Peter Bernard's EV Influence Unpacked - Part 2

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Innovations and Realities in Electric and Autonomous Vehicles - Part 2 of 2

In this multifaceted episode of the Open Forum in the Villages, Florida podcast, hosted by Mike Roth and Peter Bernard, the discussion navigates through the present and future landscape of electric and autonomous vehicles (EVs). Key highlights include Mercedes-Benz's foray into the hybrid market with the debut of the S580e, showcasing the potential of plug-in hybrids for those reluctant to fully commit to electric cars. The episode addresses common EV concerns like range anxiety and charging infrastructure, and introduces advanced features such as vehicle-to-load technology that can power homes during outages. Listeners gain a comprehensive understanding of EV charging systems, the capacity of the electrical grid, and tips for optimizing off-peak electricity rates. Real-life experiences with maintenance routines and costs for Teslas compared to traditional vehicles are shared, providing practical insights into the EV ownership life. The script also highlights Tesla's unique direct sales model challenged by dealership laws, and the advantages of lower brake maintenance due to regenerative braking. Additionally, the future of sustainable and autonomous transportation is explored, including a small autonomous bus for community mobility and Tesla's self-driving technology versus Waymo's LIDAR-based system. The episode concludes with an invitation for listener support and a preview of upcoming topics.

00:00 Welcome to the Open Forum Podcast
01:05 Support the Podcast
01:50 Introduction to Electric Vehicles
01:58 Mercedes' Shift in EV Strategy
03:01 Hybrid Vehicles: The Best of Both Worlds?
04:19 Charging and Battery Health
05:06 EVs as Backup Power Sources
09:00 Charging Infrastructure and Grid Impact
13:56 EV Maintenance and Service
15:05 Car Maintenance and Service Cycles
16:17 Tesla Ownership and Trade-In Experiences
16:31 Tesla's Direct Sales Model
19:22 Tesla's Manufacturing and Inventory
20:54 Tesla's Autonomous Driving Technology
23:17 Challenges and Future of Self-Driving Cars
28:12 Concluding Remarks and Show Information

Transcript

Peter Bernard  on EVs - Part 2

[00:00:08] Donna: Welcome to the Open Forum in the Villages, Florida podcast. In this show, we talk to leaders in the community, leaders of clubs, and interesting folks who live here in the villages to get perspectives of what is happening here in the Villages, Florida. There will be shout outs for supporters in episodes.

In Season 6, we will continue making substantial improvements to the podcast. 

[00:00:31] Mike Roth: This is Mike Roth. And, listeners, I'm thrilled to share with you this podcast, which is my passion project for you. This podcast brings me joy, brings you knowledge, and Inspiration and a lot of things that people need to know about the villages and the people living here.

Be sure to hit the follow button to get the newest episode each week. Creating this podcast is a labor of love, even though it demands more time than I can easily spare. Now, here's where you come in. You can help us keep the podcast alive and thriving. How? By becoming a supporter, the easy way for you to support us is to visit our podcast web page, openforuminthevillagesflorida.

com, and click on the supporter button at the top of the page, or the purple supporter box on the right side of the page. Even a small donation of three to ten dollars a month is appreciated. Makes a big difference. And guess what? You can cancel your subscription at any time. No strings attached. Your support means the world to us.

Stay curious, stay inspired, and keep those headphones on. I hope everyone enjoys today's show.

This is Mike Roth and Peter Bernard on Open Forum in The Villages, Florida. 

This is part two on the future of electric vehicles.....

 mercedes two years ago was saying that their corporate design philosophy was going to be EVs in marketplaces like America. That has the infrastructure for EVs, and in the rest of the world where there wasn't infrastructure, they were going to continue to produce internal combustion engines, whether gas or diesel.

Now they've changed their tune, and they're redeveloping their internal combustion engines, and in fact, they released the S580e hybrid Mercedes with a gas engine, with a smaller gas engine, but a lot of batteries. And on one side of the car, you have your On the other side of the car, you have your place where you fill it with diesel or gasoline.

That car's out of the price range for most people. I saw one last week, it was tagged at 212, 000. 

[00:02:46] Peter Bernard: Wow, houses cost less than that. 

[00:02:48] Mike Roth: Yes, but if it's an S Class, it's the big car with a standard engine of 580, might run $150,000 It's a different level of luxury. It's a car with computers. Different design philosophy.

