Bart Busschots Reviews the BYD Seal

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[00:01:36] It is the new year. I'm recording this portion of the podcast on January 2nd, 2024. However, the interview that I did with Bart Boo shots where we talked about the BYD seal was recorded last week.

[00:01:54] Still fresh, still good information. But let's not let it get stale. Let's go ahead and welcome Bart Boo shots to the show.

[00:02:03] My absolute pleasure to be back, buddy. I keep on telling you if you can find any excuse, I'm always delighted to talk to you.

[00:02:08] Well, my excuse this week is being overwhelmed and underprepared. So Bart, you saved me. You literally pulled my nearly cold dead body out of the ground and revived me.

[00:02:24] Wow.

[00:02:25] That was dark. It didn't mean for her to get that dark.

[00:02:29] I'm happy to help though.

[00:02:31] Yes. Well, let's move away from that metaphor. Bart, you have another update for your journey to find a new car for us.

[00:02:42] I have.

[00:02:43] Why don't you tell us which car you recently test drove?

[00:02:47] So I have just completed my list of the test drives I wanted to do by driving the BYD seal.

[00:02:54] So at this stage, I've now driven everything that was on my spreadsheet.

[00:02:59] And the last one was the seal because in the summer when I was doing most of my test drives, it wasn't available in Ireland yet.

[00:03:05] But I did the At-O3 because I wanted to get a feel for BYD as a company.

[00:03:10] And you mentioned it would be fun to have someone with experience with the At-O3, which is their crossover.

[00:03:16] And so I did their crossover. And what was interesting was I knew the At-O3 wasn't the car for me because I don't want to cross over for a start.

[00:03:23] But the company was interesting enough that when they told me that the seal was coming and they told me it would probably arrive for Halloween-ish,

[00:03:31] that I said, actually, yes, put me on your list.

[00:03:34] And I didn't de-get a phone call about Halloween saying please come and test drive.

[00:03:38] And I said, well, you've just missed my annual leave. I'll see you in a few weeks in December.

[00:03:42] And they were like, OK, fine.

[00:03:44] So in December, first day of my annual leave this December, I went straight into the BYD dealership in Dublin.

[00:03:52] And the first thing that confused me was since last I did a test drive, they now have two more dealerships.

[00:03:57] So when I went to their website last time, it was very easy.

[00:04:01] But I was like, well, I want to go to the same place because that was easy to get to.

[00:04:04] And then they said, are you Dublin North or Dublin South?

[00:04:07] And I went, I would have called it West.

[00:04:09] But anyway, I guessed I checked the address.

[00:04:13] OK, that looks familiar.

[00:04:14] And so Dublin North is where I wanted to go.

[00:04:16] So off I went to Dublin North for a drive in the seal.

[00:04:21] And just I guess for context.

[00:04:23] So I currently drive a Model 3.

[00:04:26] I am looking to replace the Model 3 with a car that is in the same price range as the Model 3,

[00:04:31] has the same range range as the new updated Model 3 and is from the point of view,

[00:04:40] I don't want any compromises from what I have at the moment.

[00:04:44] But I don't currently feel comfortable getting another Tesla.

[00:04:50] So mainly because software is what makes the Tesla the Tesla and software updates.

[00:04:57] Software is like fish. Software goes off.

[00:05:00] If software isn't maintained, it becomes stinky very quickly.

[00:05:03] And at the moment I have two competing concerns.

[00:05:09] I am concerned that Elon Musk micromanages and I'm concerned that Elon Musk has burned himself

[00:05:18] on both ends of the candle for so long he's lost touch with reality.

[00:05:21] I think is probably he's like, I don't think he's evil or anything.

[00:05:26] I think he's just completely and utterly broken at this stage.

[00:05:30] And I think he did it to himself.

[00:05:32] And yeah, I just don't want that.

[00:05:34] So I don't want an unstable person making decisions about the future of my car,

[00:05:41] which really annoys me because I love my Tesla now,

[00:05:45] which is why I don't want any compromises, which is why this has been such a difficult mission.

[00:05:49] For sure. For sure.

[00:05:50] Even at Tesla's worst, right?

[00:05:53] It's better than almost every other car maker's best in terms of infotainment and software.

[00:05:58] The most eye-opening thing about this entire experience and all the test drives I've done

[00:06:02] is that zero of the long-standing car manufacturers know what they're doing with EV.

[00:06:09] I presume they know too much about petrol cars and therefore can't make an EV.

[00:06:15] Because the interesting ones, actually, that's almost true but not 100% true,

[00:06:20] because there are only three cars left on my list because all the rest were not just,

[00:06:25] oh, maybe, maybe not the top three.

[00:06:27] No, all the rest were, I don't want to drive this.

[00:06:31] And the one that surprised me most was the Volkswagen's

[00:06:34] because they're all over the place here, but they really don't get EV.

[00:06:38] So what's left on the list is the Ionic 6, which is, without a shadow of a doubt,

[00:06:44] the most brave styling of any of the cars left on my shortlist.

[00:06:51] And I like the Ionic 6.

[00:06:54] I think its complete and utter non-standardness is adoring and endearing,

[00:07:00] and I love it.

[00:07:01] And I am married to someone who thinks it is the ugliest car on planet Earth

[00:07:05] and will tolerate it if there's nothing better,

[00:07:08] but absolutely positively does not think it is a nice car.

[00:07:12] You know what? I'm wondering, and I just had this thought,

[00:07:16] so you'll have to forgive my intrusive thoughts here.

[00:07:19] This has nothing to do with death, by the way.

[00:07:21] I wonder if Sir Mix-A-Lot would like the Ionic 6 because it's got much back.

[00:07:27] I'm guessing.

[00:07:29] It does.

[00:07:30] And the other thing, so I like the styling of the Ionic 6.

[00:07:34] It also has a nice long range.

[00:07:36] It drives well.

[00:07:37] It was actually a fun drive.

[00:07:39] The only other thing that I don't like about it, because the price is right,

[00:07:42] the range is right.

[00:07:44] The software is mostly right, but there's a couple of weird things about the interface.

[00:07:49] And the most annoying thing from my point of view is that visually,

[00:07:55] it is very high on looking cool and very low on being practical.

[00:08:01] It's like 12-year-old me was allowed to design what I thought was a futuristic car.

[00:08:09] And 12-year-old me is an idiot, but it's very flashy and very cool.

[00:08:16] It demos really well until you try to drive it.

[00:08:19] You're like, what mode am I in? How can I tell?

[00:08:21] Oh, it's that teeny, teeny, tiny riding in the corner here.

[00:08:24] All the important stuff is impossible to find.

[00:08:26] And there's these graphics doing these things that seem a lot more at home to me

[00:08:30] in a stereo system than on the dashboard of a car.

[00:08:33] Yes.

[00:08:34] So that, yeah.

[00:08:35] But having said that, Hyundai and Kia and Genesis are still knocking it out of the park

[00:08:42] as far as EVs go.

[00:08:43] Yes.

[00:08:44] Oh, those cars are amazing.

[00:08:47] It's a lovely car to drive.

[00:08:48] I cannot overemphasize enough how much I enjoy driving it

[00:08:51] and how the fit and feel of the interior was very pleasing.

[00:08:56] It was full of clever little cubby holes.

[00:08:59] It's a well-designed car.

[00:09:02] I just think it needs a software update with grownups in charge.

[00:09:07] Yeah, yeah.

[00:09:08] I'm interested because they're working on their next platform now.

[00:09:11] So I'd be interested to see what they end up doing with whatever that be,

[00:09:16] the GMP3, I think it would be because they're on the two now.

[00:09:20] So I'd be interested to see what they're going to do with that

[00:09:23] and what that ends up looking like.

[00:09:25] So the other one in my top three that stands out is the Polestar 2.

[00:09:30] And I think the Polestar 2 is almost the inverse of the Ionic 6.

[00:09:36] The outside of the Polestar 2 is boring.

[00:09:40] It is a child's drawing of a car.

[00:09:45] It has a square front.

