Ep10: Unfiltered Take After Driving Cybertruck & New Model 3 with What's Inside?
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- I do a ton of road trips and it's not a great road trip car. It uses a ton of electricity. I've never stopped that many times on that stretch and I've driven that thing probably 30 or 40 times. It's so funny because I had such a bad impression of the Model 3 going into it and I legitimately am like, I would sell my Model S right now

for that car. Java after hours. I know. All right. We have an exciting new podcast here for you guys today. This is something we haven't ever done. You guys probably know Dan from his YouTube channel, What's Inside, What's Inside Family. You've

kind of become like a Tesla YouTuber in the last few years, electric vehicle YouTuber. And you're staying with us for the weekend. And we thought, why not bring him up here to our podcast station, have a conversation about what he's been up to. You're here this week for a card show.

And I'm staying in a room on the other side of this wall, and it's like the most comfortable bedroom ever. Thank you for letting me stay at your house. And while we're talking, we keep saying, you know, we should put a camera on these conversations. They're good. They're interesting. So here we are. We throw you into our podcast studio. So first off, let's start out with Cybertruck.

because you've had a bunch of Cybertruck videos. Overall, what are your thoughts? My friend Zach, JerryRigEverything, he rented a Cybertruck for two weeks. And he's nice enough. He's like, hey, I'm not going to film anything on the road trip. So if you want to come with me to California, drive up to Utah, northern Utah. It's like a supposed to be like a six hour, seven hour drive. It took us like 13. He's like, you can film a video on that. And then whatever you want to do the next day, you're good. So super nice of Zach.

to do that. And it's nice of the guy to let us rent it. But first of all, it's like I've never seen a product that has more interest from people, from the public. And it's not even just like, oh, cool, there's a Cybertruck. It is the most genuine, happy smiles from these people, like old people in their 80s. You've got kids that are six, seven years old. They are just so happy. And they're the whole time, like I published the video and I literally got this comment. They're like, this video is so staged.

They thought that because the people were so happy waving at us, we captured maybe 5% of the people. They thought it was staged.

The other thing they thought is like, oh, he goes to a car show on purpose to show it off. No, we went to the Supercharger and there happened to be a car show there. And his people, I wouldn't even think, loved the Cybertruck and they were pumped about it. And so I think from the positives, like the design is incredible. It is a pretty comfortable ride to be in. And it does feel like you're in the future. What did you think about Steer by Wire?

I wish I had it in the other Teslas that I have. I've been testing out a performance, no, a new Model 3. So like the new refreshed one. And I've been testing that out and I keep thinking while I'm driving, it's an amazing car, but I'm like, I wish this had steer by wire. And so that is phenomenal technology. The U-turn side of it, you never turn the wheel more than that much. That's unbelievable. Did you have a moment when you first started driving it where you went to go do a U-turn or something and like completely over...

I never did that. I felt like I was maybe rubbing the tires too hard when I would turn just a little bit and people that are outside would hear it. It's like,

the loudest screech noise in a way because four different wheels the front and back are all turning at the same time and with force and it's a heavy truck and usually if you turned it that much you'd be spinning it a ton so it's more of like me being conscious of hey guys i'm not trying to be aggressive the way i'm driving here i'm just turning in the steering wheel when you're stopped it turns very aggressively so i thought that was interesting but it's easy to get used to other than i will say the negative on it is it'd be so much better if there is a round steering wheel i

I can't stand this whole steering wheel that's just part of it because I like to drive with my knees sometimes. Yeah, the squircle, the other one that they have in the plaid and you guys have in your Model 3 and you have in the X, right? The yoke, that's what I mean. We have a full yoke. So the yoke is so similar to the squircle thing. Yeah. Just make it round. We don't need to reinvent the wheel here. I feel like the opposite on you on this. See, I actually like the yoke. I'm not a huge fan of the squircle because it's kind of that in-between, like they couldn't make up their mind. Yeah. But I do like the yoke.

more than the wheel. But the one thing that I've noticed is that with the yoke, it seems even harder to do U-turns because you have to turn this thing a few times. Steer by wire, at least with the squircle, you only turn it that far. So that is a positive. It's more for like long drives that I get a little annoyed by it. And I think I'm kind of like...

I don't know what you want to call it, like a gangster when I drive. I put my hand on the top and I hold it down here on the bottom. And I can't really do that in the Cybertruck. But you feel like you're just used to the wheel, though. And if you were to get used to a yoke, you'd probably... Probably. Because I kind of... When we first got our Model X and I had a yoke, I was like, what if I hate it? Then I got used to it. And now I'm like, wow, I really... I love this. But again, here's the other thing is like men a lot of times like to drive with like their knee. Right. And, you know...

