when they are researching, purchasing and operating a vehicle. Frank S. Washington has been following the automotive industry for more than three decades. He has spent a great deal of time covering the industry for African-Americans on Will, auto executive, automotive news, automotive news marketer, Savoy, wars, auto world, wars, automotive report,

wars, dealer business, the Detroit news online, and the Detroit news. When Washington began covering the auto industry, there were only three big companies. That has changed. They are now auto groups. On a recent visit to the Motor City in Black America spoke with Washington. On today's program, we conclude our conversation. The crossover is basically a sport utility, but it's a unibody construction. A true sport utility is a body on frame where they build a body, they build the chassis separately, and then they drop the body down on chassis. But as a matter of fact, I was talking to, I was on a program for Lexus the other day, and I think it was 68.9% of its sales are crossovers. The last number I saw, something like 60, 62, let's say, low 60s in terms of percentages, generally speaking, are crossovers. crossovers have become the station wagons of the 1950s. That's a huge shade, because now you've got all the makers scrambling to produce crossovers

to meet the market demand. If you're a line-up, I'm talking about if you're a manufacturer, you're a line-up, dominated by sedans. You're in a lot of trouble, because people are just not buying. Not the way they used to. When we spoke, you said that women were the major decision-making person in the household when one goes to a vehicle. Is that still holstered? Still true. Still true. Because to a great degree, women are the driving force behind crossovers. Because it's an interesting thing. Talked to most women. They will not call a sport utility vehicle a sport utility, they will not call a crossover to women in terms of linguistically, if that even applies. Across over is a truck. That's what they call them.

When they say I'm going to get my truck, they're talking about sport utility. Women still drive 80% of the basket. First of all, they back 50% of the products, maybe a little bit more than 50%. But for the second, this will say 50%. Then they influence another 25% to 30%. Now you're up to 80%. Because if you're a guy and you're married and you want to buy, let's just say, well, anything. And your wife says, no, that's not coming in the garage. Exactly. Then you talk about 75% to 80% of the market that they're basically making the decision or influencing the decision on what is going, what a given household is going to drive or be the primary vehicle. And then they say, I think that it's that notion or that fact that it's kind of driving the switch to crossovers and sport utilities. Because there's one thing, women, they're studying the show.

Women like to sit higher, because from sitting higher, you get the feeling of safety. Because you're a little bit higher on the roads, you can see a little bit better. Most of the time crossovers are those who are getting a chain. Most of the times for you turns a little bit bigger that also convey safety. And when it comes to, you know, and I hate to sound sexist, and I don't think it is sexist, but women care a little bit more about safety. And if you can make women feel safe in terms of when they're driving, that goes a long way in terms of their purchase decisions. You know, and not that all of them have it, but you know when you talk about crossovers, you talk about all of them with draft. Although most of the drivers will drive or not, because the funny thing, most of the drivers will drive a really front-wheel drive until the tires get stuck. It was front tires start spinning, then some of that torque goes to the back.

And so all the drivers, you know, in a sense of real inclement weather, the next best thing is front-wheel drive. And not all, not real-wheel drive, the front-wheel drive, the next best thing, because you've got to weigh the engine pressing down on the tires, which gives you a little bit more traction. You get a chance to test drive these vehicles year and year out over the course of your career. Currently, what vehicles have impressed you the most? Well, you know, now you ask me to give you a commercial. But you know, I ask you a question, you know, in terms of what impressed me the most right now. Let's just say in the last two years, we'll be Volvo's. And yeah, their style is certainly so and so forth. But Volvo is a small comparatively. Volvo is now owned by a Chinese company called Geely. But still, in and of itself, Volvo is a small company.