[00:09:46] It has a triangular windscreen, a flat top, another triangle,

[00:09:50] and then a square back.

[00:09:51] It is two rectangles, another rectangle, and two triangles.

[00:09:55] It is a square car.

[00:09:57] It is utterly unexciting on the outside.

[00:10:00] On the inside, on the other hand, they let the people from IKEA come in

[00:10:07] and build the most driver-friendly, least cluttered,

[00:10:13] most useful dashboard I have ever seen on a car.

[00:10:17] It is not flashy.

[00:10:19] It is very minimalist.

[00:10:22] But everything I wanted was always visible to me

[00:10:26] and really obvious and clear at every moment in time

[00:10:29] while I was driving that car.

[00:10:30] It was almost like the thing had a sort of a sort of circuit

[00:10:33] into my brain.

[00:10:34] It is the most pleasing interior of all of the cars I test drove.

[00:10:41] I am prepared to tolerate the fact that the outside is boring

[00:10:44] and I am prepared to tolerate that they don't have a nice shade of blue.

[00:10:48] I really do love a blue car.

[00:10:51] This is the silliest criteria, by the way.

[00:10:53] Is it a nice blue?

[00:10:54] They fail on the is it a nice blue criteria.

[00:10:56] But as I say, it is such a nice car to drive.

[00:10:59] In terms of its abilities, in terms of its...

[00:11:05] Basically, it is the most Tesla-like in terms of its abilities

[00:11:09] and stuff, it is just that the outside is way less nice

[00:11:13] than the outside of my Model 3.

[00:11:15] The Model 3 is a nice car.

[00:11:19] And the square LED backlights are kind of nice.

[00:11:25] In the dark, when a pulse air passes me on the bike in the dark,

[00:11:29] I always know it is a pulse air

[00:11:30] because it is extremely distinctive for your lights

[00:11:33] and it does kind of look cool in the dark.

[00:11:35] But if the best thing you can say about the styling

[00:11:38] of your car is it looks good in the dark,

[00:11:40] I think that's a punchline.

[00:11:42] I don't think that's a couple of it.

[00:11:44] Yeah, their SUV is still nice.

[00:11:48] My kids and I went and saw it a couple months ago.

[00:11:51] It's still nice but it's not...

[00:11:54] It still lacks elegance, I guess.

[00:11:57] You can tell that it's a nice car.

[00:12:01] It just...

[00:12:02] It looks a little bit like my Mazda RX-9 did.

[00:12:06] Not RX-9, CX-9.

[00:12:09] And it's just not a...

[00:12:11] Like it's a car.

[00:12:13] It's not anything that's fancy.

[00:12:15] The inside of my car was great.

[00:12:17] The outside looked like a mutated turtle.

[00:12:19] It was not a good look for a car.

[00:12:22] But the inside was great.

[00:12:24] Rumi had lots of nice features for the time that we bought it,

[00:12:27] which was 2011.

[00:12:29] So yeah.

[00:12:31] Yeah, that's the pulse air too really in a nutshell.

[00:12:34] It's really nice in there.

[00:12:36] It's really nice in there but on the outside,

[00:12:38] no one is going to give you a second look.

[00:12:40] And it's very childish of me,

[00:12:43] but I did kind of like the fact that people notice a Model 3.

[00:12:47] They don't need more because there's like a million of them in Ireland now.

[00:12:51] But for a long time it was a thing

[00:12:54] and I was the only blue one in the area.

[00:12:56] There's now three people with blue ones

[00:12:58] who didn't...

[00:12:59] Two miles of my front door but anyway.

[00:13:01] That's not really an important criteria.

[00:13:03] So the last player standing then was the BYD Seal.

[00:13:08] And I really wanted to test drive it before I made up my mind

[00:13:10] on what I'm actually going to buy next year.

[00:13:13] Because the At-03,

[00:13:16] it...

[00:13:18] What it could do for the price they were charging was mind blowing.

[00:13:23] And unlike your typical car manufacturers,

[00:13:27] they understand EV almost as well as Tesla and Polestar.

[00:13:33] I say almost because the one thing they do have that you cannot disable

[00:13:38] that is actually going to drive me mad, I think, if I were to...

[00:13:42] If I were to be forced to go back to it,

[00:13:44] is that the car has a creep feature.

[00:13:46] You cannot use one pedal driving to stop it completely.

[00:13:50] And I do not comprehend why anyone would want a creep feature on an EV,

[00:13:55] but I definitely can't comprehend why you couldn't give me a software toggle

[00:13:59] to toggle at all.

[00:14:01] Because it's purely in software.

[00:14:03] It has gotten a little bit cleverer.

[00:14:07] So it does one thing I do like which is auto hold.

[00:14:10] So when you actually come to a full stop by using your other foot,

[00:14:14] or while moving your foot, let's face it,

[00:14:16] you don't actually use both feet.

[00:14:18] When you come to full stop, it doesn't try to creep again.

[00:14:22] It goes, ah, okay, you stopped.

[00:14:24] And now I shall...

[00:14:25] A little A comes out on the dashboard that says auto hold.

[00:14:29] And I think you can turn that off as if you'd want to sit there with your foot

[00:14:33] and the brake forever.

[00:14:35] So that one they let you turn off, but they don't let you have the one pedal.

[00:14:38] Now, the guy in the dealership was very clear.

[00:14:41] He said, well, actually, I wouldn't be surprised if this changed

[00:14:44] in a software update because in China,

[00:14:47] they really hate one pedal driving.

[00:14:50] But in Europe, people seem to really like it.

[00:14:53] So we may end up having different software in the European versus the Chinese cars.

[00:14:59] And he said that to me a few times.

[00:15:02] I'm going to slightly skip ahead, Buddy, because it's related.

[00:15:05] But the other thing he said to me was that the lane assist

[00:15:09] is currently behaving the way the Chinese market wanted,

[00:15:13] which he described as aggressive.

[00:15:16] It will...

[00:15:17] If it detects you drifting out of lane,

[00:15:19] it will not nudge you into lane.

[00:15:22] It will yank you into lane and it will move the steering wheel

[00:15:25] up to 20 degrees to do it.

[00:15:27] Oh, dear.

[00:15:29] Which is quite a dramatic.

[00:15:30] And apparently in China, this is popular because it feels like the car is in charge.

[00:15:34] Whereas what Europeans prefer is a gentle nudge

[00:15:38] as opposed to feeling like the car is possessed.

[00:15:41] So they've already said that they are definitely going to do a software update

[00:15:44] within the next few months to reduce the European models to five degrees of assist

[00:15:50] instead of 20 degrees of assist.

[00:15:53] So they're dialing it down to a quarter, the aggressiveness.

[00:15:56] And the other thing that was mentioned in that same conversation

[00:16:00] was that Europeans prefer a more aggressive regen.

[00:16:05] And so there was talk of perhaps having...

[00:16:08] Differentiating that as well.

[00:16:10] It seems to me that they're working towards having a European software

[00:16:15] and a Chinese software and each one fitting the appropriate market.

[00:16:19] So I really hope they go that way for their own sake

[00:16:22] because some of the decisions are a little weird.

[00:16:25] And I thought they were just weird because they didn't understand.

[00:16:28] But no, they're weird because they did a lot of market research

[00:16:31] and their market disagrees with me.

[00:16:34] The other thing that's noticeable.

[00:16:38] I drove the Atto 3 in the summer and I drove this car literally two weeks ago.

[00:16:42] And it's the same software, it's the same dashboard.

[00:16:46] It is the same brains of the car.

[00:16:49] And there were a bunch of things promised to me last time

[00:16:53] that a future software update will.

[00:16:56] And one of those things that was promised was Irish speed limit awareness.

[00:17:00] That's in the car now.

[00:17:02] So when they say we will do software updates to do blah, blah, blah,

[00:17:06] it appears they are serious about it.

[00:17:09] And it appears they're not doing it particularly slowly

[00:17:11] because there's only six months between my two test drives

[00:17:14] and the changes promised in test drive one were present in test drive two.