I mean, maybe there are women that do that. I don't do it. I'm like too small. It just doesn't work with my anatomy, I guess. And if we're talking more about Cybertruck in a way, like this, I was in your Model X last night. We went to dinner with your family. It was awesome. But I noticed that you have that on the Model X, you have that full display right above the steering wheel. And that is one of the things, if I'm talking about the things I don't like about the Cybertruck,

It just has the one screen, and I'm not used to it yet. Maybe I'll get used to it, just like steering wheel, but I want to be able to see some of the data right in front of me and not have to look over to the right. But I mean, Model 3, Model Y, they have it right there. They're the best-selling vehicles. People get used to it. Economical cars. They're not $100,000. I mean, initially when they came out with it, I think that they thought it would be a more economical vehicle.

truck than it is. - That's a good point. - So maybe that's why when they designed it, they designed it without that screen. - I did not think about that. That's a really good point. What Elon originally announced, and I'm not saying he's a liar, like things change in price. I know I was really disappointed when it launched on the range and the price.

But things changed. That's a great point. I never considered that, that maybe it was supposed to be in that same category. And now it's just not. Are there any anything else that, you know, you think could be improved on? The range. OK, so everybody has different reasons for driving a Tesla and different needs. And for me, I live in a small town in southern Utah. I drive an hour and a half to two hours to Las Vegas, Nevada, like all the time. That's I do a ton of road trips.

and it's not a great road trip car. It uses a ton of electricity, like you're just using more watts per hour, whatever the method is that you guys say it is. I can't remember the kilowatt hours and kilowatts, but anyway, it uses a ton of energy.

Right now it still doesn't charge. It doesn't charge very fast. I don't know if it's a 4680 problem, but it really is a slower rate. And there's people that have been saying that possibly it's because of the 4680s out of Austin because the Model Y is built out of there having similar issues, but it charges really slow. And then the other thing is like the range isn't as promised on the numbers. It's further off than some of the other cars that I've tested that are Teslas. Maybe it's because it's more boxy. People might say it's because I drive hard, but

Drive just as hard on the model 3 the new one I drive just started my model s and it doesn't had to tear rate that much from what it promised So I can't believe that we had to stop and for those of you that know Utah we had to stop in Vegas well Baker Vegas Mesquite st. George, Utah Cedar City Beaver, Utah Nephi, Utah just to get to Utah County I've never stopped that many times on that stretch and I've driven that thing in

probably 30 or 40 times. And I had to do that in a Cybertruck. And yeah, it was cold. Well, guess what? It's cold sometimes when I drive the other one. So there's definitely some type of range problem because the battery pack maybe is too small or the 4680s or it's too boxy and it's not as efficient. That coupled with no autopilot, how can you go on road trips in a Tesla? If you're used to having, I mean, I've had autopilot for years. Wait, there's no autopilot? Right now there's not. I didn't even realize that because when I drove it, I guess I wasn't,

You can put it in cruise control. Okay, okay. That's what I did. But it doesn't stay in the lane for you. Like you can't do the full like let go of the steering wheel or just barely hold it and it moves with the road. So you're still driving.

And you can do cruise control. But it doesn't have lane assist, if you want to call it that. Whatever the one is on the freeway. I don't know how I missed all this. It's coming in a software update. Why would they not have put that in there? Some people are saying it's because of the cameras and the angles of the car and how long it is. And maybe it hasn't been calibrated enough and tested enough to know exactly. That's a speculation of that. I heard a lot about before that it wasn't quite ready yet when they pushed it out. Right. So that could be one of the things that they're like,

It's coming. And that's the thing. In the comments, people have said that whenever I've talked about it. They're like, why are you complaining about this? It's going to come. And I'm like, well, it's not here now and you've paid $100,000 for a truck. I hope the range extender comes out. I think it's interesting that Rivian actually has a patent on that exact same thing. I don't know if Tesla knew that until after they talked about the range extender. And then all of a sudden, people that are really smart posted this thing about their patent.

So can they do the range extender without talking to Rivian? I don't really know, but what's that going to do to the weight of the vehicle versus the range? Like there's got to be some sort of level that like, like you look at the Hummer and you look at some of these bigger vehicles that it's like the batteries are so heavy that you only get so much benefit out of adding so many batteries. So how good can the range actually be with it?

by adding a bunch of batteries, I'm not sure. - Well, I'm sure there's gonna be a bunch of YouTubers doing tests on it if it does come. - See, what would be cool though is if it could be something where it's taking more of a charge and splitting it up somehow. So kind of like some of the other trucks I've heard do, where it's like you're taking a higher rate for longer.