In the future, hybrids seem to be in demand. The direction people should think of going. 

[00:03:07] Peter Bernard: Best of both worlds. There are folks out there that are anti EV and they get worried about getting stuck on the highway and about cold weather and about hot weather. And if you have a gas engine on board, it's a fail safe backup.

They provide some comfort for some folks. I used to own a Toyota Prius. It was a gutless wonder, but I felt good about getting 52 miles a gallon. And I would hypermile it so that I'd get as much as possible. So at a stoplight, I would just creep up hoping that little gas engine wouldn't kick on. Yeah, but that was fun.

But again, I'm more into speed now that I'm retired. I think hybrids are something that if someone is a plug in hybrid, if you're not a hundred percent sold on an EV, I think a hybrid would be a good alternative. 

[00:03:48] Mike Roth: I've thought about it and think that. When you , go backwards to a hybrid, you're adding much more complexity and more, and things to go wrong.

[00:03:56] Peter Bernard: You're back to oil changes, camshafts, exhaust manifolds, belts, yeah, spark plugs. I saw all the lines after this last storm of people all worried about gas and filling up. I turned to my wife, put my nose in the air and said, I'm filling up in my garage. I leave every day with a full charge. I feel for those people standing in line and I'm hoping maybe we can convert some of them to EVs operationally.

[00:04:19] Mike Roth: I don't leave every day with a full charge. I leave whatever's in there when it gets down to 30 percent or below. I'll charge it overnight, once every two weeks. 

[00:04:28] Peter Bernard: I think there's a battery health reason for doing it, too. Tesla asks that you always be charging. There's some people that don't have access to charging in their garage.

Maybe they live in an apartment and supercharge all the time. The old school of thought was that damaged the battery. I'm reading lately, that's not a problem. 

[00:04:43] Mike Roth: Yeah, there hasn't been adequate research in my opinion. 

[00:04:46] Peter Bernard: Tesla has been making cars for the masses since 2012. So, they, we. Have a lot of data and they collect telematics that you don't even know about.

They're collecting data all the time. They have some of the research. Something you were going to mention. I thought you were going to mention was there's a way for some cars. I think Hyundai does this where they go vehicle to load. E, if you were to lose power in your house during a storm, you can put a special device on your car and it will power.

At least a portion of your house for a great amount of time. 

[00:05:16] Mike Roth: There are two EVs now have reverse power, where power is two way out of that outlet. One way to charge the car up, and the other way to run appliances in your home.

[00:05:28] Peter Bernard: In the Cybertruck, you can just plug in the back. They have a plug back there, an AC plug, and there's an inverter on board.

[00:05:33] Mike Roth: Oh, that's so you can power stuff. Yeah, like tools or a laptop. But I'm talking about bringing 30 to 60 amps of power out of your electric vehicle. And this is in California. You can use to run the appliances in your home, whether it's your air conditioning. For a while. Or your TV or lights for a couple of days. 

[00:05:53] Peter Bernard: Wow. Okay. That's impressive. 

[00:05:55] Mike Roth: Because these, the batteries in the EVs are very large. Yeah. To make that safe, you need to have a, an outlet, which will accept that power. And a lockout. A lockout switch in your breaker box. That's code. To code cut off your home from the grid. 

[00:06:13] Peter Bernard: I used to have a generator back in Pinellas County and I had installed a lockout device on my breaker box.

Simple procedure, flick it, Now I'm the guy responsible for my power, and it would not send current down the line, potentially electrocuting some lineman four miles away.

[00:06:28] Mike Roth: I put that in when I bought a, my first generator. I don't work inside the circuit breaker box. I had Pike Electric. They charged me a lot of money to put a metal plate and move breakers. 

[00:06:38] Peter Bernard: But the cool thing is, so now EVs are a backup if you lose power.

[00:06:42] Mike Roth: Very fews EVs today have the high power. Two way receptacle on the car. 

[00:06:49] Peter Bernard: I think Hyundai does, because I remember being offered a device that I could put on there, and then I could plug in and run that into my house.

[00:06:55] Mike Roth: Yeah. Mercedes doesn't offer that yet. I'm not sure that Tesla does either. I don't think so either. Most EVs will have that capability by 2026. Cool. Because it's a, for Mercedes, it's a whole redesign of the charging circuit to put the Tesla plug at car. 