[00:17:18] So that's a positive.

[00:17:20] It is a positive.

[00:17:22] Can I have a drink?

[00:17:24] Yeah, we should back up really shouldn't we, Bodhi?

[00:17:26] Well, I would like to put in an argument for creep

[00:17:29] because this just happened to me recently.

[00:17:31] My little brother is 20.

[00:17:33] He's going to college, he's going to ASU.

[00:17:35] Right down the road, he's like, hey, let's hang out.

[00:17:39] So I was like, cool, man, you haven't had a chance to drive my car yet.

[00:17:42] I'm going to come pick you up.

[00:17:43] Let's go.

[00:17:44] We'll do something.

[00:17:45] I'll let you drive my car.

[00:17:46] So on the way to our event, we're just hanging out.

[00:17:50] We're talking on the way home.

[00:17:52] I was like, okay, you can drive now.

[00:17:54] And he has a old beat up Mazda that does barely goes, right?

[00:18:00] He really needs and he is a tall kid, a 20 year old.

[00:18:04] He's not a kid, but he's tall.

[00:18:06] Yeah, I'm old enough to see the kid now.

[00:18:09] Yeah, same, same time.

[00:18:10] So he's tall and he, you know, put his foot into it and, you know, we took off and he's like, whoa, he's like, I did not expect that.

[00:18:22] And he'd never driven.

[00:18:23] He'd been in a Tesla before being never driven.

[00:18:26] So we go, we drive around.

[00:18:28] Everything's cool.

[00:18:29] Some things are terrifying to me that he's doing, but I'm letting it go.

[00:18:33] It's like I have insurance, whatever happens as long as we don't die.

[00:18:37] We get to his dorm and I'm dropping him off and he, he parks it and the car is stopped and we're about eight feet away from the wall.

[00:18:47] So we're in the parking lot, but eight feet away from somebody's bedroom.

[00:18:51] And right before he gets out of the car, he steps on the accelerator and we've lurched for, hopefully, thankfully we were about two feet short from the, from the edge.

[00:19:02] But he stepped on the accelerator and we lurched forward and my heart immediately went down into my big toe.

[00:19:08] And I was like, I'm buying a building and a new car.

[00:19:12] Fortunately we were able to stop, but maybe in that instance for new or inexperienced EV drivers, maybe that would be a, a clue for them to put it into P.

[00:19:26] I should have, I should have put it into park.

[00:19:28] That's my fault, but we were, we were, we chatted for about, I don't know, five, six minutes before he got out of the car.

[00:19:34] And I didn't even think about it.

[00:19:37] Yeah, because you do what I'm thinking.

[00:19:39] Yeah, I definitely, it was, it was part, there was the scariest I've ever been in a car was that brief half of a second event.

[00:19:48] It's one of the weirdest places, isn't it?

[00:19:51] Yeah.

[00:19:52] Thankfully that ended well.

[00:19:54] I know, I mean, I know why the creep came into being.

[00:19:57] I used to drive a beat up old, it wasn't beat up.

[00:20:00] My grandfather loved that thing to pieces, but it was a very old Ford Fiesta.

[00:20:03] And without the help of the creep, I'm not sure I could ever really safely get out of any junction whatsoever in that funny thing.

[00:20:09] But that's not an issue with a modern EV.

[00:20:11] No, it's true.

[00:20:12] That's true.

[00:20:13] That's rewind buddy, because I haven't set this car up at all.

[00:20:16] We jumped straight into the middle of the software.

[00:20:18] So when I went to the dealership, you know, the way when you walk in the front door, they park their,

[00:20:24] the car they think will sell the most cars, they put that one right at the door when you walk in.

[00:20:30] That's where the seal was.

[00:20:32] It is their show car.

[00:20:34] And they have the atos and they have all the other stuff all around the showroom.

[00:20:38] But that seal is their show car.

[00:20:40] And they had it there in a very pleasing blue.

[00:20:44] Just get that out there.

[00:20:46] And it is styled to be sporty and stereotypically.

[00:20:55] Yeah, it's a stereotypical sports car.

[00:20:57] The stereo, it is the model three is way more tasteful and way less shouty than the seal.

[00:21:05] The seal is this basic shape is the shape of the model three, but it has a lot more sort of a great,

[00:21:13] like the alloy wheels have like, you know, cuts in them to make them look really aggressive.

[00:21:17] And the styling has a lot more twiddly bits everywhere to make it look just that little bit more shouty,

[00:21:22] that little bit more sporty, that little bit more.

[00:21:25] Yeah, I think shouty is the word is aggressive sort of a styling on a car and it bloody well catches your eye.

[00:21:33] It really catches your eye and it looks really well.

[00:21:38] And when you sit into it, it feels really nice.

[00:21:44] I know when I came from a fiesta and I sat into my model three, I felt it was a premium interior.

[00:21:52] But apparently most people don't consider the model three or the model y to be particularly premium.

[00:21:57] Apparently when you compare it to BMWs and Mercedes, it isn't premium.

[00:22:03] Well, if you had taken the BYD badge off the steering wheel, I could not have told you if it was a BYD and Mercedes or BMW.

[00:22:12] It very, very much feels like this is a luxury car.

[00:22:18] We have taken the average of luxury and we have combined this together to make this car.

[00:22:23] It is not opinionated, not offensive.

[00:22:28] It is average luxury.

[00:22:31] If that makes sense, it is stereotypical luxury and it is genuinely nice in there.

[00:22:35] But if you're looking for quirkiness, extra Kobe holes, the guitar strings like they have in the Ato III, there is none of that quirkiness in that car.

[00:22:45] It is we want to make a premium car that you could mistake for a German car and that is what it is.

[00:22:52] Now, it looks nice brand new.

[00:22:55] They have made extensive use of suede.

[00:22:59] I was going to say, it looks like the seats are quaint or not quilted. That's not the right word.

[00:23:06] Yeah, apparently they are vegan, whatever they are.

[00:23:10] Okay, but it does look like they leather-ish.

[00:23:13] They have patterns sewn into them.

[00:23:16] They do. They definitely do. Yes. Very sporty seats as well. Very comfy though.

[00:23:20] Like you use it and you go, ooh.

[00:23:23] And the steering wheel is a nice material.

[00:23:26] It feels premium in there. It feels nice.

[00:23:31] It feels very nice in there.

[00:23:33] It has a very big center screen.

[00:23:35] It has a screen behind the steering wheel as well, which is a little disappointing actually.

[00:23:39] It's just a square screen like the Polestar is really beautifully built in and it feels like traditional dashboard.

[00:23:45] This is a square screen.

[00:23:47] It looks a little bit like the screen for the Rivian, which is in the dashboard but it's not a part of the dashboard.

[00:23:55] That's a really good way to describe it. Yeah.

[00:23:57] It's not molded in in a traditional dashboard sort of a way.

[00:24:01] It is a screen behind your steering wheel.

[00:24:03] It shows the most relevant information while you're driving.

[00:24:05] It's actually quite good.

[00:24:07] Speed limits, all that stuff. They're all right there. It's quite nice.

[00:24:11] And the big screen in the middle has the same party piece as the Ato 3 screen does.

[00:24:18] You have a button on the steering wheel or a software button on the display and it can be either portrait or landscape, whichever you prefer.

[00:24:24] Now when I drove the Ato 3, I felt that the screen wasn't the highest quality.

[00:24:29] I felt that it didn't have enough contrast and it looked a bit washed out.

[00:24:33] This screen looked way better.

[00:24:36] It also felt bigger but the software was the same.

[00:24:40] It was the same brains but I definitely get the feeling this was a more premium screen.

[00:24:45] I didn't like the screen on the Ato 3. This screen was lovely.

[00:24:49] It was absolutely lovely.

[00:24:50] The other thing that this one does with the Ato 3 doesn't, which makes me think it is bigger,

[00:24:54] is that this one has a split screen mode.

[00:24:57] So when you pop it into the vertical orientation, you can run two apps in horizontal mode, one on top of the other.