What they've done is they've switched to four-cylinder engines. They're either turbocharged or supercharged. Or they're putting what they're called putting electricity to them in terms of hybrid plug and hybrid and this sort of thing. So what that does is basically it cuts down costs because they're not dealing with a lot of engines. They've got one engine block, that four-cylinder. And though they're getting performance out of it, I was at a Volvo last week. That there was a plug and hybrid, it was 415 horsepower. That's very good. Volvo says, 2020, they're going to electrify their entire product line. And what they're doing is they're putting themselves in a position to take advantage of the fact that one day oil is going to run out. So they're trying to get ahead of the curve? Yeah, they're trying to get ahead of the curve. And I think right now they're doing the best job of getting ahead of the curve.

Because I mean, engine development is a tremendous cost in terms of engine development. Well, now they've got one block. They're over the plant here in South Carolina. So now they've got a manufacturing footprint of here. They're over the plant in China. And they've got a plant of course in Sweden, their home market. And they've got a good, they always had a good reputation. There was a stint there where they didn't have a lot of product. Because you know, there was an ownership question and this kind of thing. So eight, nine years maybe? You know, they didn't have a lot of product. But they call it a break. Nobody was downing them or ragging them or really overly criticizing them. Because they always had a good reputation in the market. We're talking earlier before we started recording this interview about ownership of vehicles. This generation you say are not really into old school, old vehicles. No, you know, as we were talking, I was saying, you know, in my generation, maybe in the generation just after me, a right of passage was the driver's license.

Today the right of passage is a smart phone. That's what it is. You know, some one of the things that manufacturers are coming up with, you know, because at first, there was the whole thing about connectivity. You know, that's where Bluetooth came from, you know, in terms of end cars. Looking for ways to connect with younger buyers, you know. A lot of the times I remember who was he was a designer for Cadillac. Oh, you know, he was a Germanic Cadillac, but this was a year ago. You know, he told me one time, he says, well, you know, when he says, at this point he says quality is a given, you know. So, you know, in terms of luxury market, you're not going to get buyers because of the quality of your cars. Everybody's got a good car. He says, but who's going to be successful is the manufacturer who takes the best care of the customer in the first 100,000 miles. That was his take. And I don't think it was wrong.

And I think for a minute, manufacturers thought that the most successful manufacturer, I'm just talking about luxury cars, I'm talking about them all, was the manufacturer who provided the best connectivity for the buyer. Because young buyers, millennials, and I forget his generation, I think it is. Basically, they want to be connected all the time. You know, so it's about who provides the best connectivity. And that includes Bluetooth. In terms of being able to use the phone and, you know, hands-free. The USB thing. Now you've got streaming. Okay. Yeah, it's streaming. For a hot minute there, there was, there was, well, I think, you can stream movies. You can still stream movies. But then just, they just don't publicize it because it's kind of like, you know, we're going to advertise, drive a night car, and look at that in the movie.

Yeah. Yeah. So now, I think, since people really don't care about, I won't say don't care, but they're not as, you know, it's not as much of a goal to own your car. They're saying, well, okay, we'll lease it to you. Okay, but they have been leasing cars. But now they've got something new. We're just beginning to see the cutting edge or the tip, as they're calling the subscriptions. And they're calling the subscription. You pay one flat fee, which, to me, is kind of, I won't say astronomical, but seems kind of high. But, you know, I'm cheap. But still, and it takes care of everything. If you play one flat fee, it takes care of the car note, or, you know, the monthly fee for the car, it takes care of insurance. You know, it takes care of insurance. It takes care of the maintenance costs.

And if you're listening to that, is you're bringing it back to, you know, wherever you, you know, in terms of the dealership to get, to get maintenance. So, the thing about it is, the only thing in theory that you have to pay for is gasoline. And they call it subscription. You know, who it is, again, I hate to use Volvo, but, you know, it's the essence of when it comes to mind. Volvo has a plan, I don't know. I think they call it care by Volvo. You pay $1100 a month. And it takes care of all that. And it's for a two-year deal. At the end of 12 months, you can trade up to any other Volvo you want. And, you know, but it's, they call it the subscription. And I think, and I'm not talking about Volvo per cent. But, basically, it's a leaf. Because you do that on the car. Right. You know, at the end of that two years. Okay, any mileage? Yeah. Volvo is 15,000 miles per year. You know, just on the program, because I'm one of the both programs,

