Ford ($F) podcast mentions
And I can't help but wonder if they've watched Toyota and they got skittish. Now granted, you got Ford, right? Ford went all in on the turbo V6 with EcoBoost branding in the F-150 and everything, the Expedition.
Joel Feder · The Drivecast · Honda doesn't want to be the next Toyota · 2026-09-16Answer your question. I think software continues like the big enterprise, like sticky software. I'll just— I'll talk software, then I'll talk everything and everything. And frankly, I think there's people that you have that would know a lot more about the AI stuff than I would. We have— but the best way to understand what's happening in software companies globally is watch public company software earnings. Yeah. Public companies' software earnings have been pretty strong. You know, Workday, I think, had said— I think they said like $400, $600 million or something of, of revenue was coming from AI. Now, it was some number and it was pretty large, was coming from AI. I think big companies, you know, big enterprise companies want their vendors ideally to like create solutions for them and work with them versus trying to rip people out and use new vendors and things like that. I do think, though, that the pace of innovation, you know, because of, of how of AI and agents and all this stuff is only going to increase. And so like every company has a risk of being disrupted. I don't know if you're, if you're Stellantis, and you got a ton of debt and Ford has no debt. Well, if you believe like robotics and humanoids and AI are going to dramatically change manufacturing, then Ford can invest in like Stellantis, probably can't because they're paying their debt load down. I think you can take that to every sector of the economy. And so the people that are not innovating are going to get left behind. And it's— yes, it's easier to start companies now, but it's also easier for incumbents to be able to develop new products as well.
Donald Trump · TBPN · The "Pacing AI" Debate | Nico Wittenborn, Scott Keogh, Mitchell Green, David Rosenthal & Ben Gilbert, Faraj Aalaei · 2026-09-14He becomes the CEO of Chrysler to guide that great American car company through the financial crisis and continue its path as an independent American automaker, succeeding and coming through it much like Ford did as an independent company and GM did as an independent company. Oh, wait.
Ben Gilbert · Acquired · Home Depot · 2026-09-14So Tesla and Zoox are taking a really different approach to autonomous driving. So they're incrementally trying to implement within the given system ways of building in levels of help from algorithms. And you have taken the incredibly bold strategy of skipping over everything intermediate and jumping right to the punchline. So let me just say what seems so radical to me. The first one is that you're building vehicles that don't have any space for anyone to ever drive. So you're not hedging against the possibility that you're gonna need somebody sitting in the front seat, which makes total sense to me. But it's risky, right? It's a big swing. Secondly, you're not content, like say Uber or Lyft, to be providing the taxi service. You're not content like Tesla or Ford Digital Motors to just be making the vehicle. There must be people who are just in the software part of it as well. It just seems like a really big thinking big, which I'm all in favor of, but I don't think you really captured how visionary what you're trying to do is. You're probably trying to be modest or something, but it seems to me like succeed or fail, it really takes a lot of chutzpah to be trying to do what you're trying to do.
Steve Levitt · People I (Mostly) Admire · 39. Aicha Evans Wants You to Take Your Eyes Off the Road · 2026-09-12I gotta take— so, so one take is, so being a Navy guy, that did not affect us nearly as much as it affected the Army and the Marine Corps, but, uh, it changed how we— the Navy and Air Force structured themselves. And we— so like, we came into 9/11, we were doing this big transformation thing that Rumsfeld wanted to do, so everything had to be pushed through the culture of transformation, had to incorporate new technologies that were way be— before their time. And we had to do it in what we anticipated was gonna be a relatively strong budget environment. So we had money to go do these changes. Well, GWAT comes, consumes all the available resources. And so we're having to transform the military to still meet these edicts coming down from the secretary on a tight budget. So it means you get things like these acquisition disasters, like Future Combat Systems in the Army, and you got the Navy with the Ford-class carrier, the, um, uh, Littoral Combat Ship, the DDG-1000 Zumwalt, and, um, the CGX, which we didn't even bother to build. So a bunch of failed acquisition programs because we jumped too far on the technology, didn't put nearly enough money into them to solve it, and we were distracted because of course we're all trying to support the war that had begun and was probably deserving of more attention than it got. but we were also trying to kind of transform the military at the same time. And the Air Force had its own, you know, challenges. I mean, the whole B-21 that we're getting today is the result of a debacle around the original next-generation bomber they were trying to build. And F-35 got caught up in the middle of this as well. And that part of why it's been such a troubled program is inadequate resources and attention and trying to jump too far on the technology, all driven by this, you know, kind of ill-advised idea that we're going to transform the military with 21st century technology in 2000. Um, it just didn't work out. The, um, and we didn't put enough money into it to make it work were we to do it that way. Um, so I mean, that was one thing.
Brian · ChinaTalk · WarTalk: 9.11, Death of the Army, So Long Dan Driscoll · 2026-09-11In this case, the Chinese manufacturers have another option, which is let's sell cars in established markets, which at the time there weren't really established markets for the US manufacturers to compete in. And so they're trying to export more and more and more vehicles outside of China because that's the only way that they will survive. Geely has made a huge push for that. They have a partnership with Ford in Europe to build some EVs at a plant there. They're also just trying to really ramp up all of their European and Canadian because they can do some Canadian sales. I think BYD's goal is to export something like 1.2 million cars.