[00:25:04] You can have your maps and your music both as full-size apps at the same time on that big center screen.

[00:25:12] That's clever and nice.

[00:25:18] The other thing is something that the listeners may have heard me mention before

[00:25:22] but a common conversation on a backroom chat, myself, yourself, Alison and a few other people have

[00:25:27] is the concept of what is the right balance between software controls

[00:25:32] where you have to reach a touch screen while you're driving at speed

[00:25:35] and hardware controls where you can't find them and there's too many of them.

[00:25:39] Because somewhere is a sweet spot and on the whole I really like where BYD went with this.

[00:25:46] So the buttons are, there are more hardware buttons than on a Tesla which is not hard

[00:25:52] because the Tesla definitely doesn't do hardware buttons.

[00:25:55] It's the Steve Jobs School of Interface Design.

[00:25:58] We shall have as few buttons as possible please.

[00:26:01] But the BYD have, they have more but they're not everywhere.

[00:26:06] They are in three distinct groupings.

[00:26:09] There are a cluster of them on the left of the steering wheel,

[00:26:12] a cluster of them on the right of the steering wheel

[00:26:14] and it's not like the Tesla where you have your thumb wheels and you can move left and right.

[00:26:18] There was like a cluster of buttons on each side of the steering wheel.

[00:26:22] Standard to what most ICE cars would have.

[00:26:26] Yeah, to be honest.

[00:26:28] Some of them are flip-up, flip-down switches which are actually quite nice.

[00:26:31] Some of them are traditional buttons.

[00:26:33] None of them are quite rolly wheels like on the Tesla

[00:26:35] but they are flip-up, flip-down for the speed adjustments for the smart cruise control which is nice.

[00:26:42] And then the rest of them are in a circle around the, I'll call it a gear selector,

[00:26:47] the thing for going forward, backward or nowhere.

[00:26:52] So and they're nicely around that

[00:26:54] and so actually it feels minimalist but there are more buttons.

[00:26:58] Now if Allison is listening, one of the things Allison really wants is hardware buttons for climate control.

[00:27:03] She is out of luck I'm afraid in the BOD seal department

[00:27:08] because they made it a big feature that the only way to control your climate is through the interface

[00:27:13] because you can control how warm it is and what shape the air is.

[00:27:18] Do you want more of it up here or more of it down here?

[00:27:21] It's a very fancy interface for deciding how warm you'd like to be

[00:27:25] and thankfully each half of the car can choose

[00:27:29] because I don't want hot air in my face just because you do.

[00:27:33] But anyway, it's, like I say, it's nice in there.

[00:27:39] In terms of ADAS maybe, do you want to jump on to the ADAS next

[00:27:43] since that's kind of related to the...

[00:27:47] Let's, yeah, there is and the pictures that I saw of the seal,

[00:27:52] there's a glass roof. Is there a glass roof on every model or just the one you...

[00:27:57] I believe the panoramic roof is just a thing. They're very low on options.

[00:28:02] They don't believe in having many...

[00:28:04] I presume that's one of the ways that they save money is by having very few skews.

[00:28:09] So the cars are extremely similar to each other.

[00:28:13] The question really is, do you want speed or range? Pick one.

[00:28:17] Okay.

[00:28:18] Because in fact there are two models.

[00:28:21] There is an all-wheel drive model which is faster with less range

[00:28:26] or a two-wheel drive model which is rear-wheel drive, which is important

[00:28:31] and that has a longer range and that's it. They are your two choices.

[00:28:36] That's... I think that's a feature not a bug, right?

[00:28:40] And the car cost €20,000 less than the Tesla Model 3.

[00:28:46] So, you know, the fact that you don't get the choice of whether to have a high spec or not

[00:28:53] isn't really that big of a deal to me. You're getting an awful lot of shiny for your money.

[00:28:58] What is it? What is the actual sticker price on it?

[00:29:02] Actually didn't find this... I forgot to write it down.

[00:29:05] I believe it was about €50,000 and the Tesla is about €70,000.

[00:29:11] Okay. So yeah, we talked about much of this stuff.

[00:29:17] So let's hit the 8S comparisons.

[00:29:21] Yeah, so if you're wondering where do they save money?

[00:29:25] Where is that 20 grand? Where has it gone?

[00:29:28] Why the difference? Because Tesla is pretty aggressively priced.

[00:29:33] You know, it's a pretty low margin car. The Model 3, pretty darn aggressive.

[00:29:39] Tesla made a big gamble actually because for a while it cost them more to make than to sell the Model 3.

[00:29:46] So it's not like the Model 3 is overpriced because it really isn't.

[00:29:50] So why is this car 20 grand less if the Model 3 is not overpriced?

[00:29:54] Well, the answer is... there's a couple of answers but one of the answers is definitely

[00:29:59] it's way less brains in there.

[00:30:03] So actually one other thing I do want to mention and I don't know if it should drive me nuts but it does.

[00:30:09] So on the Tesla cars, the stocks, they're not hardware really.

[00:30:16] They're basically switches, right?

[00:30:18] So when you move to the turn signal, it doesn't go clunk into place

[00:30:24] and as long as it stays clunked, your turn signal is on.

[00:30:27] Like it's just a software indicator. It's equivalent to touching a button on a screen, right?

[00:30:33] Well, on all of the BYDs, it's like they stuck the stocks from my old Fiesta

[00:30:40] and put them in a modern car because as soon as you turn the turn signal it goes clunk

[00:30:44] and it stays down and then you clunk it back up and you clunk on the wipers.

[00:30:50] I don't know, it shouldn't annoy me but it genuinely does.

[00:30:54] I find the genuinely un-premium things clunking into place.

[00:30:58] Anyway, leaving that aside.

[00:30:59] So the ADAS is massively, massively, massively less than what you would get in a Tesla.

[00:31:06] So I didn't give Elon money for full self-driving because I'm in the software business

[00:31:11] and I know vaporware and I am perfectly happy to pay for a software when it exists

[00:31:16] but I'm not going to pay you for software that you haven't written yet.

[00:31:19] When you write it, come back to me and we'll have another chat.

[00:31:22] I'm very happy I didn't give Elon my money for full self-driving

[00:31:26] because on this island where I live, I would never have gotten it in the lifetime of my car

[00:31:32] because it's not available here, beta or nothing.

[00:31:34] Whereas at least you guys in the States if you drive very carefully you can get a beta

[00:31:37] so you can get some value for your money I get.

[00:31:39] I would have gotten literally nothing.

[00:31:42] And I mock my father mercilessly because he bought his first Tesla and paid for full self-driving.

[00:31:49] He has just bought his second Tesla and paid for it again.

[00:31:53] I was like, Dad, you didn't get it last time. Why are you paying for it again?

[00:31:57] It's coming someday.

[00:32:00] Okay.

[00:32:01] Yeah. The privilege you have here in the United States is, and in Canada,

[00:32:07] you get to pay $12,000 to pretend that you have a feature that doesn't quite exist yet.

[00:32:13] Okay.

[00:32:16] So you and I are perhaps of a similar mind about the vaporware.

[00:32:19] If it was $5,000, I'd be buying that vaporware all day long.

[00:32:23] The bit that if I were to be keeping the Tesla,

[00:32:26] I would actually do halfway because with the Tesla, you have three levels of automation.

[00:32:30] You have the free stuff.

[00:32:31] You have sort of the pro end but not full self-driving

[00:32:34] and then you have full self-driving.

[00:32:35] I wouldn't hand over the money for full self-driving

[00:32:37] but if I was replacing my Tesla with a Tesla,

[00:32:40] I would definitely go for the middle level this time,

[00:32:42] which gives you automatic lane change and hope.

[00:32:45] Basically it makes the existing automation a little bit nicer and I would do that.

[00:32:49] I genuinely would.

[00:32:50] So if you're a Tesla driver who only has the free stuff

[00:32:54] and you don't use all of it,

[00:32:56] then you're not going to be too upset by the seal.