Because you have the more battery packs. That's another thing in the comments people are like well version 4 superchargers are coming So all your problems are gonna be resolved. I have to say though. I've sounded like I'm being really negative about it It's just my it's my own use case for road trips, and that's the thing it is a really good truck though. You slept in it though. I did sleep in it I've slept in a few of the Tesla's and it is cool to have that space and the Cybertruck is definitely not comfortable

It's too bad you couldn't sleep in the back. Like there's some negative things, but also like you're sleeping in your car. You're not going to buy a hundred thousand dollars car because you can't sleep in it. Kind of sometimes for me, that's nice. Like I think the more reason why I did that video is because I just thought it was really funny to me that...

the biggest Tesla, the off-road, it's supposed to be for camping and like all this stuff. That's the one Tesla that you can't sleep in. I think that's kind of ironic and funny. Like, I don't know that part of it. That's why I'm like, I'm going to do this silly thing and sleep in it just to show like, yeah, it's possible. But how is it that this other than the original Roadster, this is the most uncomfortable one to sleep in out of all the vehicles. Do you plan on buying one yourself personally?

I still have my reservation, the $100. I don't think, as of right now, I wouldn't buy it. If by the time my reservation comes out, I'm really hoping that it has autopilot. There's the range extender that's actually an option that you can get. They've fixed some of whatever other little bugs that they need to fix with it. Then I would definitely consider it. But as of right now, I drove the Tesla, the new Model 3, and for around $40,000. Yeah.

i'd rather buy that my daughter's about to turn 16. i'd rather buy two model threes because they're fantastic cars for the same price as a cyber truck and we have two cars for even less so we have to talk about the model 3 because the new model 3 you've been able to drive it around now test it out maybe by the time you guys are watching this he has his videos out so yeah i've had the chance to drive it for the last few weeks and i went into it with not a good opinion of the model 3

And within the first day, I drove it full range test. So I was like, I'm going to see. It said it had 333 miles range. I had 68 miles on the entire car. So it had barely been driven. And I'm like, I'm going to drive 70 miles an hour on the freeway around Nevada for however long it takes. And I thought for sure it was going to be like 260, 270, 280, somewhere in the twos. And spoiler alert for the video, but...

Got 327 miles range so I was six miles range less but not so that blew my mind Yeah, that was incredible The second thing that I loved about it though is that they put the thicker windows on the front and the back so all four windows have that and so it reduced the road road noise by 30% in the car and then it also reduced the ambient noise outside by 20% and so those things combined like they told me that I'm like that sounds like a marketing gimmick and

legitimately you noticed the difference. - You did. - It started raining and I'm like, well I probably can't film in the rain. No, it was quiet in the car in the rain. And I'm just like, how is this so good? And then I tested out the top speed in an undisclosed location on a closed road. And I think, what was it, like 126 is what I got it to. It says 125, I got it to 126. But the thing that I loved about it even more is that I had this windy road that I was going really fast to try to go somewhere quickly.

And I've never really felt like... I've driven enough Teslas and I've just been driving a Cybertruck and it's a beast and it kind of sways like a Cadillac when you turn with the big old suspension. And I've raced my Model Y or my Model S pretty fast too. This thing felt more like a nimble, fast race car. Like I felt like it's a thing that I could drive like on the streets of Italy in that Mille Mille race or something and I would kill it. Like...

It just corners so well. It's easy to drive. And so it's so funny because I had such a bad impression of the Model 3 going into it, such low expectations. And I legitimately am like, I would sell my Model S right now.

for that car but what about the fact that it doesn't have the screen right in front of you that you just said that you liked with the forty thousand dollar car i'm okay with it like i'm willing to be like this is a fun car and this may sound weird but like everything's compressed so like with the cyber truck i even said this exactly we're driving i'm like this is really weird but the the side mirror is like way over here and then you have the big pillar right here but like it's far away from you and so when i when i looked in my mirror i'm like

i feel like i'm looking so far and zach i'm like zach am i wrong with this because i would feel like i'm turning like that yeah with the model three it's like i take a quick glance to see if somebody's behind me i don't have to move my head it's just my eyes looking but the cyber truck i have to move my head which if you're like racing driving fast which you're not usually you would you would want to keep your head straight and just do a quick glance at your side mirror see what's behind you and look in this one really quick i feel like this one doesn't even work with the cyber truck yeah cyber though i feel like you're meant to just look at the cameras