[00:07:08] Peter Bernard: And Mike, I know you're familiar with this, but I'll explain it to your audience.

The Tesla's, it's interesting, the motors are AC, the battery is DC. So when you plug in at your house, it's taking AC and it has to invert it down to DC to go into the battery. And then when you want to drive, it has to change that from DC to AC. When you go to a supercharger, it bypasses that inverter and goes right into the battery, because it's going DC to DC.

Very interesting. I love it all. 

[00:07:37] Mike Roth: Yeah. I think Mercedes must have the same thing. I think so. Because they do have a standard AC plug in, which you buy. Slow charger. Yeah. They have the 240 volt charger, which is, relatively speaking, fast. Yeah, 30 miles per hour charge, 38 maybe? But the same socket, when you open up an extra plastic cover, you have the direct DC, and the high speed 300, or 350.

And 250 kilowatts, some of the new electric cars are being built with 800 volts. 

[00:08:07] Peter Bernard: Yeah, I think the cyber truck has that, and that's going to allow for even quicker charging on a Tesla, it takes 35 to 40 minutes to get 80% of my charge. Now, when I pull in like you, when I go to a supercharger, not down to my last 15%.

I usually 30, 32. It takes 15 to 20 minutes to get back on the road. That's another thing people harp on with EVs. They say, Ah, I'm not gonna sit around. It's gonna take me so much longer. I get a sandwich, maybe use the restroom, get a slurpee, and watch the crowds for a couple of minutes. Most of these wah wahs have an interesting mix of people, so it's fun to people watch.

Or I'll go in my car and watch Netflix or YouTube on the screen. 

[00:08:40] Mike Roth: As long as the car is parked, you can do that. Yeah. But the Wawa has electric charger, some of them. 

[00:08:45] Peter Bernard: There's one in Lady Lake. 

[00:08:46] Mike Roth: There's one in the Lees the Leesburg Wawa that's next to the Mr. Clean. They have superchargers.

[00:08:51] Peter Bernard: I don't use them because I just charge at my house, but they are all over the place.

As I stated earlier, there's more than 50, 000. Superchargers, and there's more in the pipeline. 

[00:09:00] Mike Roth: So what's going to happen when 40 percent or 30 percent of the new car production is pure electric? Will the grid be able to handle that? 

[00:09:08] Peter Bernard: I'm no expert on electric grids, but I've had some people who are anti EV hit me with that.

And from what I know, yes, the grid can handle it. They are taking steps to shed load during peak times. Duke Energy has peak time and off peak time. I try to charge during the off peak and they give me a $10 credit per car. I have two of them, so $20 a month to charge off peak. I get two opt outs a month. On the third, I lose my credit.

[00:09:35] Mike Roth: At Seco, in Sumter County, it's seven bucks. You have to promise that you're going to charge the revolve peak hour. 

[00:09:41] Peter Bernard: Do they install a separate meter for that? 

[00:09:43] Mike Roth: No, they changed out the meter. 

[00:09:44] Peter Bernard: It's one that can communicate with a home base. 

[00:09:46] Mike Roth: A very sophisticated meter that they put on. And I asked them after six months on the new meter, would it make sense for me to forget about the $7 credit?

And go to pure time of day billing. They looked at my account and said, no, Mr. Roth, it's going to cost you more money if you go to pure time of day because you're not using enough electricity in off peak hours. So what we did do is we switched our dishwasher operation to off peak and that was very easy.

Yeah. In the car. 

[00:10:15] Peter Bernard: At my house, the only thing that counts is the car. And believe it or not, off peak starts at 10 a. m. It's a 5 p. m. Which doesn't make any sense. Wait a minute. Yeah, 10 a. m. That's peak. No, it's off peak for me. I'll show you. I've got a screenshot. 10 a. m. to 5 p. m. is off peak. I cannot charge between 5 p.

m. and 9 p. m. So that's off. That's peak time. Because everyone's coming home and turning on their ACs. It's straight and Saturday and Sunday and most holidays are off peak. So today we happen to be recording this on a Saturday. I know that I can carte blanche turn my plug my car in and not worry about it.

The cool thing with Tesla is they have a system on board where I can tell it to not charge even though I plug in. It'll say waiting to charge. And it knows when the peak and off peak is because I've programmed it. 

