If you watch the headlines on Stellantis new plan to make money, things seem pretty trivial. “Stellantis bets on software,” says the the Wall Street newspaper. “Stellantis Launches $ 23 Billion Push Software,” Says Automotive News. The software sounds great, right? Well, something else is at stake here: subscription services that allow you to pay long after you buy your car. All this and more in The morning shift by December 7, 2021.

1st gear: Stellantis thinks it can make $ 23 billion a year on in-car subscriptions

The company we once knew as Fiat-Chrysler is far from the only one that offers subscription services. VW also quickly comes to mind, but I just want to clarify that this is what looks like an industry trend, not just a Stellantis thing.

But what Stellantis is planning is rather ambitious. Of Automotive News:

Stellantis expects to generate approximately € 4 billion ($ 4.5 billion) in additional annual revenue by 2026 and approximately € 20 billion ($ 23 billion) by 2030 from product offerings and software subscriptions.

Present your long term software strategy On Tuesday, the automaker said it expected to have 34 million connected vehicles on the streets by 2030, up from 12 million now.

It won’t be like “we’ll update it if necessary”. This is going to be a offensive, judging by this line from Stellantis:

“We really see software as a growth opportunity, something that can make a huge difference. ” [Chief Software Officer Yves] Bonnefont said, adding that updates that could be done quarterly would boost profit margins.

On the one hand, it will be good for you to be able to upgrade your old car with more modern advancements. Hell, even I upgraded my 1974 Volkswagen to have disc brakes and not drums. Upgrades aren’t a bad idea. It’s just that expecting to squeeze billions of dollars a year out of software updates feels more like extracting revenue than something done in the best interests of the consumer.

2nd gear: Tesla has autopilot camera issues

Tesla has looked into radar-less driver assistance programs, which makes this new no-recall all the more interesting. Of CNBC:

Tesla is replacing repeater cameras in the front fenders of at least several hundred Model S, X and 3 vehicles manufactured in Fremont, Calif., Though the company has yet to launch a voluntary recall, according to service documents that the company distributed at the end of November.

Internal communications have indicated that the repeater cameras on certain Model S, X and 3 vehicles manufactured by You’re here in the United States have faulty PCBs, or printed circuit boards, inside. A bad circuit board can cause cameras to lose “electrical continuity” and fail long before they can reasonably be expected to need an upgrade or replacement.

[…]

When the repeater’s cameras are not working, drivers typically see a black box or choppy video feed on their Tesla’s main screen, and they may receive alerts that their autopilot function is limited. Driving Tesla, a Canadian blog for Tesla owners and enthusiasts, wrote about repeater camera issues in December 2020.

3rd gear: Carlos Ghosn talks shit about Nissan’s electric vehicles

Carlos Ghosn says a lot of shit for a guy who gutted Nissan so much he had to flee Japan. Either way, the original Leaf guy is crazy that Nissan’s new EVs lack “vision,” like the Financial Time reports:

Carlos Ghosn called Nissan visionless and ill-equipped for the electric vehicle revolution just days after the automaker he led presented a $ 17.7 billion investment plan to take on Tesla.

[…]

In a series of tirades, triggered at a press conference as he neared the second anniversary of his escape from Japan into a musical equipment box, Ghosn portrayed a company that had lost its spark and misinterpreted the increasingly huge bets that financial markets were placing on electric cars. .

“There is no vision inside Nissan. They have no image of this huge technological transformation that is taking place. They are having pitiful results and they are proud of it, ”said Ghosn, who ran the company for almost two decades until his arrest in November 2018 for financial misconduct.

Hope I’m too spicy after becoming an international fugitive.

4th gear: here’s some more info on the Japan-Australia-coal connection that allows Toyota to support hydrogen

Every now and then someone in the automotive news world posts another story about how Toyota is sticking to hydrogen, like it’s a plan that only Toyota is pursuing valiantly. What Toyota is doing with hydrogen does not exist in a vacuum, but as part of a larger national plan to replace the nuclear power hole with cheap coal from Australia, and bring it to life. green as much as possible.

here is BBC:

In 2010, about a third of Japan’s electricity came from nuclear power, and many more were planned to be built. But then the disaster of 2011 struck and all of Japan’s nuclear power plants were shut down. Ten years later, most remain closed – and there is a lot of resistance to restarting them. In their place, Japan’s gas-fired power plants have been working a lot of overtime. But, as Britain recently discovered, natural gas is expensive. Thus, the Japanese government decided to build 22 new coal-fired power stations, to run on cheap coal imported from Australia. Economically, it made sense. Environmentally, not so much. Japan is now under intense pressure to stop using coal.

Instead of shutting down old coal-fired power plants and switching to renewables, Japan’s response is to switch to burning hydrogen or ammonia.

Japan uses cheap Australian coal to produce hydrogen. Using solar power and electrolysis to produce hydrogen is green, but that’s not what Japan is planning here, according to the BBC:

Where will hydrogen come from to power Japan’s zero-carbon society?

The answer is “blue hydrogen”.

Make hydrogen from water using renewable energy and you have “green hydrogen”. The problem is, green hydrogen is really expensive; instead, today most of the hydrogen is made from natural gas, if not coal. It’s cheap, but it produces a lot of greenhouse gases. However, if you capture these greenhouse gases and bury them in the ground, you are allowed to call it “blue hydrogen”. This is exactly what Japan says it is going to do.

Hope this helps explain why, as other automakers have ditched hydrogen power, Japan’s biggest automaker remains committed. As other national economies grapple with the problem of limited fuel sources, we may see this plan spread further. Germany and America both have coal.

5th Gear: Great Report on How Auto Loans Evade Usury Laws to Charge 300% Interest

Finally, here’s a great track from former Jalopnik Ryan Felton in Consumer Reports on auto loans that would be illegal if it weren’t for car-specific loopholes:

In fact, because auto loan laws vary so much, at least 875,000 borrowers across the country over the past decade have received APRs on auto loans that would appear to be usurious had they lived in states with more protective limits, according to a CR analysis of publicly available loan data through the Securities and Exchange Commission. And the actual number is almost certainly higher. CR’s analysis was limited to companies that bundle and sell investor loans in the form of bonds, just a part of the overall auto loan market.

“A car is one of the most expensive assets most consumers will own, right after a home,” says Chuck Bell, financial policy advocate at Consumer Reports. “The fact that states allow such high interest rates on auto loans, in the name of helping people with poor credit, is utterly ridiculous. Without strong interest rate caps, borrowers will struggle with high cost loans that prepare them for delinquency, default and repossession. “

The whole is a good read.

Reverse: Photographed blue marble

Of Nasa:

This classic photograph of Earth was taken on December 7, 1972. The original caption is reprinted below:

View of Earth as seen by the Apollo 17 crew heading towards the moon. This photograph of the translunar coast stretches from the Mediterranean Sea region to the southern polar ice cap of Antarctica. This is the first time that the trajectory of Apollo has made it possible to photograph the south polar cap. Note the heavy cloud cover in the southern hemisphere. Almost all of Africa’s coastline is clearly visible. The Arabian Peninsula can be seen at the northeastern edge of Africa. The large island off the African coast is the Malagasy Republic. The Asian continent is on the horizon to the northeast.

Neutral: how are you?

My horrible project bike is back on the road after a long, winding battle with a broken bolt. I’m exhausted.