North American car companies are doing the LAMF thing. They have spent the last 4 decades stifling innovation in EV or fuel efficient cars to appease the gas lobby and create monster sized vehicles that they can convince a gullible consumer are necessary. If they had spent even 25% of their R&D on what comes after fossil fuels, they would be able to compete with China now. Same as Africa skipped the whole phone lines thing and went strait to cellular, China is now skipping ahead to the next generation not wasting time on producing past generations stuff. Wind and solar power, batteries are the same. Do I feel sorry for industries that pegged themselves to gas when consumers asked for different? Not it the least. They reaped what they sowed, or failed to sow.
I am genuinely shocked reading this from a Japanese car CEO. A German or an American, well they suck in terms of quality (yes also German cars, read the tests, very bad performance in repairs/km driven). Japanese cars usually score high in quality and innovation.
Japanese companies cornered precision manufacturing which is really useful when producing reliable and efficient internal combustion engines. Electric cars are less dependent on precision manufacturing which is probably why Japanese companies failed to invest in them. They wouldn’t have any strategic advantages in the EV market. It was a total lack of foresight on their part. Chinese companies invested so much in battery and electric motor research and manufacturing that they now have a pretty sizable advantage over everyone else.
Then fire him and hire someone with a plan to match.
The problem is Japan doesnt refine any materials while China refines all the materials, and electric vehicles are relatively simple relative to combustion engines so theres less barrier to entry. The largest barrier is the battery, which is also manufactured in China.
This article seems to be focused on manufacturing for the Chinese domestic market, not the export of cars. They are worried about being shut out of the Chinese market.
And they are 100% right about their assumption. China isn‘t letting anyone in anymore. They use their entire state capitalist machine to reject foreign companies completely. Global companies should forget about China and decouple.
Also employees that work very long days for minimal pay. I say we should not compete with that.
Japan has that.
what these car companies fail to understand is, at this point, many potential buyers want CHEAP cars that have features you find at luxury prices. unfortunately, all these car companies have split their business into two different brands: economical (Honda) and luxury (Acura).
I believe if this was not the case, it would be much easier to have r&d begin to compete with china, as they are able to put these high end features into affordable cars (as the xiaomi su7 has already proven).
these car manufacturers have coasted on their success with no true innovation for too long. I personally hope Honda can make it through, but I just don’t see it… I would have loved to own an Acura ZDX if it wasn’t for the insanely high price (which I believe they discontinued as of last year…?)
I want a car that doesnt guzzle gas, blows hot and cold and is relatively easy to maintain.
Every other “luxury” feature like touch screens, heated seats, backup cams, I don’t necessarily need. I do like having a backup camera though. My 2015 Toyota Camry does everything I need it to, aside from the stupid touchscreen and the obnoxious way it plays whatever was last playing when my phone connects. Thankfully it still has physical buttons and dials for things.
I’ll go one farther, and say I actively do not want those luxury features. I like maintaining my cars, and the addition of all these systems makes it that much more complicated.
All I am looking for is reliability! The only fancy feature I’d add would be a beeping backup sensor. But no camera. Heck, I’m fine with manual door locks and no AC.
I would have purchased an electric vehicle long before now if I could get one without a touchscreen. But alas, I am stuck in thee land of mega trucks known as the US.
I do get that. Less things in the car means less things that can break which yea, I’m all for to a point. I just can’t take heat, I need the ac man.
And I would love to have an electric car if I drove less than 100 miles a day, if chargers were more common, if all chargers used the same common charger port and connector, and if I had a house go charge if at. Also if swaping batteries wasnt a nightmare. That should be the easiest thing to do on an electric car aside from maintaining motors or swapping other common components.
Heated seats are pretty nice for long distance driving. But fuck adding it to the infotainment system.
And back up cameras are mandatory now, so it’s no longer a luxury feature.
I swear to god this and the Ford CEO saying basically the exact same thing have some benefit for them that isn’t obvious. CEOs won’t even admit anything bad even when it’s their own company doing something wrong that has everyone pissed at them. There’s no chance in hell a CEO is going to publicly announce that “we have no chance” against a competitors product.
There’s probably some backroom deal with China where these guys “play the fool” for a day and then get access to something, whether domestic manufacturing in China, access to tech, access to rare earths, or some other thing.
They’re probably angling for more restrictions on Chinese cars in the US/Japan. Then they can enjoy their monopoly over the domestic market without having to actually invest anything to actually compete with Chinese auto companies
Not with that attitude you don’t.
The other guy who went to China and was shocked was the CEO of Ford. He is driving a Xiaomi SU7 that he’s refusing to give up. Read the interview he gave after he visited China. https://insideevs.com/news/764318/ford-ceo-china-evs-humbled/
Ugh… He’s not impressed with the gasoline free, infinitely superior propulsion technology - he’s impressed by how much the in vehicle systems are like smartphones.
I threw up a little. We’re never escaping this bullshit.
I hate this chasing of overly complicated and excessive software in cars. The only touchscreen I want in my car is the one that let’s me run Android Auto for GPS and music. Everything else should be tactile analog switches and dials. Whichever person thought touchscreens are a safe UI choice in a fast moving death machine is insane.