[00:33:00] But if you bought a Tesla because you want the software

[00:33:04] and if you paid extra for the higher end autopilot,

[00:33:07] let alone full self-driving,

[00:33:09] you know where your $20,000 is gone

[00:33:12] because you got very, very little.

[00:33:14] You do have smart cruise control,

[00:33:17] which as far as language, that is the ADAS I use most often

[00:33:21] because the Model 3 is a sporty car.

[00:33:24] I am a little bit impatient

[00:33:27] because if I let my foot decide our speed,

[00:33:30] I will end up paying a lot of money to the Irish police forces

[00:33:35] and I will arrive at 12 points on my license

[00:33:38] and then have to not drive for three years.

[00:33:41] So if I tell the Tesla to go exactly the speed limit

[00:33:44] and it does that, then I save money

[00:33:46] because I have zero points on my license

[00:33:48] and I have never paid a speeding ticket,

[00:33:51] which is not long when that continues.

[00:33:55] The BYDs do indeed do the automatic cruise control,

[00:34:00] smart cruise control.

[00:34:01] So like with the Tesla, it will follow the car in front.

[00:34:03] You have a control for whether you would like to follow really close

[00:34:07] or whether you'd like to be a little bit more generous

[00:34:09] and follow a little further back.

[00:34:11] It has that control and it'll do the speed up and so down.

[00:34:14] It is aware of the speed limit,

[00:34:16] so it will tell you when you are speeding.

[00:34:18] But it is missing at the moment

[00:34:20] and apparently this may come in a software update,

[00:34:23] the dealer used the word may not will,

[00:34:26] which I noted because for other things he said will

[00:34:28] and for this one he said may.

[00:34:31] It doesn't have that feature Tesla has ruined you.

[00:34:33] Engage the smart cruise control,

[00:34:36] it will set itself at the speed limit

[00:34:39] because it knows the speed limit

[00:34:41] and so does the BYD know the speed limit.

[00:34:43] But no, the BYD will engage at 30 kilometers an hour

[00:34:46] or your current speed whichever is higher.

[00:34:49] So if you're a little bit lead footy

[00:34:52] you better engage it quickly I guess.

[00:34:55] And then after that you use the toggle switch

[00:34:58] to jump it up or 5 kilometers at a time.

[00:35:01] And it's not a spinner like on the Tesla,

[00:35:03] which I find very annoying because I always end up going

[00:35:05] in one increment instead of five increments.

[00:35:07] This is a little toggle switch and so you toggle,

[00:35:09] toggle, toggle and you can jump up and down very easily.

[00:35:11] But I shouldn't have to.

[00:35:13] It knows the speed limit,

[00:35:15] just jump to the bloody speed limit.

[00:35:17] So anyway, it does have smart cruise control,

[00:35:20] I could live with that.

[00:35:22] It has lane departure warning,

[00:35:25] it has collision avoidance where it will take over

[00:35:28] if you're about to crash and it has something

[00:35:32] that they don't call auto steer

[00:35:35] but it sort of kind of is auto steer,

[00:35:37] they call it lane keeping assist.

[00:35:40] And so if you're hearing that on it will steer the car

[00:35:42] and it will keep you centered in your current lane,

[00:35:45] which sounds awfully like Tesla's auto steer.

[00:35:48] They just market it a bit differently.

[00:35:51] And that's it.

[00:35:53] There are no more features.

[00:35:55] There is no amount of money you can give to BYD

[00:35:58] to get more AI, that does not exist.

[00:36:01] So that is where most of your money has gone.

[00:36:04] And so if the reason you want to Tesla

[00:36:07] is because you want all the AI stuff,

[00:36:09] this car is not for you.

[00:36:11] But if you don't actually care about anything beyond

[00:36:14] keep me centered in the lane

[00:36:16] and keep me from hitting the car in front,

[00:36:18] then it's perfectly fine.

[00:36:20] So make of that as you wish.

[00:36:24] That is definitely the big difference between the two cars.

[00:36:28] The other thing then is, okay great,

[00:36:30] I've talked a lot about the boring stuff.

[00:36:32] I did drive this thing.

[00:36:34] And when I drove the At-O3,

[00:36:37] I believe the word I used was 0% fun, 100% terrifying.

[00:36:42] Because the At-O3 is not a sports car

[00:36:45] and I took it on a road that is designed for sports cars.

[00:36:48] It's a little windy road that has gentle curves and hills

[00:36:52] and it is just, if you were to design the perfect road

[00:36:56] to have fun with, that's it.

[00:36:58] And that's where I took the At-O3

[00:37:00] and it was a disaster.

[00:37:03] It torque steered like you wouldn't believe

[00:37:06] and it was, like I say, 0% fun, 100% terrifying.

[00:37:11] So I took the seal on the identical road

[00:37:15] and I had, I put my foot down twice as hard

[00:37:19] because it was a sports car.

[00:37:21] So I was like, well, I'm going to make you prove it to me.

[00:37:23] It was 0% scary.

[00:37:25] The thing has magnetic wheels of some sort.

[00:37:28] They have a whole big blurb on their brochure

[00:37:30] about how they adjust the torque on each wheel

[00:37:32] independently multiple times a second.

[00:37:35] Whatever it is, it's bloody magic.

[00:37:37] That yoke does not torque steer.

[00:37:39] It just goes where you want and it goes there very quickly.

[00:37:44] It does not mind accelerating and turning at the same time.

[00:37:47] It is perfectly happy to do so

[00:37:48] and it won't scare you in any way, shape, size or form

[00:37:51] apart from the fact that you will be going very fast

[00:37:53] very quickly.

[00:37:54] It's fun.

[00:37:56] It is genuinely fun.

[00:37:58] In the same way the Polestar 2 was absolutely massive fun.

[00:38:03] So when they say it's a sports sedan,

[00:38:05] it is a sports sedan.

[00:38:06] It is a genuinely fun car to drive.

[00:38:08] It also behaved itself extremely well in the Dublin City traffic

[00:38:12] between the dealership and the fun road.

[00:38:15] So I basically had the two extremes.

[00:38:17] I had stop-go traffic, great fun,

[00:38:20] and stop-go traffic again,

[00:38:22] which is probably a realistic way to look at the car

[00:38:25] because they are kind of your...

[00:38:27] You're going to do a lot of stop-go traffic.

[00:38:29] That's just the reality.

[00:38:31] And it was very well behaved,

[00:38:33] but I really, really, really do miss

[00:38:35] the proper, complete one-foot driving.

[00:38:39] Now when you put on the automatic cruise control,

[00:38:42] the smart cruise control,

[00:38:44] well, you have zero foot driving and it will stop completely.

[00:38:47] It will not creep into the car in front of you,

[00:38:50] which would obviously be a bit of a disaster if it did.

[00:38:53] So in stop-go traffic,

[00:38:56] it behaves itself absolutely perfectly

[00:38:58] and when you get to a traffic light and everyone stops,

[00:39:00] you'll stop just fine

[00:39:01] and when everyone goes, you'll go just fine

[00:39:03] and if you tell it to go, stay close, it'll stay close.

[00:39:05] If you tell it to ease back, it'll ease back.

[00:39:07] It behaves perfectly in city traffic.

[00:39:11] So yeah, it drives nice.

[00:39:15] Just like the Onyx-6 drives nice

[00:39:17] and it's not...

[00:39:19] The Polestar 2 drove pendlessly nice.

[00:39:22] This maybe wasn't 100% as amazing as the Polestar 2,

[00:39:25] but the Polestar 2 is really something special.

[00:39:29] And I think that's sort of what I had

[00:39:32] in mind when I was driving it.

[00:39:34] I think that's one of the things

[00:39:36] that caught my eye about it.

[00:39:38] I don't think I've left anything.

[00:39:40] I don't think so.

[00:39:42] Bart, you should definitely get a commission

[00:39:44] when somebody goes into the auto dealership

[00:39:46] to buy one of these cars that you've talked about.

[00:39:48] I don't know how we make that happen,

[00:39:50] but you've done more for the salesman

[00:39:52] on some of these vehicles,

[00:39:54] maybe some less on the Volkswagen dealerships.