Not necessarily. And it's like down and over for the back camera, just for the back one. Well, because the back camera, if you have the tonneau cover closed too, like you can't, you have to like look down below where the camera actually is. I guess it's just like when I'm driving and I want to pay attention to like what's coming up behind me. I'm always like a little bit aware of like all my surroundings, even if I'm not trying to change a lane. I don't need to know my blind spot exactly, but like,

Is there a cop coming flying up or another car coming fast or on my right side? So I do glance at my mirrors often more than I knew until I drove the Cybertruck and I was like, wow, my head's on a swivel. So yes, it only has one screen, but I don't know because it's so compact. It's like, I don't notice it as much. And I'm willing to sacrifice that for a $40,000 car. I would imagine they're going to do similar changes to the Model Y. It's been rumored lately. People have been talking about that the Y is potentially getting some sort of update. Yeah.

And then you have to think that steer-by-wires should be coming, I would think, to the S and the X at some point. I think it definitely has to come to the S and the X, especially since they have that yoke steering, how we were talking about how it's still kind of hard to turn with those. Like, it's kind of funny that Elon's like, hey, other manufacturers, steer-by-wire, great technology, use it. If he thinks it's so good that he's wanting them to use it, you would think he would put it in his other cars too. So it should be coming. I wanted to go back to Cybertruck a little bit because he took the Cybertruck to CarMax.

What was the price that they gave you? - So they took it in, they gave me $76,000 is what they would buy this new Cybertruck for. - Which is like, to me I was shocked when I saw that. I was like, wow. - Shocked thinking that's way low. - Way low, way low. Yeah, exactly. I get messages constantly like, do you know anybody who wants to sell? - First they weren't gonna let me do it and I kind of talked about it in the video, I'm like,

I went there and they're like, well, you don't own... Well, they didn't say you don't own it. They said you don't have actual real plates and so we can't appraise a car. But then once they came outside, I was like, look, guys...

I'm actually not going to sell it to you. I just want to know the value, which I guess they do that all the time. It's not like you have to sell it to them. It's an appraisal that they give you that's good for seven days if you wanted to sell it to them. But the fact that they knew that this was the first one ever and they knew I was making, they knew who I was. They're like, we love your videos. We've seen them. Like they're the ones that said that, but I didn't even have a camera out and they said that. And so I was a little surprised because I'm like, Hey, you guys are going to be the first ones to really show, do an appraisal of this.

I'm surprised that they did go so low from that side of things. But I mean, instead of taking 30 to 45 minutes, like they said, it took two or three hours. It was really long. So what do you think they were doing during that? They reached out to their headquarters. They came back over and he said, we reached out. Usually they look at Mannheim auctions, which is like the biggest reseller to dealers of cars that people trade in or whatever. And that gives them a good basis because if they can't sell it on their lot, then they can send it to Mannheim and Mannheim will unload it for a certain price. So they want to stay close to that.

They can also look at like secondary sales all over the country or all over the world and kind of see where they're at to give them an idea. And so the fact that there wasn't one, it looks like whatever, I don't know if it's an actuary that they use or if it's just like car experts that use this data, it's

They didn't have the data. So my guess is they just went to the website and they're like, what are the three ranges of this car? This one's around 100,000. So if it's used, maybe it'd be like 90,000. So if we bought it for 76 and then we sold it for above 90, then we wouldn't lose money. It's almost like that's what they were doing. And I think they were thinking a little too hard about it. Like instead of taking into equation of...

if we bought this thing and we could sell it, or even if we did an appraisal and told the world, like, bring your Cybertruck here, we'll buy it for $110,000 and then we'll sell it. - I'm curious what you guys, let us know in the comments below, like, what you think the value of the Cybertruck is. I'm curious what you guys have to say, or what you would pay if you could get one, like, today. - Yeah, 'cause in my video I said, put in the comments what you think the price is gonna be. And unfortunately, everybody took that as a game, like,

I'm going to skip forward and find out what it is and then go put in. I think it's going to be $76,000.