in the same week, the Lexus UX. They're not calling, there's a subscription there. They're just, you know, it's kind of like, you see this pool. And you kind of did. Damn, you told me. See how cold the water is. And so I think that's what Lexus is doing. I forget what they call their program. But it's, it's some sort of a lease. But it's the same thing. It's two years. The subscription. And I'm calling this a subscription. It takes care of everything. And, including it. And see that, everything to me. Insurance is a big ticket item here. Because, you know, we've got the high, Michigan has the highest insurance in the country. Insurance rates in the country. Detroit has the highest insurance rates in the state. So that means Detroit has the highest insurance rates everywhere, at least in this country. So, you know, when you're talking about a flat fee that's going to take care of insurance,

that's something to be considered. Because, you know, I mean, just here, I have heard of people paying three, four, $500 a month just for insurance. Is this full coverage or live just liability? I think it may be full coverage. But I've never really asked more tank coverage. You know, but, you know, that's not unusual. You know, that people pay. And let's just say from three to $500 a month for coverage. And just one vehicle. Yeah. This is one vehicle. This is one vehicle. Because I remember my daughter who has left to go where she goes. She was in Atlanta. And, you know, at one point in time, she was moving to Atlanta. She, her family and all that. They were moving to Atlanta. And she gave me the numbers. You know, in terms of what she would be making there and this, that, and the other. And I knew what she was making here. And I said, would she? That sounds like that much of a savings to me. And she said, hey, she says, and I forget the exact number. But, you know, they've got children, excuse me.

They've got children. So they were paying, they needed full coverage. Right. Right. Because they've got children. She was saying here, after extensive search, she was paying, like, $353.80 something dollars. You know, close to $400 to get full coverage on a minivan. This wasn't like a corvette, you know, on a minivan. And she was saying, when they go down, when they went down to Atlanta to do the same thing, it was the same vehicle to get full coverage if something like maybe $180.00. When one visit about that car.com, what would they buy? Basically, what you're going to find, most obviously, you're going to see its car reviews. Okay. You know, I use, of course, reviews. I have done in terms of, in terms of the programs I've gone on in the press cars, I guess, because when I'm in town, I get press cars to test drive and review. But the other thing is I also use reviews from other writers,

you know, in terms of what my car data, motor news media are the two most prominent ones. But the other thing is, if you look at the Command Bar, right above those, then you can find information on used cars, new cars, car insurance, there are links to other video stations. It's basically a not-so-born car buying site. And that's what you can do. You can dial into it or click into it and get all sorts of information. Well, just about any car you want, because you can go to it. Two of them got, I've got, yeah, there's a channel to emles.com. And you can go and find information on just about any car that you want, insurance rates, you know, based on where you live. Then I've got, I think, pre-art news wise on that. So if you're just a car buff, and you just want to know about the industry,

there's a feed on there for that. You know, just about anything you want to do, vis-a-vis a car, whether it be just general information, whether you read about, you know, the newest things on the road, the latest trends, or the latest business news. You go on the site and get. Having done this for a while, what do you see the industry hitting? First of all, you know, everybody says that, you know, there are too many car makers. They say, there are too many car makers out there. And where I see it hitting is that basically, I think they're right. You know, we're going to see some more downsizing, because GM has a downsize, Ford downsize, you know, in terms of, because, you know, at one point in time, Ford don't ask them are now Volvo and a couple of others, they're on Mazda, and they have to let go of all of that. GM closed down for brands, maybe Ford brands, because they're closed down Saturn.