[00:39:57] I was going to say, I don't think the Volkswagen people

[00:39:59] are going to be the same.

[00:40:01] While you're talking, I wrote down

[00:40:03] eight little categories here

[00:40:05] that we've talked about in the past.

[00:40:07] I don't know if we're going to hit all of them.

[00:40:09] But we have the Onyx-6.

[00:40:11] I said it right this time.

[00:40:13] Onyx-6, we have the Seal,

[00:40:15] we have your Model 3,

[00:40:17] current Model 3, not a new Model 3,

[00:40:19] and we have the Polestar.

[00:40:21] Those are four cars

[00:40:23] that you have higher up on your list

[00:40:25] for a variety of different reasons.

[00:40:27] I'm going to give you,

[00:40:29] for instance, the first one will be styling and design.

[00:40:31] You don't have to give me each one of them ranks.

[00:40:33] Just tell me which one is top

[00:40:35] styling and design.

[00:40:37] Styling and design, new Model 3.

[00:40:39] Okay. And then who has the best blue?

[00:40:41] Tesla, get it again.

[00:40:45] Luxury.

[00:40:48] And I'm going to mix this up real quick.

[00:40:50] Luxury slash comfort.

[00:40:52] Oh, Polestar, our hands down.

[00:40:56] The one that I want to be in,

[00:40:58] the one I want to be in is the Polestar.

[00:41:00] I want to be in there. It's nice in there.

[00:41:02] All right. And then ADAS.

[00:41:04] ADAS is a toss-up.

[00:41:08] If you're going to pay extra,

[00:41:10] Tesla, if you're not going to pay extra,

[00:41:12] the Polestar is equal.

[00:41:14] Range. We didn't even talk about the range on the Seal,

[00:41:16] but range.

[00:41:18] The range of the Seal is 570,

[00:41:20] which is a little bit below the 620-ish

[00:41:22] that all the other three

[00:41:24] are offering.

[00:41:26] So in terms of range,

[00:41:28] all three of them are basically the same

[00:41:30] apart from the Seal which loses.

[00:41:32] So it's a three-way tie for first.

[00:41:34] And 570 is still 354 miles

[00:41:36] based on my Google search.

[00:41:38] It's not terrible,

[00:41:40] but all the other ones are crossing.

[00:41:42] Yeah, but all the other ones are crossing the 600 km mark.

[00:41:44] Like they're all 610 or 620.

[00:41:46] Sure.

[00:41:48] And there's something psychological

[00:41:50] about crossing that 600 mark.

[00:41:52] I get that.

[00:41:54] Software slash infotainment.

[00:41:56] Not ADAS, but just

[00:41:58] with the car

[00:42:00] as you would normally do.

[00:42:02] Driving or just sitting in your car

[00:42:04] driveway getting ready for a drive.

[00:42:06] I'm going to give

[00:42:08] a tie between

[00:42:10] the Polestar and the Model 3.

[00:42:12] And driving and handling.

[00:42:15] Driving and handling Polestar.

[00:42:17] And then overall.

[00:42:19] For you, the big reveal.

[00:42:21] For me.

[00:42:23] Okay, so imagine a world

[00:42:25] where Elon got his marbles back

[00:42:27] and he was perfectly sane.

[00:42:29] Then I would have to flip a coin

[00:42:31] between the Tesla and the Polestar 2.

[00:42:33] And I think it would land

[00:42:35] on the Tesla because it's prettier.

[00:42:37] But in this world

[00:42:39] where I do have my concerns

[00:42:41] it will be the Polestar 2

[00:42:43] and I don't feel like

[00:42:45] I'm compromising. Excellent.

[00:42:47] How many naps do you think Elon needs

[00:42:49] to get his marbles back?

[00:42:53] I think he needs

[00:42:55] a few less companies.

[00:42:59] Maybe the boring company isn't quite necessary.

[00:43:01] I'm not sure

[00:43:03] that thing where he wants to connect your brain to the computer is 100% necessary.

[00:43:05] And I think

[00:43:07] the world might be better off

[00:43:09] if he stopped doing social media.

[00:43:11] Yeah, he would for sure.

[00:43:13] Rockets and cars please.

[00:43:15] Rockets and cars.

[00:43:17] Yeah.

[00:43:19] What are you going to do?

[00:43:21] I want, like I really want

[00:43:23] the private sector to

[00:43:25] know. You know what it is Bart?

[00:43:27] You and I are not billionaires.

[00:43:29] And I don't know your financial situation

[00:43:31] but I'm going to go out on limb and say

[00:43:33] you and I are not millionaires.

[00:43:35] Ding ding ding.

[00:43:37] But

[00:43:39] you and I will be like

[00:43:41] hey, I'm going to start a new podcast.

[00:43:43] I think this is starting a podcast for Elon.

[00:43:45] He's like, I already got the equipment.

[00:43:47] It's not that much more work.

[00:43:51] I think that's what it is.

[00:43:53] There are...

[00:43:55] Based on the Isaacson's book

[00:43:57] and stuff, I think there's a certain

[00:43:59] thriving

[00:44:01] on chaos.

[00:44:03] That's not healthy.

[00:44:05] If anybody hasn't read that book, you definitely should

[00:44:07] because you will definitely get a different perspective

[00:44:09] of Elon Musk

[00:44:11] 100%.

[00:44:13] While you're doing it

[00:44:15] Isaacson's biography of Einstein

[00:44:17] is one of the best books

[00:44:19] about a scientist

[00:44:21] that a non-science person will do.

[00:44:23] And they'll accidentally

[00:44:25] learn some science.

[00:44:27] Not because they...

[00:44:29] not because of being forced in them, it's because

[00:44:31] it's such a good book. You will pick up the science

[00:44:33] and you will understand the man

[00:44:35] and you won't be intimidated

[00:44:37] regardless of whether or not you're a scientist.

[00:44:39] His biography of Einstein is amazing

[00:44:41] and if you're into tech at all

[00:44:43] his biography of Steve Jobs

[00:44:45] I found Illuminating and I've been an Apple

[00:44:47] podcaster for decades now

[00:44:49] and I found that book

[00:44:51] Illuminating and I didn't find any major

[00:44:53] point in that book to shout about.

[00:44:55] A lot of times when there's stuff on Steve Jobs

[00:44:57] it's full of cliches

[00:44:59] and you're like, no, don't be so lazy.

[00:45:01] No. There was none of that

[00:45:03] in the Jobs book.

[00:45:05] Which tells me that Isaacson is a good author.

[00:45:07] Therefore, I have

[00:45:09] confidence that the

[00:45:11] Musk book is as accurate.

[00:45:13] Yeah.

[00:45:15] And this is kind of going off her topic a little bit

[00:45:17] but he...

[00:45:19] gave him access

[00:45:21] or gave him

[00:45:23] access is the right word.

[00:45:25] He talked to Elon's ex-wife

[00:45:27] she had

[00:45:29] fair things to say about him

[00:45:31] some of it wasn't so great

[00:45:33] talked to Elon's dad

[00:45:35] and

[00:45:37] that man is interesting in himself

[00:45:39] might

[00:45:41] that might be his next biography just for that guy

[00:45:45] and he talked to his mom

[00:45:47] his brother and his sister

[00:45:49] and you know there's just

[00:45:51] it was really

[00:45:53] really good. I had to listen to it in small chunks

[00:45:55] because I found it to be incredibly

[00:45:57] sad to be honest especially the beginning

[00:45:59] once he started building up

[00:46:01] companies and things like that it became

[00:46:03] a lot less sad but

[00:46:05] yeah, this is crazy.

[00:46:09] Okay. I'm going to try to find a positive

[00:46:11] note to pull out of this one right?

[00:46:13] So we remember

[00:46:15] Steve Jobs as being a genius.