[00:11:02] Mike Roth: Yeah, for the Mercedes, what I've done, and in my electric golf cart, I use home assistant automation that provide electricity between 11 p.

m. and 6 a. m., the maximum off peak overnight. And the cost of the electricity, if on time of day billing, is one quarter of the cost of electricity. 

[00:11:23] Peter Bernard: But you're not doing time of use, so why do you fool with it? Just to be a nice guy? 

[00:11:26] Mike Roth: You had a promise to get the 7 credit. Yes, I am taking the $7. 

[00:11:30] Peter Bernard: That's just for your car.

So all that other stuff is just, you're not getting, you're not saving anything. Or does your rate go down during the off peak? No, it's just the $7 credit. 

[00:11:37] Mike Roth: That's why I asked him to do an analysis of my bill. 

[00:11:40] Peter Bernard: All this about the golf car and dishwasher. You're not benefiting from that. 

[00:11:43] Mike Roth: I'm proving I'm charging the car to maintain the 7 credit.

Okay. I don't think Seco is pinging my car and running down my 12 volt battery. 

[00:11:52] Peter Bernard: Yeah, my cars inquire, I had to give them my sign on credentials, and then they can get in and see when and if I'm charging. 

[00:11:58] Mike Roth: Yeah, I never gave that. Information to SECO. Okay. They can't get into the car. 

[00:12:03] Peter Bernard: Little Big Brother ish, isn't it?

[00:12:04] Mike Roth: Yeah, but, it, but they send you a semi itemized bill, which tells you what appliances you were running based on the electrical signature. . They can tell when my wife is running the dishwasher or dryer. 

[00:12:16] Peter Bernard: You can tell them to go blow. No benefit to you to run it during off time.

[00:12:20] Mike Roth: Yeah, as long as they're identifying it.

When they're identifying my TV as costing me about 15 a month for electricity. 

[00:12:27] Peter Bernard: People ask me all the time, how much does your electric bill go up? When I was working five days a week and driving to and from work every day and plus errands and things. 15 to 20, and it's far less than if I had to sit in the line at Wawa and get gas.

Even at the lower price we're seeing right now for gas. 

[00:12:43] Mike Roth: Yeah, I remember going to the gas station. We spent about 40 for 18 gallons of gas. 

[00:12:48] Peter Bernard: Those days are gone. Seriously, and I don't, I know some people look at me and they'll go, Oh, he's just a snob. I drive by gas stations now and I don't even pay attention to the price because it's not a factor.

Don't care. Not even for the golf car. 

[00:12:59] Mike Roth: Do you know if they're putting in electric charging stations at the new Bucee's on 75?

[00:13:04] Peter Bernard: I do not. I think in the past Bucee's has been very pro EV so I wouldn't be surprised. I'd love to see it.

[00:13:09] Mike Roth: That seems like a great idea.

[00:13:11] Peter Bernard: I've never been to a Bucee's by the way.

[00:13:12] Mike Roth: Neither have I. I've never stopped. 

[00:13:14] Peter Bernard: I don't understand the charm but I'm not going to say I don't like it when I haven't experienced it. 

[00:13:18] Mike Roth: People have told me that at most Bucee's there's no Bucee's. Interior place where you can sit down and eat. 

[00:13:24] Peter Bernard: They want you to leave. McDonald's in the past used to have really uncomfortable seats, no payphones, and no clocks.

They wanted you out of there. Remember when payphones were around? Oh yeah. McDonald's didn't have them. And if you ever sat in a McDonald's bench, you don't want to be there for more than the five minutes it takes to consume a Big Mac. 

[00:13:37] Mike Roth: There were studies that said, in New York City, they had a place called Chock Full O Nuts.

Coffee and Sandwich place for lunch. And they set their stools and benches up. So you were uncomfortable after 15 minutes. Yep. You notice They wanted that turnover. 

[00:13:48] Peter Bernard: Yeah. You'll notice also that the color schemes inside McDonald's are usually yellows and reds. And that is psychologically means hurry up and get out of here.

[00:13:56] Mike Roth: I never noticed that.. Peter, on the Teslas, is there a service interval? They don't want to see you at the end of the year. How often do they want to see you?

[00:14:06] Peter Bernard: Never. If you can fill up your windshield washer fluid and change your wiper blades yourself, those are simple procedures. There's a J hook on the wiper blade, just like any other car. No reason to visit a Tesla shop. To rotate your tires, you can go to Wildwood Tire or Sumter Tire. Doesn't matter.