But genuinely in the comments, like I would like to see it too. Like what do people think? Like is 76 right? Like I told Zach, what do you think CarMax is? I didn't put this in the video, but I asked Zach. Yeah. Jerry, everything later that night when I dropped off the Cybertruck, I'm like, I filmed him. I'm like, what do you think the price was? And he goes, well, it's CarMax. So what they offer you 50,000. And I was like, okay. And that was 76. He's like, well, that's pretty fair for CarMax. Yeah. So maybe that's part of the thing. And my expectations were off, but yeah.

but I'm like, man, this is the first Cybertruck. How are you not putting it? But that's the bar. The problem that I have with people on the internet right now, it's a big statement, big thing to say right there. The problem that I have with some people is that they get so into the hype and I've done it in certain areas, like whether it's like,

sports cards or NFTs or buying real estate. Like I get really excited and I'm like, there's scarcity here. There's a good opportunity. I'm going to buy this thing. And I don't look at some of the actual real raw data and some of the things. And I think there's some people right now that are huge Tesla fans. I get it. I'm a big Tesla fan, but they're like,

They have a Twitter account. That's all they do is talk about positive Tesla stuff. And I've seen some people be like, I have the opportunity to buy one. I don't have the money. I'm starting a GoFundMe. Give me some money for it. And so people are, I think, there's some people, not everybody, but there's some people that are kind of overstretching because they feel this scarcity moment. They feel like, well, these YouTubers are renting a car for a lot of money. Maybe I can throw this on Turo and make some money on it.

And maybe there's a few people that will, but I think overall like this, you have to remember like this is a car. It's a depreciating asset. It goes down in value. It's just like every other car. It's unique right now because there's barely any to employees that have been given out, mostly employees, but it's still a car. And that's what the CarMax thing did for me, which I'm glad. I'm like, okay, snap back to reality. If it would have been 120 or 130, I don't know.

How many more people would have watched my video and said, told their wife, look at this proof right here. This is the appraisal. Let's take out another mortgage on our house or like take out more money to buy this truck that we don't need. We live in a city. We can't even drive this big thing. Yeah.

So anyway, in some ways, I'm like, I'm kind of glad that they did that. It does sort of put you back into reality because I feel like when, you know, I see it and I drove it and I was like, oh my gosh, I want one of these. This is so fun. This is so cool and unique. But then, you know, in a few months, they will be...

everywhere and everyone will have them and you kind of are over some of that initial feelings and then all of a sudden you have like a hundred thousand dollar loan that you know reality snaps in that you actually have to pay for so it was a good experience okay so you said something that I've wanted to ask you about and hopefully I don't know if you're comfortable talking about it but I know like

You are super into all the NFT stuff. Yeah. And you, didn't you trade one of your roadsters? Straight up. For an NFT. Straight up. How do you feel about, oh, let's explain to everyone if they haven't seen the video. So back a few years ago. Yeah. Back when NFTs were really starting to grow, I really wanted to get rid of Gary Vaynerchuk's NFTs because Gary Vee, we, he like in some ways is like a mentor. And so when he did VeeFriends, that's what he launched his NFT project.

I didn't buy it because I still didn't understand Ethereum and everything. And then it took off and I'm like, I blew it. So Leslie and I talked about it. I'm like, I really want to get one of Gary's feed friends. I want to go to his convention for the next three years. And that's your ticket to get into the convention.

And so we were going to buy one. And at the time it was worth around, the one that I wanted was like $55,000. So I was going to buy one regardless. Okay. And then I have this friend, Eli, that has a bunch of bee friends. Called him. I'm like, hey, this is a crazy idea, but like I don't need two roadsters. I'd love to sell the roadster. I bought it for, I think, $1,000.

$50,000 and I'm like, I could sell it for anywhere between 50 and 70 is probably in that range at the time. It was like an older roadster. It wasn't, they had a ton of miles on it. It was great. But my red one that I have is really the valuable one. Like that one's awesome. And so I was like, I could sell this thing and then I want to take the money and put it into an NFT.

I'm like, but do you think there's anybody that'd be crazy enough to just like make a trade for it? And he's like, and he's like, yeah, let me call you back. An hour later, he calls me back. He's like, I want to be that person. I want to do it. I've always wanted a roadster. I love Tesla stuff. So he's like, let's just do it. I'm like, are you serious? Like, we don't need to do this. And so anyway, so that's what it was. I was either going to sell the roadster, take the money, buy the NFT, but I'm like, let's just make it easy and do this.

So we did that. Now that NFT is probably worth like $6,000 at this point. So yes, on the face value, that trade sucked. That was terrible. On the flip side, though, there was an NFT of Gary Vaynerchuk. I ended up buying a couple more of them. I bought this one a couple years ago before CES, and I bought it, I want to say it was like $30,000, and I sold it for $250,000, which was crazy.

Crazy. So you win some, you lose some. Overall, I'm down on the NFTs overall. Yeah. But it's not as much as like, oh, you sold this for this and now it's worth that. I used to work in the drug space. Like I worked for Pfizer for a lot of years. I promoted drugs. And it was really interesting because... He was a drug dealer. I was a drug dealer before. A legal one.

