Shift: A podcast about mobility

John Wall, COO of QNX, which makes operating systems, development tools and more for the automotive industry, explains the results of a new survey of developers during a conversation with Automotive News staff reporter Molly Boigon.Respondents said that cybersecurity is the greatest risk to software-defined vehicle development, but also flagged that cybersecurity regulations are challenging. They also indicated that a slew of recalls is changing their development approach.

Shmuel De-Leon, CEO of De-Leon Energy, an Israeli battery consulting firm, explains the safety and performance benefits of solid-state batteries in electric vehicles. He spoke with Automotive News reporter Richard Truett at The Battery Show Oct. 8 for the Shift podcast.The U.S. should support solid state battery development to compete with China long term, he said. “Hurry up with a national program to support the battery industry, to build a battery supply chain, to develop new technologies, innovative technologies that could compete better,” De-Leon said. “Every day that we are not doing it, we are just shooting the foot of the American automotive industry.”

Magna International is leaning on artificial intelligence to improve manufacturing and to gain supply chain insights amid shifting trade policy. Todd Deaville, vice president of advanced manufacturing innovation at Magna, joins Automotive News supplier reporter John Irwin, on this week’s Automotive News Shift podcast. Plus, Shift hosts Hannah Lutz and Molly Boigon break down what the end of the federal EV tax credit means for the auto industry. Highlighted stories: The end of EV tax credits begs the question: What happened?

Mike Murphy, CEO of the EV Politics Project and the American EV Jobs Alliance, discusses how electric vehicles became political and the future of sales once the federal tax credit is eliminated, plus how the public views EVs.Murphy also shares how he became an EV advocate after spending his career as a Republican strategist and political consultant.

Automakers shouldn’t count on Chinese vehicles’ exclusion from the U.S. market forever, warns Larry Dominique, previously with Stellantis and PSA North America and now president of LD Management Consulting.If automakers “don’t push for innovation and push for technology, when those gates do open, they’re going to have that much more of a gap to catch up on,” he said on the Automotive News Shift podcast.Dominique and Jerry Hirsch, senior editor of technology and innovation coverage at Automotive News, discussed China’s threat to the legacy automotive industry, among other topics.

The elimination of the federal electric vehicle tax credit, scheduled for Sept. 30, will reduce EV sales initially, but charging infrastructure improvements, supply chain efficiencies and more EV options will push the sector forward long term and open the door to more efficient vehicles across powertrains, panelists said at Automotive News Congress in Detroit Sept. 11. Elaine Buckberg of Harvard University’s Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability, Elizabeth Krear of the Center for Automotive Research and Jeffrey Morrison of General Motors discussed the future of EVs with Hannah Lutz, Automotive News director of technology and innovation coverage.

Ralph Nader, a consumer advocate and a former presidential candidate, says the auto industry moved too quickly on electric vehicles and needs to devote energy to making internal combustion engine vehicles more efficient.He acknowledges his 2000 presidential campaign overshadows his crusade for automotive safety, an effort that created regulatory agencies, saved lives and won him a spot in the Automotive Hall of Fame.

Anshuman Saxena, vice president and head of ADAS and automated driving at Qualcomm, details the company’s long-simmering efforts to deliver driver-assistance technology on a global scale.Underway for years, those efforts will debut aboard BMW’s Neue Klasse platform during the IAA mobility showcase in Munich next month. Saxena discusses that development, plus broader driver-assistance plans at Qualcomm. The company has roughly $45 billion in expected auto industry revenue, and roughly a third of that is from driver-assistance products. Further, he discusses how AI will upend motorists’ experiences inside their vehicles — think KITT and Knight Rider come to life.Finally, Hannah Lutz and I mentioned last week’s 100th anniversary of Automotive News at the start of the podcast. You can find more information and a retrospective on a century’s worth of major automotive milestones here. 

Greg Brannon, director of automotive research at AAA, details the results of a new technical evaluation of traffic-jam driver-assistance technology. Researchers found it experiences a “notable event” every 9.1 minutes.He examines the differences in performance between hands-off and hands-on traffic-jam assist technology and offers automakers solutions for improving future systems. Further, Brannon looks at how even well-performing systems can lull drivers into a state of automation complacency, which brings its own set of problems, and he discusses the gap between automotive marketing promises and the real-world reality of driver-assistance performance and limitations.

Harry Campbell, known in the mobility world as The Rideshare Guy, explores how an influx of new driverless deployments and self-driving partnerships are disrupting the status quo in the ride-hailing realm.He examines the new tie-up between Lucid, Nuro and Uber, and probes the latter’s widening influence in bringing robotaxis to cities across the U.S. in meaningful numbers.Further, Campbell, a ride-hailing driver himself, details how the rise of robotaxis are affecting human drivers who rely on the Uber and Lyft platforms for income.