[00:14:24] Mike Roth: Alignment. 

[00:14:24] Peter Bernard: You can take it anywhere.

[00:14:25] Mike Roth: Does it have rear wheel alignment?

[00:14:27] Peter Bernard: I've never done mine. But I go by. Where, and if I notice they're wearing it, even I would take him in and I've never seen him wearing it. If it's grabbing to the left or the right, that might indicate an alignment problem. If you feel a thumping, it could be out of balance.

You can go to any tire shop for that. People ask me all the time on my Tesla software and updates Facebook page. Where can I go for tires? Anywhere. Go to your shell station and have them do it. 

[00:14:47] Mike Roth: Not so with the Mercedes. They have a special Hunter. Computerized alignment machine, because they do four wheel alignment.

[00:14:54] Peter Bernard: How much does that cost? 

[00:14:55] Mike Roth: Mmm, 250.

[00:14:56] Peter Bernard: Ouch. 

[00:14:57] Mike Roth: Hey, I went over a curb, and I didn't respect the warning signal. Kept going, went over, damaged the wheel. Ouch. And it had the wheel fixed, cosmetically, but the steering wheel was no longer centered. So I go in, they had to do a four wheel alignment on it to straighten the thing out.

But the service cycle in the Mercedes is every two years, and I think they're bringing it in to change out that coolant antifreeze, primarily. And cabin filter. K. Maybe the cabin filter, and check the brakes. If you're using regenerative braking, the brakes don't get used.

 And now for some information from Dr. Craig Curtis about his Alzheimer's disease seminar. 

So if one of our listeners want to go to one of your seminars that you put on regularly, how do they make a reservation to do that? 

[00:15:46] Dr. Craig Curtis: The easiest way is to go to our website, which is www. craigcurtismd. com, or call our office. At 3 5 2 505 2 5 2. Thanks, Dr. Curtis. 

[00:16:00] Warren: With over 20 years of experience studying brain health, Dr. Curtis's goal is to educate the village's community on how to live a longer, healthier life. To learn more, visit his website, craig curtis md.com, or call 3 5 2 5 0 0 5 2 5 2 to attend a free seminar .

[00:16:17] Peter Bernard: I used to sell Teslas, and people would ask about brakes.

You'll never need a break during the life of the car. I had a 2019 Model 3 and I had people look at it and they said they look brand new. 

[00:16:26] Mike Roth: What did you do with your old Tesla when you bought this new one?

[00:16:29] Peter Bernard: I traded it in at the Tesla owned store. There are no Tesla dealerships. Dealership would imply there's a third party that's licensing blah blah blah the story.

Like Chevrolet sells through dealerships. As a matter of fact, there are still states in the union that don't allow direct sales of cars. New Mexico is one of them, but Texas, I believe is another one. So in New Mexico, they've set up their showrooms on Indian reservations because it is sovereign territory and they can sell their cars there.

Isn't that something? Oh yeah. Yeah. I think New Hampshire, there's a couple. It all goes back to when cars were first produced. And they didn't want the car makers to have a monopoly on every stage of the sale. So they made the rule that they had to have a third party. They had to sell to a third party like the booze business is now.

If you are a maker of craft beer, you cannot sell it directly other than at your store. You have to go through a distributor. Same with the car business. But Tesla has been fighting this tooth and nail. And in some cases they've been successful where they've said, look, this is anti competitive. Why are you telling me that I have to hire someone else to sell our cars?

In some cases, they just didn't open showrooms at all. And people who wanted a Tesla had to drive out of state to get their cars. 

You had to pick it out. Yeah. Silliness. And they're getting a. Those people are getting a cut, so everyone's in on the action. The car maker's getting it, the franchisee, as you call it, or it, the dealership, is getting a cut, and they're marking it up.

Why not save money and cut out the middleman? I guess you could say that you're providing employment, but I don't want to pay for that. The dealership experience, in my opinion, in the United States, is the worst. Some places have decided that they're going to do away with the whole haggling back and forth.

When you go into a Tesla showroom, the price is the price you pay. There is no, I'll make you an offer on that. They don't do it. Same goes for when you do a turn in. When you trade in your car, they tell you how much they're going to give to you, and there's no haggling. That's it. And I got raped on mine.