[00:46:19] He started off pretty genius

[00:46:21] then

[00:46:23] he went nuts and went off the rails

[00:46:27] and then he hit rock bottom

[00:46:29] picked himself up

[00:46:31] and had the best second act of any CEO

[00:46:33] I've ever come across

[00:46:35] possible? Can't give up on anybody

[00:46:37] everybody has a redemption

[00:46:39] story in them it's just whether they choose to

[00:46:41] or are capable of

[00:46:43] seeing that through.

[00:46:45] Well fingers crossed because

[00:46:48] I would very much like a second

[00:46:50] biography 10, 15, 20 years from now

[00:46:52] to have another chapter

[00:46:54] going and the second coming

[00:46:56] off and then amazing things

[00:46:58] out maybe he'll just write it himself

[00:47:00] the things I was wrong about

[00:47:04] That could be interesting

[00:47:06] that could be very interesting lesson one in humility

[00:47:08] Yeah, acknowledge it exists

[00:47:10] is the lesson one

[00:47:12] Alright Bart, well you

[00:47:14] have been very kind with your time

[00:47:16] so let's go ahead

[00:47:18] and end that here but you mentioned

[00:47:20] that you've been doing Apple podcast

[00:47:22] for a while so why don't

[00:47:24] you give yourself a little shout out?

[00:47:26] Well I do

[00:47:30] a monthly Apple show called

[00:47:32] Let's Talk Apple where I

[00:47:34] zoom out

[00:47:36] I step back from the chaos that is

[00:47:38] the daily Apple news and once a month

[00:47:40] I sort of zoom in and tell you here's the really important

[00:47:42] thing that happened in the world of Apple in the last month

[00:47:44] and it's really fun to put together

[00:47:46] because it gives you a really different perspective

[00:47:48] to what you get when you're in it

[00:47:50] day to day to day to day and I don't think

[00:47:52] I ever have quite as much fun as when I'm pulling

[00:47:54] together those show notes trying to figure out what

[00:47:56] actually is the big picture so that's Let's Talk Apple

[00:47:58] I do a photography show

[00:48:00] where my basic rule is I'm not a gear show

[00:48:02] and other than that it's about

[00:48:04] the art and craft of photography which

[00:48:06] is a pretty big way of saying it could be absolutely anything

[00:48:08] sometimes

[00:48:10] I have a guest on sometimes I used to do panels

[00:48:12] a lot of it's been me on my own lately

[00:48:14] because I just felt I have things to say

[00:48:16] it could be absolutely anything I did

[00:48:18] really well I explained why I have

[00:48:20] completely fallen over the social media

[00:48:22] site called Glass which is for pay only

[00:48:24] and pretty much phone

[00:48:26] first but it's amazing for photographers so

[00:48:28] that was my most recent episode anyway

[00:48:30] it's all at Let's Talk dot IE

[00:48:32] Excellent and I will put links in the show

[00:48:34] notes you are also on security bits

[00:48:36] with Alison Sheridan

[00:48:38] which is on the NoCillicast podcast at the end

[00:48:40] and you are programming

[00:48:42] by Stealth as well

[00:48:44] which you can also find at podfeas.com

[00:48:46] Yes indeed

[00:48:48] myself and Alison have been podcasting

[00:48:50] podcasting together even longer

[00:48:52] than I've been podcasting by myself

[00:48:54] And I will say as somebody who does a twice

[00:48:56] a week podcast and is starting another podcast

[00:48:58] and has a third podcast that I'm

[00:49:00] relaunching

[00:49:02] doing it once a month is the smartest

[00:49:04] way to do it

[00:49:06] hands down

[00:49:08] having one episode a month

[00:49:10] that you can actually like

[00:49:12] plan and you're not

[00:49:14] panic

[00:49:16] writing notes every week

[00:49:18] it's a huge

[00:49:20] huge mentally

[00:49:22] good for your mental health

[00:49:24] I guess

[00:49:26] Brody I do four monthly shows

[00:49:28] there's four weekends in a month

[00:49:30] it's still chaos every weekend

[00:49:32] it's just different chaos every weekend

[00:49:34] it's true because you have

[00:49:36] it's two of the

[00:49:38] because it's every other week

[00:49:40] for security bits

[00:49:42] it's every other week with Alison

[00:49:44] and then every other week by myself

[00:49:46] so basically every week

[00:49:48] and every now and then when there's five weeks

[00:49:50] in a month I get a weekend off and I go

[00:49:52] Holy moly

[00:49:54] So in theory Bart you're really smart

[00:49:56] but in practicality

[00:49:58] not so much

[00:50:01] Yeah because that's what happens when you're a podcaster

[00:50:03] you can

[00:50:05] I have some time I do with the show

[00:50:07] You don't think it's going to be that much work

[00:50:09] Alright Bart thank you so much

[00:50:11] for coming on I really appreciate it

[00:50:13] and thanks for bailing me out this week

[00:50:16] My absolute pressure Brody

[00:50:18] and yeah I'm sure we'll find something else to talk about

[00:50:20] some of the time soon and until

[00:50:22] the next time be good

[00:50:24] Oh I wanted you to stay safe

[00:50:26] so you could stay secure

[00:50:28] Yeah I didn't seem right I don't know

[00:50:30] I was floundering there

[00:50:32] I was setting myself up

[00:50:34] and I had no idea where I was going

[00:50:36] Yeah

[00:50:38] You got an outtake too

[00:51:06] I'm Sandra and I'm just the professional your small business was looking for

[00:51:10] but you didn't hire me because you didn't use LinkedIn jobs

[00:51:13] LinkedIn has professionals you can't find anywhere else

[00:51:16] including those who aren't actively looking for a new job

[00:51:18] but might be open to the perfect role

[00:51:20] like me

[00:51:36] I'm tired of ads barging into your favorite news podcast

[00:51:46] Good news! Ad-Free listening is available on Amazon Music

[00:51:50] for all the music plus top podcasts included with your Prime membership

[00:51:54] Stay up to date on everything newsworthy

[00:51:56] by downloading the Amazon Music app for free

[00:51:58] or go to Amazon.com.

[00:52:00] That's Amazon.com.

[00:52:02] To catch up on the latest news and news

[00:52:05] to catch up on the latest episodes without the ads

[00:52:08] Millions of people have lost weight with personalized plans from Noom

[00:52:12] like Evan who can't stand salads and still lost 50 pounds

[00:52:16] Salads generally for most people are the easy button right?

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[00:52:41] How great is Bart?

