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Runtime: 7:45
0:28 Honda Invests in Cruise Automation
1:46 Super Cruise Tops Autopilot in CR Test
2:33 AM General Reportedly for Sale
3:29 California’s ‘Electric For All’ Campaign
4:16 NASCAR’s Roval a Ratings Hit
5:35 Most Popular Car Brands in Songs
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On today’s show…General Motors and Honda drop a bombshell on the industry…Cadillac’s Super Cruise gets rated better than all the other semi-autonomous systems…and you might be surprised by which artists sing more about cars than anyone else. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
This is Autoline Daily the voice of the automotive industry.
HONDA INVESTS IN CRUISE AUTOMATION
Honda dropped a bombshell yesterday when it announced it’s investing in GM’s Cruise Automation. Honda and GM will jointly develop a purpose built self-driving vehicle for Cruise, GM’s autonomous ride hailing company. It will be manufactured at high volume and the two companies will explore global opportunities for commercial deployment of the Cruise network. Honda will invest $750 million in Cruise and spend another $2 billion over 12 years to develop the vehicle. Thanks to this, and Japanese conglomerate Softbank’s $2.25 billion investment earlier this year, Cruise is now valued at $14.6 billion. Here’s our Autoline Insight. This is an unprecedented move between Honda and GM and goes way beyond their collaboration on fuel cells. Honda desperately needed to catch up quick on autonomous technology because it essentially has none. And GM gets a great partner that’s bringing in bags of money and will help it get economy of scale that will be hard for everyone else to match.
SUPER CRUISE TOPS AUTOPILOT IN CR TEST
And here’s more good news for General Motors. Consumer Reports released its first ever rankings of semi-autonomous driving systems and Cadillac’s Super Cruise came out on top. CR not only looked at how well each system performed, like steering and controlling the car’s speed, but also how well it helps driver’s pay attention to the road. It said Super Cruise did the best job of balancing those tasks, followed by Tesla’s Autopilot, Nissan’s ProPilot Assist and Volvo’s Pilot Assist. Consumer Reports says that while the semi-automated systems do help reduce stress and fatigue, it’s concerned they could let drivers become over reliant on them and will stop paying attention when it’s engaged.
AM GENERAL REPORTEDLY FOR SALE
AM General, the company that builds the Humvee, is reportedly up for sale. According to Reuters, it hired the investment bank Macquarie Group to help find bidders. Sources say other military contract companies like General Dynamics, Oshkosh and BAE Systems could be interested. But automakers like FCA and General Motors could be potential buyers too. It’s estimated that AM General could be worth more than $2 billion.
Did NASCAR make the right move racing on a roval? We’ll tell you what the TV ratings say and that’s coming up next.
CALIFORNIA’S ‘ELECTRIC FOR ALL’ CAMPAIGN
Talk about strange bedfellows. General Motors and the California Air Resources Board, which typically have been bitter enemies, are joining forces to promote electric cars. They and other entities like electric utilities and environmental groups formed a new organization called Veloz. It’s about to launch a multi-million-dollar, brand neutral, marketing campaign in California called “Electric For All.” It will make consumers aware of the fun to drive aspect of EVs, the improved driving range and the number of models’ automakers will be introducing over the next few years. While sales of EVs are starting to increase, Veloz says more growth is needed to reach environmental goals.
NASCAR’S ROVAL A RATINGS HIT
Looks like NASCAR has a winner with roval racing, a combination of road course and oval. Last week’s NASCAR race on the roval at Charlotte helped boost TV ratings. An average of 3.2 million people watched the race, up from 2.9 million last year when the race was run on an oval. Even NASCAR’s XFinity race, the series just below the Cup series, attracted 943,000 viewers, up from 601,000 the year before. Meanwhile Formula One fans in the U.S. were not so impressed with the Russian Grand Prix. An average of 390,000 watched the race, versus 521,000 last year. That race was something of a snooze fest, except for some fights further down in the field.
| U.S. TV RATINGS | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sept. 29-30, 2018 | ||
| 2018 | 2017 | |
| Cup Series | 3.2 million | 2.9 million |
| XFinity | 943,000 | 601,000 |
| Formula One | 390,000 | 521,000 |
Coming up next, you’re going to be surprised to hear which singers sing the most about cars and which brand they sing the most about.
MOST POPULAR CAR BRANDS IN SONGS
Cars and music really go together. One of the first songs about cars, “In My Merry Oldsmobile” came out in 1906–112 years ago! So how many songs about cars are there? Who sang the most about cars? And which cars did they sing the most about? Well a website called Gold Eagle analyzed over 100,000 songs using search words like cars, coupe, truck, and brands and models like Bentley, Mustang, and Chevrolet. You might think that 1960’s bands from Southern California like the Beach Boys would top the list, but they don’t even make the list. No, hip hop and rap artists, like Lil Wayne, Jay Z and Snoop Dogg, sing far more about cars than artists from any other genre. R&B artists, such as R. Kelly and Drake, are second by genre. Then come rock artists, with Bruce Springsteen at the top. And what brands shows up the most in songs? Mercedes-Benz, by far, followed by Cadillac, Bentley and Chevrolet. Click on the link in today’s show notes to see the full list, which makes for fascinating reading.
Don’t forget to tune in later today for Autoline After Hours. Our guest will be Chris Lezotte, an independent researcher who has written a book about women who own and love muscle cars. It’s a sociological examination of who these women are and how they got into muscle cars. This going to be a good discussion so if you have questions you’d like to have us ask, send an email to viewermail@autoline.tv or send a tweet to @Autoline. That show goes live at 3 pm eastern time this afternoon.
And with that we wrap up today’s report. Thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.
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John McElroy is an influential thought leader in the automotive industry. He is a journalist, lecturer, commentator and entrepreneur. He created “Autoline Daily,” the first industry webcast of industry news and analysis.