[00:18:18] Mike Roth: That's standard for auto dealerships. No, it's standard also for manufacturers. 

[00:18:23] Peter Bernard: So you can take their deal and save sales tax because you don't pay the money on the sales tax. Or have people come to your house that you don't know and are driving around with your car or 

[00:18:31] Mike Roth: Oh, we can call We Buy Any Car. 

[00:18:33] Peter Bernard: Oh, you can do that.

Yeah. Or CarMax. Yeah, CarMax. You can do that. Again, They're going to try and get the lowest price because they're going to turn it around and sell it, or they're going to send it to auction. That's what Tesla does, by the way. They don't have an inventory of cars that people have turned in. They go to auction.

[00:18:46] Mike Roth: So they don't sell certified pre owned cars. 

[00:18:49] Peter Bernard: They might sell pre owned Teslas, but if you came in there with a BMW, they don't want a BMW on there. 

[00:18:55] Mike Roth: No, I can understand that. But if I came in with a Tesla, 

[00:18:59] Peter Bernard: They'll give you a price, take it or leave it, and what they do with that car most likely is go to auction.

[00:19:05] Mike Roth: So they don't keep an inventory of certified pre owns? 

[00:19:07] Peter Bernard: No. Nope. If you go down to Claremont right now 

[00:19:10] Mike Roth: So that's an advantage of the dealership organization. For a few bucks more, you get a guarantee in the Mercedes world. A certified pre owned has a longer warranty than a new car. 

[00:19:20] Peter Bernard: You inspire confidence in an older car.

In the case of Tesla, if you go down to Claremont right now, you're gonna see a bunch of inventory cars all new. Which is unusual. When I sold Teslas They had zero inventory cars. When people would come in, I'd say, you'll have your car in five to seven weeks or five to nine was the time I got mine in about four weeks.

When I put my order in the system in Fremont, California said, build Peter this car with these specs and they put it on a train. It gets off the train in Alabama, and then they use a truck, a carrier to bring it down to the various locations.

[00:19:51] Mike Roth: And how many manufacturing locations does Tesla have in America?

[00:19:55] Peter Bernard: I have to go through these with my head. There's Fremont, California. Yeah. Austin, Texas. Those are the two in the United States. And then there's a one in Shanghai and one in Berlin. They have a seat manufacturer south of Fremont and make most battery batteries in Sparks, Nevada. Some Shanghai cars are marketed in Australia and New Zealand because it's closer and they don't have that long shipping.

Some of the Austin cars are now coming all over the United States. Model Ys I believe are starting to be produced there. The Tesla Semi is being produced there, and that's fascinating. I love that Semi. They're saying they can cut down the cost to people who need to ship things. I don't know what the figure is, but it's amazing.

They do have special superchargers for those Semis. Pepsi's been a big customer for Tesla, and now there's others that are getting on board.

[00:20:39] Mike Roth: How many of the Semis has Tesla actually built? 

[00:20:42] Peter Bernard: I'm going to take a stab at a couple of hundred. They are not grinding them out as they do Model Ys But I saw an overfly of the Austin plant recently, and they had, , dozens of them sitting there, all white and ready to get logos on them.

[00:20:54] Mike Roth: Let's change the subject now and talk about the Tesla auto driving taxicab recently.

[00:20:59] Peter Bernard: A robo taxi or cyber taxi.

[00:21:01] Mike Roth: With no steering wheel, no gas pedal, no brake pedal. 

[00:21:05] Peter Bernard: We never have a gas pedal. But yes, the, they had a special event out at California, I believe it was on the Warner Brothers lot. Elon Musk and his, , assistants demonstrated.

The idea of just summoning a cab and having it appear and then take you where you want. The good news is it was exciting, the cars looked nice, and he thinks that's the future. The bad news is that as soon as that announcement came out yesterday, the stock plummeted 8. 76%, so I lost thousands. 

[00:21:32] Mike Roth: Why would it have fallen with a great announcement like that?

[00:21:35] Peter Bernard: Elon has a tendency to over promise and under deliver. FSD, full self driving, was supposed to be autonomous by now. It is not. There are other things that he has promised in the past, and he says we're going to have 

[00:21:47] Mike Roth: Oh, like the bulletproof windows on the side of the truck. 

[00:21:49] Peter Bernard: Well, yeah, I think they've solved that.