[00:52:43] Well the answer is pretty stinking great

[00:52:46] I really do love getting together and chatting

[00:52:48] not only with Bart but with all the folks who come on the show

[00:52:51] and you know it's just a nice way to get to meet people out there

[00:52:55] who are in the community who are doing cool things

[00:52:57] and a lot of this community is full

[00:53:00] of a lot of smart and wonderful people

[00:53:03] Yeah it's pretty amazing as far as I'm concerned

[00:53:07] All right before we go

[00:53:11] we do have some Tesla news that I wanted to pass on

[00:53:15] and it's all about Tesla deliveries

[00:53:19] So for Q4 2023

[00:53:22] or I guess production and deliveries

[00:53:24] for Q4 2023 Tesla produced

[00:53:27] 476,777 model

[00:53:32] threes and y's

[00:53:35] That's pretty impressive

[00:53:38] As far as deliveries go

[00:53:40] they delivered

[00:53:42] 461,538 model y's

[00:53:47] and Model 3's

[00:53:49] and then Tesla listed out other models

[00:53:52] which will include Model S, Model X

[00:53:55] Cybertruck

[00:53:58] maybe the semi truck

[00:54:00] I honestly don't know

[00:54:02] they just say other models

[00:54:03] so the three other models of vehicle that they make

[00:54:05] are the semi truck, Model S and Model X

[00:54:08] So they produced

[00:54:11] 18,212 other models

[00:54:14] and delivered 22,969 other models

[00:54:18] Now let's go in and jump into our quarter totals

[00:54:23] As far as production goes

[00:54:25] Tesla produced a total of

[00:54:28] 494,989 vehicles

[00:54:32] pretty close to 500,000

[00:54:35] and they delivered

[00:54:38] 484,507 vehicles

[00:54:44] not too shabby

[00:54:47] Now let's go ahead and look at all of 2023

[00:54:52] Model 3 and Model Y production

[00:54:55] for all of 2023 was 1,775,159

[00:55:00] for production as far as deliveries go

[00:55:03] it was 1,739,707 deliveries

[00:55:11] so 1.7 production

[00:55:13] 1.7 deliveries not too shabby

[00:55:15] other models

[00:55:17] 70,826

[00:55:21] and that's for production

[00:55:24] for deliveries is 68,874

[00:55:27] so not too bad on the other models

[00:55:30] they're not high volume vehicles

[00:55:33] and then our total production for 2023

[00:55:36] 1,845,985

[00:55:41] and deliveries for 2023

[00:55:45] 1,808,833

[00:55:49] wait, 808,581

[00:55:53] so 1.8 million for deliveries

[00:55:56] 1.8 million for production

[00:55:59] not too bad

[00:56:00] these are actually pretty good numbers

[00:56:02] and as far as I can tell

[00:56:04] let's see, Tesla

[00:56:06] let's see if I can go back up here

[00:56:08] and look at their statement

[00:56:12] in the fourth quarter

[00:56:13] we produced approximately 495,000 vehicles

[00:56:16] and delivered over 484,000 vehicles

[00:56:20] in 2023 deliveries grew

[00:56:22] 38% year over year

[00:56:24] to 1.81 million

[00:56:27] I should have probably done it that way

[00:56:29] while production grew

[00:56:31] 35% year over year

[00:56:33] to 1.85 million

[00:56:36] so thank you to all of our customers

[00:56:38] employees, suppliers, shareholders

[00:56:40] and supporters who helped us achieve a great 2023

[00:56:43] now I'm going to go ahead and say

[00:56:45] you're welcome because I contributed

[00:56:48] to that very large number

[00:56:51] and you are welcome Tesla

[00:56:53] now I have had a lot of negative stories

[00:56:56] about Tesla recently

[00:56:58] I'm going to give you a positive story here

[00:57:00] first, the deliveries are positive

[00:57:02] second, here's my experience with

[00:57:05] Tesla service

[00:57:07] when I bought my car

[00:57:09] everything worked great

[00:57:10] like there was an issue in the very beginning

[00:57:12] Tesla took care of it, no big deal

[00:57:14] I am a person who listens to a lot of podcasts

[00:57:17] and I have a podcast player on my phone

[00:57:20] which is called Overcast that I really love

[00:57:22] I don't want to use another podcast player

[00:57:24] so I really enjoyed the feature

[00:57:28] where you could hook your car

[00:57:30] and your phone together via Bluetooth

[00:57:32] now this seems like, oh well duh

[00:57:34] that's not that big of a deal

[00:57:36] well it kind of is a big deal

[00:57:38] when you come from a car that does not have that ability

[00:57:40] even my wife's car

[00:57:42] which is much newer than my old car

[00:57:44] does not have Bluetooth capabilities

[00:57:47] so I was kind of digging

[00:57:50] being able to listen to my podcasts on my phone

[00:57:53] get out, throw my headphones on

[00:57:55] and continue listening to my show

[00:57:57] get back in the car and it goes back to the car

[00:57:59] that was awesome, it was really going great

[00:58:01] in July I started noticing

[00:58:04] it sounded like the podcasts were running really slow

[00:58:08] and then there would be a bunch of crackling

[00:58:10] and audio pops and hisses

[00:58:13] and it was just really weird

[00:58:15] and I thought well, I just updated my phone

[00:58:17] maybe it's my phone

[00:58:19] and then not too long before that

[00:58:21] I had just done my Tesla update

[00:58:23] my first one and I was like

[00:58:25] well maybe there's something happening in the update

[00:58:27] and I let it go for a while

[00:58:29] all the way up until just around Thanksgiving

[00:58:31] and I was like you know what this isn't right

[00:58:33] so I got on my Tesla app

[00:58:35] I requested a service center visit

[00:58:38] it was supposed to happen last week

[00:58:40] and somebody was supposed to come to my house

[00:58:42] and after I sent them all the information

[00:58:44] that they asked for, they rescheduled me

[00:58:47] for an actual service appointment

[00:58:52] at the service center

[00:58:54] I got all sorts of information about

[00:58:57] when my appointment was

[00:58:59] what am I going to do when I show up

[00:59:01] and who am I going to talk to, that was great

[00:59:03] way better than at the Mazda dealership

[00:59:05] and the Mazda dealership was fine

[00:59:07] but this is a way better experience

[00:59:09] I got a message saying

[00:59:11] hey just pull up into the service department

[00:59:13] the door will open, pull in

[00:59:15] and find Josh and I did that

[00:59:17] and Josh and I went through the car

[00:59:19] we went through the features

[00:59:21] he was able to connect his phone

[00:59:24] and he had the same issue

[00:59:27] so great like easy peasy

[00:59:29] no issues

[00:59:31] one of the things that I was a little concerned with

[00:59:33] was that they said

[00:59:35] this type of service does not

[00:59:37] entitle you to a loaner car

[00:59:40] and that's fine

[00:59:42] I don't go back to work for a few days

[00:59:44] and I don't have to have a car

[00:59:46] everything in my neighborhood is close enough

[00:59:48] that I do, I can take an Uber

[00:59:50] and it'll be fine or a Waymo

[00:59:52] no big deal

[00:59:54] but it's a little bit of an inconvenience

[00:59:56] and without any hesitation

[00:59:58] I didn't have to say anything

[01:00:00] but I was able to connect my car

[01:00:02] I was like great

[01:00:04] so right now my car is sitting at the service center

[01:00:06] hopefully

[01:00:08] we'll get fixed in the next day or two

[01:00:10] looks like it's coming back on Thursday evening

[01:00:12] if everything goes right

[01:00:14] but I know that I've said

[01:00:16] a lot of negative things about Tesla

[01:00:18] but this by far

[01:00:20] was the best service center

[01:00:22] experience that I've had out of any

[01:00:24] dealership

[01:00:26] and honestly I'm not trying to

[01:00:28] do the dealerships that I

[01:00:30] have used in the past for service

[01:00:32] because they were fine

[01:00:34] nothing great about them

[01:00:36] and nothing bad about them

[01:00:38] but I will say that I was very delighted

[01:00:40] with the experience

[01:00:42] that I received at the Tesla service center

[01:00:44] and since

[01:00:46] I felt like this is really important to say this

[01:00:48] because I have been, there's been a lot of negative

[01:00:50] stories about Tesla

[01:00:52] and it's not like I want to do negative

[01:00:54] stories about Tesla but I'm going to do

[01:00:56] a little bit more of a conversation

[01:00:58] and

[01:01:00] I'm trying to

[01:01:02] kind of keep

[01:01:04] a connection from

[01:01:06] story to story to story so it's all

[01:01:08] kind of a cohesive

[01:01:10] podcast

[01:01:12] and sometimes

[01:01:14] that means you have to report the negative

[01:01:16] stuff about these companies and it's not my favorite

[01:01:18] thing to do

[01:01:20] but I feel like I have to do it so that

[01:01:22] we can be fair

[01:01:24] I think electric vehicles are great

[01:01:26] however I'm not under any evolution

[01:01:28] that there's some sort of

[01:01:30] magic pill that's going

[01:01:32] to save

[01:01:34] everyone and everything

[01:01:36] I don't think that's true, I think there's problems

[01:01:38] and we need to discuss those problems

[01:01:40] but when good things happen

[01:01:42] we need to celebrate

[01:01:44] those successes so congratulations to Tesla

[01:01:46] on

[01:01:48] a great year and a great quarter

[01:01:50] and congratulations to me

[01:01:52] I'll drop you my car off to the service center

[01:01:54] alright everybody

[01:01:56] that is it for me today

[01:01:58] we'll have news on Friday

[01:02:00] I hope you all had a wonderful and safe new year

[01:02:02] and I will talk to you

[01:02:04] in just a few days

[01:02:36] that's Amazon.com

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