Nick · THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends! · New Ford Bronco Leaked? $5,000 Maserati? New Audi A2! Grand Tour Thoughts! · 2026-09-11I mean, the thing that automakers learned many years ago that the Chinese are trying to do now, that I'm sure they know and are trying to do now, is that like you cannot pin your success on one market. This is why Chrysler has never been as successful as Ford and General Motors because like their whole thing is North America, whereas Ford and GM were smart enough to diversify globally. But it's not just them. Like the reason the French keep knocking on the door of the US market is because they don't wanna pin all of their hopes nor dreams to Europe.
Doug · THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends! · New Ford Bronco Leaked? $5,000 Maserati? New Audi A2! Grand Tour Thoughts! · 2026-09-11Speaking of China, there was news late last week that, from Ford in a Wall Street Journal article, Ford, like, would like to, slash, hopes to, slash, expects to sell 100,000 Fathoms in the first year.
Nick · THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends! · New Ford Bronco Leaked? $5,000 Maserati? New Audi A2! Grand Tour Thoughts! · 2026-09-11Well, that's a good question. The only automaker that has sold in a single model line over 100,000 units in a year is Tesla, which has done that with the Model 3 and the Model Y each, respectively. Nobody else has. Other automakers have, obviously, across their product lines, but this would be a large increase. Increase in EV sales for Ford.
Nick · THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends! · New Ford Bronco Leaked? $5,000 Maserati? New Audi A2! Grand Tour Thoughts! · 2026-09-11Uh, Ford initially predicted that they would sell 150,000 units annually of the F-150 Lightning. They sold 105,000 units total of the F-150 Lightning through 5 calendar years.
Doug · THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends! · New Ford Bronco Leaked? $5,000 Maserati? New Audi A2! Grand Tour Thoughts! · 2026-09-11Isn't it lovely that Sean Duffy sends a letter over to Jim Farley? Like, how quaint. So, Sean, here's how it goes. Sean Duffy's over there in Commerce or whatever he's the secretary of. He's in the Commerce Department there on the National Mall. And he gets out his quill pen, you know? And he's, oh, I'm gonna send a letter over to Ford. And he dips it in the ink and he writes the letter next to his fireplace. Folds it up and puts it— he's got one of those stamps. He puts it in the mail. And then a couple of days later, Jim Farley receives the letter. That's how it works. How lovely.
Doug · THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends! · New Ford Bronco Leaked? $5,000 Maserati? New Audi A2! Grand Tour Thoughts! · 2026-09-11No. I have a question about Jim. I have a question about Sean Duffy for you. Please. Sean Duffy's over here saying that Jim Farley can't work with the Chinese and they kicked out Polestar, which was a rip-roaring success right up until the day it left. Everyone wanted one. But I'm walking around my community and there are all these Chinese-built Waymos, right? Yeah, Zeekers. How is that possible? They're upset because Ford, a red-blooded American automaker, still builds the Mustang right in the heart of Detroit and then does a burnout every time one leaves the factory. They're upset with Ford and yet they're letting Zeekers drive around.
Doug · THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends! · New Ford Bronco Leaked? $5,000 Maserati? New Audi A2! Grand Tour Thoughts! · 2026-09-11So the letter said, "Hey, we are deeply or profoundly concerned." And I think they say deeply troubled at some point by the partnership with Geely. The batteries for the Fathom are built at a, or will be built at a Ford plant in the US, in Michigan, but they're licensing technology from a Chinese battery maker. So basically CATL developed this battery technology and Ford has licensed it licensed it to produce these batteries in the US. And Sean Duffy's very concerned about that.
Nick · THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends! · New Ford Bronco Leaked? $5,000 Maserati? New Audi A2! Grand Tour Thoughts! · 2026-09-11Sean Duffy should get his— should stop sticking his head in Ford's business, get out of Jim Farley's face. He's out here trying to make cars. And get into Zeekr. I Googled it. Waymo is allowed to bring the Zeekr OHAI into the United States. It imports the Chinese-built electric vans, stripped down as gliders, and installs all technology on US soil. You know, It's American built. I'm cool with it now.
Doug · THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends! · New Ford Bronco Leaked? $5,000 Maserati? New Audi A2! Grand Tour Thoughts! · 2026-09-11It's number 10 on the list. Okay, I have Celina 7, Ford GT, Ferrari 599, Ferrari 575, Spyder, Spyder on your list, Gallardo manual, F430, Aventador Daytona, and then a 997.2 GT3 RS, followed by Sterrato Viper Gen 5 and a DBS.
Filippo · THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends! · New Ford Bronco Leaked? $5,000 Maserati? New Audi A2! Grand Tour Thoughts! · 2026-09-11