There have been other things that He's promised and it just doesn't come to fruition. I think the investment world is very skeptical of this robo taxi deal. He also introduced a small bus that looks like a toaster with wheels. If that's the future, more power to him. His mantra is accelerating the transition to sustainable energy, sustainable transportation.

So, I think by having robo taxis, we maybe could leave our gas burning cars at home and you could take that to work. You could take it to Publix. It's only two seats with a trunk in the back, I believe. So, maybe they're going to have larger ones in the future that can take a family, that bus. But here in the villages, if

[00:22:29] Mike Roth: I got into one of those and said, take me to my doctor or take me to Publix, that would be great.

[00:22:34] Peter Bernard: Yeah. Wouldn't that be great? Think about it if you didn't have the expense of buying a car, and insuring it, and the maintenance, and all that kind of stuff. Maybe just rely on that to get around. 

[00:22:43] Mike Roth: That would solve a big problem here in the villages. 

[00:22:45] Peter Bernard: Especially for the elderly population, that maybe their reaction time is not as quick.

I'm not saying anything bad, we're all coming, we're all getting there. Wouldn't it be nice to just be able on an app on your phone, just to say, pick me up and take me to Publix, and then it would show up later on when you're ready to come home. 

[00:22:59] Mike Roth: Yeah, that would be fantastic. 

[00:23:01] Peter Bernard: With my car now, I can say take me to whatever and it'll drive me there.

Minimal interventions, usually. Yeah. Minimal. Yeah. You gotta pay attention. It's not level four. 

[00:23:09] Mike Roth: You gotta pay attention. People on the road here don't know how to run in a roundabout. Make a left turn and then through the flow of traffic are dangerous. Yeah. Okay. In terms of self driving features, Tesla uses eight cameras.

Do they use any LiDAR or sonar? 

[00:23:23] Peter Bernard: Nope. Used to be. We used to have sonar on our car in the form of a radar in the front right bumper that was deleted. And we also used to have electro sonic sensors in the bumpers. Those little round things, those were deleted too. So now it's all Tesla Vision, which they use to guide the car around.

[00:23:38] Mike Roth: So how does that work? If it does rain, 

[00:23:41] Peter Bernard: I get a notation on my screen that says full self driving may be degraded because we detect foul weather. It just means be on your toes a little more. And those robo taxis, they won't operate in rain? We don't know yet. Hasn't built enough to test. Not on the road.

Another company, Waymo, has driverless cars for years. Friend that was out in San Francisco and he summoned a cab and that's what showed up. And it took him to his destination with no one in the front seat. He says it was freaky. 

[00:24:06] Mike Roth: Yeah, but there's a steering wheel in a Waymo, isn't there? 

[00:24:08] Peter Bernard: Yeah, but you can't grab it.

You're in the back seat. 

[00:24:10] Mike Roth: Yeah, but there's a steering wheel. 

[00:24:12] Peter Bernard: Yeah, but there's no one sitt There's no one sitting there. More equipment. It's a standard car outfitted. On top, Waymo has this circulating thing that's constantly checking. And they're using LIDAR. LIDAR is excellent. Yeah. Elon Musk years ago pooh poohed LIDAR and said he'll never put it in his car.

The company that makes LIDAR, do you know who it is? I think they recently gave up on making them anymore. So I'll be curious to see what Waymo does. And Waymo has a, I think Google is their, is a backer of them. Yes, they are. 

[00:24:39] Mike Roth: But LIDAR does a heck of a good job in limited vision through rain or snow. 

[00:24:43] Peter Bernard: Yeah.

LIDAR, I think it stands for, , Light Radar, so it uses light beams and it's constantly inquiring. I've seen this screen that it's seeing and it's constantly inquiring what's that within it. It knows what's going on. Same with Tesla Vision. It's constantly wanting to know what's that and trying to identify it.

Is that a biker? Is that a motorcycle? Is that car gonna cross in front of you? 

[00:25:02] Mike Roth: So how come there have been so many accidents with self driving? 

[00:25:05] Peter Bernard: Actually, there have not. There have been celebrated accidents where people do stupid things. In Texas, a couple of dudes claimed they were in the backseat using full self driving, crashed into a tree, and died.

You have to have a butt in the seat to engage full self driving. So that was lie number one. And back during the time when they were doing this, FSD required lines on the road to guide it. They've since solved that problem, so it doesn't need lines on the road. But back during this time, it needed lines.