But what I thought was interesting, and this is simple like marketing stuff, but like whenever we had a drug treatment for a class, like some sort of disease, and we came out with the first drug for it,

Doctors would not use it for patients and patients were skeptical. Doctors, we talked to them, show them all the data, all the benefits, and they were like so hesitant and barely any people would use it, like hardly anybody. And then our competitors would come out with a totally inferior product or similar product. And once we had like two or three, those reps would be talking to the doctors and all of a sudden they're like, oh, this all makes sense. It's that whole saying about like, what is it? The tide raises all boats, right?

So what happens is all of a sudden you have a market and you have other competitors talking about it brings validity to To the drugs and then yes, they're making our competitors are making more making money now But we just made a ton more money So I say all that because I feel like a similar thing right now in the EV truck space Everybody's waiting think about how many people have reservations for a cyber truck like two million or whatever it was How many people looked at that truck and they're like it's cool but

maybe, maybe like what Jim Farley said at Ford about like, it's a cool truck for you to valet at the hotel. Maybe there was a little bit of truth to that. Maybe it's not the greatest work truck and maybe the Rivian or the Ford Lightning or the Chevy EV Silverado when it comes out is the truck for you for like your general contractor or whatever. I think there's a place for everybody to have all of these different trucks and

But I really do think that all of the companies are going to start selling more trucks because now they finally know what all the options are out there. And people are being educated about the pluses and minuses of all the trucks. So anyway, all that being said, the question you even asked me was like, what have you been doing lately? I went out to Charlotte, North Carolina last week and it was awesome. I haven't released the video yet. I haven't even edited it yet. I need to get to it. I'm sorry, Ford. We were not paid by Ford, but they did pay for the trip out there. Sometimes these companies will give you like incredible experiences that...

It's not like they're paying you, but it's like, this is the experience. They fly us out there to Charlotte, stay in this really nice hotel, and there's a bunch of press there, and there's a couple YouTubers. I did not get invited. I'm sorry. I'm not trying to rub it in. It's okay. Well, that's why I have you here so that you can share it. I think you were busy. Okay. I had stuff going on. You had personal stuff going on. Yeah.

So we go to the Charlotte Motor Speedway, which is like the NASCAR racetrack. Super cool. And they're highlighting all of the racing stuff that they're doing for 2024. They're going heavy into it across all... Every single week this year, there will be a race with some sort of Ford Mustang or something in it. But one of the race cars that they have is like this...

1000 horsepower EV van. It's like a minivan that is like the fastest EV thing you've ever seen. And so they have us go get in it. I put on this super suit and I put on this helmet and I go in there. Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, is literally the driver.

So I get in with them. They buckle me in with this harness. And I'm like, hey, Jim, don't let back. Like, I'm not going to get the car sick. Give it all you've got. And he's like, you don't have to ask me twice. And he just guns it like smoke coming up from the tires. We're going. I'm yelling. It's EV, but it's still kind of loud because it's so powerful. And then we go on this track that's in the middle of the, like there's the oval racetrack. And then on the inside, they have this like,

track that curves and twists and all that stuff and we're just like zipping around the corners and i'm just laughing like back in my seat never felt like like ev acceleration like that and it's the stinking ceo of the company turns out he's like a race car driver in the past and then we we come into the thing and he like turns sideways and and and stops and pulls up he's like hope you enjoy it like

I'm like, what just happened? How am I this person that gets to do these amazing experiences? I love it when companies do that. It's like, let's just do something cool. Jim Farley's no Elon Musk. They both have their strengths and they both are unique in their own ways. But man, Jim's a cool guy and he's passionate about racing. I love that he was the one that was like racing and driving. I just keep thinking of like, can they insure like him doing that? Like, it's like crazy to me. Right.

Wow. Yeah, it was cool. Jim's a nice guy. He was funny. I think he cussed a few times on the video and I'm like, well, I can't include that, but that was funny. Yeah, yeah. It's pretty rambling. This is all, by the way, in like the last two weeks because he's been like bouncing around so much, but you did the Will.i.am. Mercedes-Benz Sound Drive. Yes.

- Yes. - Yeah, so-- - That's the last, that promise. - I don't know if you guys have heard of that and if you have, you probably dismissed it very quickly and I don't blame you for that because it sounds super gimmicky and when I first heard about it, so this is the way it worked. CES happens. I've got, you know, CES the way it works, you have like sponsored deals sometimes and so I had three sponsored requirements. So the first two days are just like filming the sponsored stuff before doing a lot of the other things that are just unique.