It was Saturn, Pontiac, something else, you know, I forget. I think they're closing down. They've got a brand in Australia that they're closing down, I think. So, I think you're going to see a lot more consolidation. They're getting bigger. They're getting faster, because, you know, from beginning to end, they used to take close to four years to come up with a new car. I think they've cut that down to maybe three, and they get it down a little bit more. You're seeing a little bit more commonization of parts, like Volvo, and this four-story engine is going through their entire lineup. GM, a lot of the engines, they're using, because they used to be a time back in the day, that a Buick engine wouldn't, or, yeah, a Buick engine or a Buick transmission, wouldn't fit into a Chevrolet. All of that was different. You find a lot more commonality in terms of reducing cost. You know, I think of what type of, I forget who it was, but I was reading something. One of the manufacturers said,

we looked up and we were, you know, sometimes they have so much variety that they have to go back and look. Yes. What have we got? What have we got? And I remember one bad manufacturer, and I don't know whether it was Chevrolet, but it was somebody who said they looked up and they had 18 different steering wheel. You know. That's one thing. So, I think you're going to see more of that. And then there's always a autonomous driving. You know, a lot of people don't see that coming. But, you know, it's kind of one of those things like seat warmers. Nobody really ever asked for seat warmers. Not every car has them. You know, because I grew up in Chicago. And I said, yeah, I had a seat warm. It was my coat. But, but, but, the other industry is, they're pushing ahead very strong with autonomous driving. You know, and I think there's a generation of a driver out there who doesn't want to relinquish control of the car. You know. So, you know, you're not going to get them. But, there's another generation of drivers

who really don't care about the car, who really rather have their nose stuck in their cell phone. You know, they might be, and, you know, a generation who makes transactions on the internet, and this sort of thing. But, you know, they, so they see that coming, and they're pushing hard to be ready for it. Because when you look at the car, today's cars, you know, a fully equipped car has more computer power than probably many frames of yesterday. And a lot of the stuff, you know, they've got lane, lane departure, you know, warnings, but the car will try to steer itself back into the lane. They've got adaptive cruise control, where it's going to follow the car in front of it, so forth, all these kinds of things. So, just from a technology standpoint, today's cars are very close to being able to drive themselves. Because you got adaptive cruise control. That means the car will, you know, I remember once I drove from here

to Chicago. I mean, from here, oh yeah, Chicago. That's about 2075 mile drive. And once I set the adaptive cruise control, my foot never hit the brake or the accelerate. I drove all the way. Until I got to the city and had to brake, you know. So, so what I'm saying is that a ton of these cars are not that far away from a technological standpoint. They're really not, you know, depending, you know, now whether you're going to have an infrastructure to support them in terms of, well, what I'm thinking about, rails in the road, you know, in terms of transport, following this one, because they're coming up with stuff now where cars can talk to each other, you know. They can't do it yet, but they're developing the hardware for them to be able to do that. And I think that all this stuff that we think of as being far off down the road, well, far off down the road is here, you know.

I mean, yeah, it's around the corner. I mean, look. And, you know, we get so caught up, I think sometimes, in just day-to-day life, we forget, in two years, it'll be 2020, in two years. You know, and see, they started talking about, well, I mean, Volvo says, well, we're going to electrify everything by 20. Yeah, they did. I think it's about 2020. We're going to, everything we sell is going to be electrified. That's two years. So, you know, that's, and what that means is, the hardware is a plug-in hybrid, at least. You know, and then there's a, what else is there? There's a times drive, but there's electric vehicles. Full, fully electric vehicles. Because all they've got to do, the only thing they have to do, before there's a rush, to electric, is just in the range. That's the only thing about electric vehicles. You know, it's like a 125 miles now. Yeah, about 125. But some of this stuff, Tesla had a big deal with that, and some others. You know, now, you know,