Lie number two, you had to have a line on the road and there weren't in the neighborhood. So that was a total fallacy that those guys crashed because of Tesla FSD. There have been crashes where it's plowed into a, a police vehicle. 

[00:25:44] Mike Roth: And it was the famous one where they, it didn't see a broadsided truck.

[00:25:48] Peter Bernard: And yeah, it is, they call it supervised. It used to be called beta. Now it's FSD, full self driver, driving supervised. And you sign off when you agree to use it, that you're going to, I call it babysitting. I don't play cards in the, with my wife and have a carry on a decent, a huge conversation looking to the right.

And by the way, There's a camera inside that knows if you're not looking outside the road, and I get warnings. If I fool with my sunglasses or reach for my cell phone in the past, it says it and tells me pay attention. And if I get too many of those, I get a strike and it disengages my FSD. Yeah. If I go over 83 miles an hour, it'll disengage my FSD too.

[00:26:23] Mike Roth: Ah, that's a good idea. Yeah. My electric actually at higher speeds. We'll say that it's unhappy, reduced speed, they don't like the draw rate on the battery. It heats up the cables, heats up the batteries and reduces your range. 

[00:26:34] Peter Bernard: I love my FSD, I just got it recently. They allowed everyone that has a Tesla to have a month's worth and I tried it out and then that went away and long story short, I was able to transfer it from my older car to this one.

[00:26:45] Mike Roth: What is the price of the? 

[00:26:47] Peter Bernard: 8, 000. 

[00:26:48] Mike Roth: 8, 000 over the 55, 000. 

[00:26:49] Peter Bernard: I didn't have to pay all that because I had it transferred from my old car. Because Elon Musk had a special window of opportunity where you could do that. It's no longer there. 8, 000 was 13, 000 at one point. 

[00:26:59] Mike Roth: Yeah, Mercedes doesn't, with minor exceptions, offer full self driving.

I think they, they offer it in California and Nevada. On mapped highways,

[00:27:09] Peter Bernard: I can take my FSD anywhere and it'll drive for me. 

[00:27:11] Mike Roth: That's an interesting variation.

[00:27:13] Peter Bernard: I love it. It used to not be able to handle the roundabouts here because it would sway in its lanes. It does now. It does not see the swing arms. When I get too close to a swing arm, I have to take over.

[00:27:23] Mike Roth: Oh, really? 

[00:27:24] Peter Bernard: Yeah, it'll go right through them and take them down.

[00:27:26] Mike Roth: That's interesting, it doesn't see those. 

[00:27:28] Peter Bernard: I can, when I disengage FSD, I can do, and then a thing comes up on my screen that says what happened, and I can record a short reason as to why I disengaged it, and that gets sent to Tesla. 

[00:27:39] Mike Roth: Yeah, because it seems like they don't move the locations of the gate arms.

[00:27:42] Peter Bernard: No, doesn't see them. I've tried, I've come at them fast, thinking okay, stop, nope, not gonna stop. 

[00:27:47] Mike Roth: People with two eyes hit them 250 times a month. And the cost is $250 to replace. 

[00:27:52] Peter Bernard: They know if you do it because they've got a camera on the front and back. You're gonna get caught. They send you the bill. 

[00:27:56] Mike Roth: It's an interesting problem since we're not officially a gated community.

[00:28:00] Peter Bernard: But we get a discount on our insurance for being gated, so I'll let them think that. And when I was doing my homeowner's insurance, they said, Oh, you live in a gated community, you get us 13 less. It's not a lot. 

[00:28:09] Mike Roth: What company was that?

[00:28:11] Peter Bernard: Frontline. For my homeowners. 

[00:28:12] Mike Roth: Peter, thanks for being on the show. 

[00:28:14] Peter Bernard: Always fun, Mike.

I hope people found some of this interesting. 

[00:28:16] Mike Roth: Great. Thanks a lot, my friend. 

[00:28:17] Donna: Remember, our next episode will be released next Friday at 9 AM. Should you want to become a major supporter of the show or have questions, please contact us at mike at rothvoice dot com. This is a shout out for supporters Tweet Coleman, Ed Williams, Duane Romick, Paul Sorgin, Kathy Loving, and Dr. Craig Curtis at K2 in the Villages.

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