I met with one of the sponsors. I showed up for two minutes. I get a text from Mercedes saying, the guy at Mercedes that runs marketing and stuff, he's like, "Hey, Will.i.am is about to announce a Sound Drive collaboration that we're doing with our electric cars. It's really cool. And he's about to do it on stage in 20 minutes. But then two hours from now at 5:00 PM, if you want to come, you can ride in a car with Will.i.am for 15 minutes."

And a lot of you guys are like, yeah, Will.i.am, that's cool. Black Eyed Peas. Like literally his 2013 album is my most listened to album in the last 10 years on my phone, on iTunes. We did a lip sync battle as a family, like on a cruise, and we all had to choose a song. I chose a song called Geekin from Will.i.am's Willpower album from 2013. And then my sister chose a song from him from the Madagascar movie, you know, like I Like to Move It, Move It. He made that.

I did not even know. He also did. There's one from that where it's... Anyway, he's done so much stuff. Beats by Dre. So this was like, yes, I will be there no matter what. I'm like, this is another one of those things. Like the Jim Farley thing. I didn't know I needed it on my bucket list until the opportunity was there. I'm like, put it on the bucket list. It would have been high. So I'm like, absolutely. So I told the sponsor that was paying me good money to film a thing. I'm like, guys, I have this opportunity.

Is there any way I could, like, come back tomorrow morning? And they're like, that sounds amazing. Yes, come back tomorrow. I bailed on my sponsors. That was, like, ah, one of the best sponsors I've had in months. And they were cool about it, luckily. But it was, like, one of those life things I had to do. So anyway, we show up at 5 p.m. Will pulls up. He's giving one other person a drive in the car. And then I just get in the car and he starts explaining it to me. I'm like, this is going to be a gimmick thing. So essentially this is what it is.

Mercedes-Benz, luxurious car, like super luxurious. And they do things that probably don't make sense, but that's what makes it luxury. Like why do you need hot stone massage in your car? You don't. But you have it and you're like, this is amazing. Like they bring all the new stuff out, this kind of like where you're still trying to conceptualize like what is this that you're talking about? Like that's a lot of the stuff that was there this year. So essentially this is the way it works. Will.i.am was one of the early investors in AI with Sam Walsh.

Altman, Sam, whatever, for OpenAI. He knows that he's an engineer. He's like Beats by Dre. He was like one of the main guys that started that. He is more of a coder and an engineer, and that's the song Geekin' I like. It's all about going to school, getting good grades, being an engineer, into coding. You might be a nerd, but you're the one that has a yacht because you coded and built apps or whatever. This is Will.i.am. Perfect partner. He's not just a musician. No shame on musicians.

You're great at musicians, but you're great at music. But anyway, so basically the car is the DJ. Every song is the same always, unless you go to like a club and there's a DJ mixing music. So his idea is what if the car was mixing the music live? If you turn left, it changes the music. If you turn right, if you push your brake pedal, if you push the gas pedal, if you're in certain GPS locations, if you're doing certain things with the car, like what if you could

shape all the music. He breaks down all the songs into all these different background things. And then he makes it so that the car will choose based off of your acceleration and all that stuff and turning left and right. And it makes this like beautiful song that you're creating on the go that's never been played for anybody before. It's not like five. Some people are like, well, I've had this in my Toyota for like 15 years. The music gets louder when I push acceleration. It's not just getting louder.

It's bringing in different noises of the song and different words and different things. Like it's literally a song and it's using AI and machine learning to put this all together to make it the best experience for

And so for musicians, it's a really cool thing to have your music broken down in a really unique way, to be in a car and let people create this song and feel like in a way that they helped create it. And it makes the driving experience incredible. But then like, what if you're like, oh, I want it to get a little bit louder. So I'm going to turn left, but then there's somebody in your lane, you know, like. You're out of luck.

It kind of seems like a good video game though. Like they could add it to like a video game, like a virtual reality video game would be kind of cool. It would be cool. Like when I was at a stoplight and it was red and I told Will this while we're driving, I'm like, I would never, I've never been more excited for it to turn green. And I, yes, I wanted to gun it. And he was even saying, he's like, no, it's not that it makes you drive unsafe. Or maybe the Mercedes team was telling me that. And I'm like,

yeah, but it sure makes me want to drive fast and do stuff. Like we did a U-turn on this Las Vegas Boulevard. I was like, not a U-turn area. And Will's just like, well, I guess if I was a billionaire and I like had the opportunity to drive and do whatever, I'd probably bend some rules too when I'm driving. And this is like your baby of the thing that we did. He was, I could have driven. They said, who do you want to drive? Do you want Will to drive or you drive? And I was like, I

I don't want Will to do it. It was the best decision. I would not have been as aggressive. I would not have understood. He was facilitating the right moments he would accelerate to the music. It's like you're a DJ. You're driving, but you're also like... But it's a car. It's crazy. It's pretty funny. It's really kind of hard to conceptualize, though. One of my favorite things at the end of the conversation, and I hope we haven't put a video out yet. I have so many videos that I need to keep finishing, but...