you see, some of the cutting-edge technology says, uh, maybe 300 miles. Well, you start getting up to 300 miles. You know, because I read some material that said, you know, 300 miles may be the, uh, the crossroad, the barrier. If you could break 300 miles and get a car, it would save 400 miles, you know, 400 mile range. Now, you're talking about electric cars. You know, become doable. Uh, pocket. Well, that's in the same range as a full-tanker gas. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. It's the same range as a full-tanker gas. You know, about 400 miles. And, you know, now you're talking about pennies on a gallon. You know, now you're talking about pennies on a gallon, because that's how much you charge. It costs to charge a battery. You know, and you got, I was a nickel metal hydride, which is kind of the, uh, the grandfather of batteries, when it comes to, uh, electric cars. Now you got lithium ion, uh, which is, you know, uh, in a phrase,

they're lighter. And plus, they store more energy. Mm-hmm. Uh, I'm not sure what the next, uh, level of battery is, whether it'll be lithium, whether it'll be something else. But that next generation battery, I think, will break that barrier, you know, in terms of the 300-mile barrier. When you get that, now you're looking at the, uh, the slow death, or the slow demise of the internal combustible engines. And see, they're, they're pushed, you know, they're pushing toward that. And if you have one belief, well, no matter your belief, in terms of, uh, global warning, and all that, once you get rid of internal combustion engines, then you get rid of, uh, I won't say pollution entirely, but polluted emissions from cars. Frank S. Washington, managing partner and editor of aboutthatcar.com. If you have questions, comments, those suggestions ask your future in Black America programs. Email us at inBlackAmerica at kut.org. Also, let us know what radio station

you heard us over. Remember to like us on Facebook and to follow us on Twitter. The views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of this station or of the University of Texas at Austin. You can hear previous programs online at kut.org. Until we have the opportunity again for Technical Producer David Alvarez, I'm John L. Hanson Jr. Thank you for joining us today. Please join us again next week. CD copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing in Black America CDs. KUT Radio, 300 West Dean Keaton Boulevard, Austin, Texas, 78712. That's in Black America CDs, KUT Radio, 300 West Dean Keaton Boulevard, Austin, Texas, 78712. This has been a production of KUT Radio. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Outro. Frank S. Washington, I'm the Manager of about that card.com. You're going to take the, we will conclude our conversation next week's program out. You want me to just reach the whole thing. Just reach the whole thing. Yeah, on part one, we will conclude our conversation next week's program is in our. You want me just reach the whole thing and be done with it? Yeah, I do that. It's, I changed it when I decided to do part two, so it's not on your, it's not on my script or your script.

The part that said, we will conclude our conversation next week's program. So I'll just reach the whole outro. Outro. Part two, that's 0319. Frank S. Washington, Managing Partner and Editor of about that card.com. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, ask your future in Black America programs, email us at in Black America at kut.org. Also, let us know what radio station you heard is over. Remember to like us on Facebook and the following was on Twitter. The views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of this station or other University of Texas at Austin. You can get a previous program is online at kut.org. Until we have the opportunity again for a technical producer, David Alvarez. I'm Johnny El Hanson, Jr. Thank you for joining us today. Please join us again next week. Signification promo for 0319. Part two with Frank

Washington. I'm Johnny El Hanson, Jr. Join us this week on in Black America. The future, any automobile industry with Frank S. Washington, Part two this week on in Black America. I'm Johnny El Hanson, Jr. Join us to United 930 on in Black America. The future, any automobile industry with Frank S. Washington, managing editor, take two. The future, in the automobile industry with Frank S. Washington, managing partner and editor of about that dollar limiter, with a third time. The future, in the automobile industry with Frank S. Washington, managing partner and editor of about that dollar limiter, with a third time in black America. I'm Johnny El Hanson, Jr. Join us to United 930 on in Black America. The future, any automobile industry with Frank S.

Washington, managing partner and editor of about that dollar limiter, with a third time in black America. I'm Johnny El Hanson, Jr. Join us to United 930 on 30 on in Black America. The future in the automobile industry is Frank S. Washerton, managing partner and editor of about that car.com, part 2 to 9930 on KUT 90.5. You there? Are we there? I don't know. Coup. You there? You

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