Having been in many a Chinese Didi, the touch screens aren’t just bad for UI, they also have things like video backgrounds and advertising built in. Distracted driving waiting to happen.
Amen.
Stop providing distractions to the assholes around me, they are dangerous enough as it is.
There’s still hope for the rest of the world
They did that just to fuck over Tesla in China.
Rest of the world if you live in Europe or China where they have enough bargaining power from their size I suppose. Doubt this will work in smaller countries and regions. Only hope is that the manufacturers feel that it’s not worth it to make 2 different models of the same car.
Touchscreens are cheaper to install than tactile buttons. That’s the draw for carmakers.
That would be everyone’s favourite Elon Musk
That’s Elon “Why would we need lidar? Humans don’t use lidar, they just use their eyes and there’s no reason technology could possibly improve on human vision” Musk?
Humans don’t… Sheesh. Humans crash cars, asshole! Use the bloody lidar!
Human drivers, if they could get LIDAR with their car, would probably also use it.
Why not aim for better than what humans can do?
LIDAR is shit in rain and fog.
The problem here is poor driver training, not lack of gadgets.
The problem is cars themselves. Bad technology overall, imo
I don’t even need that. We all literally carry a gps device with a touch screen in our pockets at all times
It’s nice to have it on a fixed screen of decent size rather than on a floppy mount and a 6.x" screen. The car screen doesn’t need to be a touchscreen though. My Mercedes had Carplay with a rotary dial, no touchscreen. That was when they were still being conservative with their tech, then they went the hyperscreen route.
Most Chinese cars now have one long screen along the dashboard. It’s generally split in 3 sections, one for the driver, one for controls and one for the passenger with controls but also to play media. Plus most Chinese cars have voice commands.
Unfortunately yes. I still think the rotary knob is the ultimate infotainment control interface since it’s much easier to use while driving. Still, I’ll take the large screen for navigation over my tiny one even if I have to use the touch screen. Voice control rarely works for me, I have a very thick accent.
A few, like Tesla, have successfully made cars that act and feel like consumer devices—vehicles with lots of tech features, **** and a steady stream of meaningful software updates. Most are playing catch-up.
“smooth digital interfaces”
Nobody actually fucking wants this!
Yes they do. The internet is a loud minority on both ends. The majority is silent because they don’t give a shit about the politics of the CEO or privacy or reasonable expectations about their mobility appliance. It’s just an appliance. The more cool things it claims to do, the more it sells because the people buying NEW want it to look new.
This thread is full of “I don’t buy new, but here’s what new cars should do”. No, I don’t buy new either.
The alternative at this point is laggy digital interfaces unfortunately.
Nobody actually fucking wants this!
Ah, but they do. You have to be in this industry to realize just how stupid people can be. They will impulse buy a $60,000 car based on steering wheel shape and bullshit gadgetry. A friend boasted he could sell a car for $5K more just by hanging reflective cat toys around the interior. Tesla sales were driven by the big iPad more than the electric drive.
Tesla sales were driven by an $8,000 tax credit that doesn’t exist anymore. That company is sinking faster than the Titanic now that the tax credit has disappeared.
I do. Why does everyone in this thread like twiddling with HVAC controls? I like setting my temperature to 68 and Auto, and that’s it. Do you all also constantly mess with your home thermostats?
Okay here’s a situation. You’re on a road and it’s gotten foggy and the roads are a bit slick because of the fog. All of a sudden the comfortable 68° temperature you have the cabin set to is causing your windshield to fog up. On a car with buttons and knobs you can just reach over grab it twist a knob or press a button and change the setting. However, with touch screen menus you have to actually turn to look at the screen, taking your eyes off the road in unsafe weather, to find the setting to switch it to defog. That’s just one scenario there are at least a dozen others. Not to mention what would happen when it’s snowing out and you have to take your eyes off the road to search a touch screen for the right setting on anything. Radio, brights, 4 wheel drive, etc etc etc…
Automated defogging is already a thing in some cars.
The fog was not the point.
Yes but also why can’t you just turn a knob to make it 68 (I don’t know how much this is) and press a button for auto?
I’m really not surprised. Detroit hires engineers but they suck the creativity out of them and just make the same tired shit decade after decade.
I want this car sooooo bad, the price pre-american tarrifs is absolutely amazing.
all car manufacturers have been phoning it in for years, it was only a matter of time before a decent threat decided to join in on the fun. I thought it would be tesla to be the major disrupter over ten years ago, but we all know how this is panning out lol
Have you seen their SUV, Xiaomi YU7? I’m not a SUV kinda guy but that is my favorite car right now.
yes! very nice car as well
They were warned. It is the classic disruption model that played out repeatedly over the last century, with Kodak as the often cited example. But innovation gets in the way of short term profit and The Way We Do Things.
See also: Sears pioneering the concept of ordering things through the mail from a catalogue, and then getting demolished by Amazon’s online ordering system. Way to go guys, you got destroyed by some upstart punk doing what you got started doing, but doing it better and cheaper than you could.
Once again, China is the new Japan in so many ways. /s
Imperial ambitions? /s
He really does look like Winnie the Pooh doesn’t he.
Fuck. Cars.
Including electric ones.
Including asphalt.