I'm a nerd, and I've seen the first cut of the edit. That's why I was kind of forgetting about it, and it wasn't in there. So I told him about my...

my lip sync battle and I got a little too nerdy like I like almost like fangirling like and it was like long into the thing and I was like yeah so when are you coming out with your next album because this and this and this and that and I like this and that like it was a little nerdy but anyway I think we're not even going to put it in that video because I was like wow I was embarrassed for myself but

But anyway, he's like, no, I'm not coming out with a new album. I'm making sound drives or making drives. He calls them drives. It's called sound drive is the thing. But he's like, I'm making drives. I'm like, no, but what's your next album? Are you coming out with the next thing? And he's like, just making drives. And he said it like three times. And because I'm like, how can somebody listen to your album? He's like drives. And he just kept saying it like in a fun way. But I mean, obviously, like,

His job to be in the car with me was to promote sound drives and Mercedes-Benz. So that's what he's going to talk about, not some other side project. You know, you see somebody go on like Jay Leno or something or whatever night show and they don't want to market their own thing that's separate if somebody's... Anyway, that's kind of what was happening. But I thought it was kind of funny because... So I kind of turned to the camera and did my vlogging thing and I started talking my vlogging voice in a way and I'm just like...

if you want to listen to the next Will.i.am album, all you have to do is buy an EQE or an EQS. And as I was saying it, he started laughing because he realized like how ridiculous that sounded because it's like, oh, you have to spend $100,000 or more to listen to his album. You can't just like buy it. You've got to like

buy a literal car and so he was laughing because the way I said it was kind of funny and then he was like, "No, no, no, you can just borrow one, just drive in one." And I'm like, "If you want it, you can go on Turo and rent an EQS for the day." And so he's laughing because it both, he was like, I understand where he's going, he's like marketing sound drives, but at the same time I'm like, "Really, you have to pay a hundred grand to listen to your next album?" So anyway, he is a good spirit. - But if you can get that technology or get like a subscription or something to that technology,

in a different vehicle would be kind of cool. It'd be super cool. But it is also a luxurious car. It's Mercedes-Benz. It's like Tesla's trying to save $100 on some stock on the drive shaft to save money on something. I don't think they're going to be like, let's go license for however much money a month for the car to make cool music and be a DJ. So I think it's possible, but...

Yeah. Part of me feels like it's only Mercedes-Benz that could pull something like that off. Okay. That was like a big thing this year, though, at CES was all the AI and every single vehicle there was like, we're bringing like generative AI into our vehicles and doing this and, you know, going to be able to feel your stress levels.

and you know make this whole thing and you're like trying to figure out how this is really gonna work and you know Tesla obviously has it with like their whole grok and what they're trying to do and or grok is it grok grok I don't know probably grok I think of the football player it's probably grok

Yeah, that's the thing. Like I knew there'd be a lot of AI and machine learning at CES and I did not expect it to be Mercedes Benz, Will.i.am and in a car doing music and it actually was cool and something that I would like. There's a lot of people talking about AI and things they're going to do, but is it like really going to come to me? I don't know. I hope so. I feel like there's a lot of big changes that will be happening. Yes. But that's going to be it. Thank you so much for coming on here and sharing kind of like, this is like the last like two weeks for this guy. I swear he bounces around.

More than anyone I know, you are leaving in a couple hours at like 3 a.m. He has to go to the airport. Hopefully, he'll take like a week off. Yeah, I came here to do a sports card show with PJ. And now PJ is sitting behind the cameras right now. But we spent the day doing sports card stuff in Atlanta. And it's amazing. It was so much fun. But thanks for opening your home to me. Thanks for the podcast. Hopefully, I didn't talk too much and bore everybody with this car stuff. No, this was awesome. This was like so cool. We're just, you know, chatting. I'm like, this is really interesting. Like we should just, you know...

put a camera on us and record the conversation because, you know, I think a lot of people would be interested in all this. So let me know what you guys think. If you have questions for Dan, leave them in the comments down below. And thank you for listening and joining us today. We'll catch you next time.