A recent job opportunity on LinkedIn posted by Lucid Motors less than 24 hour hours ago, hints at an incoming of new media app infotainment for its EV drivers. According to Lucid’s new role of senior product manager, media partner management, one of the key responsibilities includes work with Apple Music, Amazon Music, and other “media app partners.”
Lucid Motors ($LCID) remains a relatively young EV startup with one flagship model on the market and another in the pipeline, we are sure to learn more about before year’s end. While the overall response to the Lucid Air sedan has been primarily positive, its top-tier pricing as an ultimate luxury and performance vehicle has isolated its customer base.
Air sales continue to trickle in, but the American automaker is sitting on a ton of inventory. According to Lucid’s recent Q3 report, it produced 1,550 cars – a near 29% drop compared to a quarter prior, setting the stage to fall well short of its target to produce 10,000 EVs this year.
To drum up some hype, Lucid introduced a new referral program benefiting new and current owners. Meanwhile, while infotainment might not be the deciding factor in a consumer’s choice to go through with an Air purchase, convenience and familiarity certainly don’t hurt.
That’s why it makes a lot of sense and Lucid is apparently looking to add access to both Apple and Amazon Music in its EVs. Furthermore, a recent job posting begs the question, “what other media apps could se soon seen added to Lucid’s infotainment screen?”
According to the following job posted 17 hours ago by Lucid Motors, its new senior manager of media partner management will get working on implementing Apple and Amazon Music to its EVs right away. Here are the duties of the new role, according to the job post:
Fulfill responsibilities of Product Owner for Apple, Amazon Music and other Media app partners
Work with internal stakeholders to define requirements and deliver solutions that bring value to our ecosystem of third-party systems
Be an expert for our internal business partners’ needs, motivations, and challenges
Perform qualitative and quantitative research to discover feature ideas and validate them before development
Work closely with Program Management, Engineering and Partner Development team to develop the roadmap and own specifications, development cycle, and monitoring for success
Plan and prioritize work across multiple projects, and communicate priority to relevant stakeholders
Plan and prioritize product feature backlog and development for internal systems team(s)
Be responsible for identifying and hitting the key performance indicators
Use data and statistics to inform decisions
Leverage metrics to improve system usability
Given this information, it appears the addition of Apple Music is imminent. The automaker finally introduced Apple CarPlay to Air owners via an OTA update this past March, so further integration of Apple technology makes sense. What may be even more interesting however, is the latter part of the first line of responsibilities – “other media app partners.”
With Spotify, Tidal, and IHeartRadio already available, plus Apple and Amazon Music assumedly on the way, Lucid appears to have the major music apps covered. So what other media apps will we see next? AppleTV+? Amazon Prime Video? Netflix? What about YouTube? Lots of options.
However, if you’ve been inside an Air EV before, you’ve probably noticed the center display is vertical, not ideal for video streaming. Surely that is something the automaker has already considered when discussing video streaming and will perhaps provide a solution in its Gravity SUV.
This is all hearsay at this point, but it does seem like Lucid Motors is making moves (or at least hiring the best staff to make those moves) in the realm of media apps.
The all-electric Cadillac LYRIQ was an Electrek favorite when it first made its debut two years ago. Now, LYRIQ buyers who have been waiting for a deal can score more than $10,500 in discounts on the Ultium-based Caddy.
Our own Seth Weintraub said that GM had come in, “a year early and dollar long at $60K” when he first drove the Ultium-based Cadillac LYRIQ back in 2022. He called the SUV “a stunner,” too, heaping praise on the LYRIQ’s styling inside and out before adding that the EV’s ride quality really impressed on long journeys.
Well, if the first mainstream electric Cadillac was a winner at its original, $57,195 starting price (rounded up to $60K for easy math), what could we call it at $10,500 less?
That’s a question that’s suddenly worth asking, thanks to huge GM discounts on the LYRIQ that prompted the automotive pricing analysts at CarsDirect to name the 2024 LYRIQ one of the industry’s “Best New Car Deals” this month:
A slew of incentives can enable you to save big on a 2024 Cadillac LYRIQ. First, EVs eligible for the federal tax credit qualify for $7,500 in Ultium Promise Bonus Cash from GM. Additionally, competing EV owners can score $3,000 in conquest cash.
With more than 100 kWh of battery capacity and 300-plus miles of real-world driving range (plus available 190 kW charging capability) the Cadillac LYRIQ ticks all the boxes – but you don’t have to take just my word for that.
A global shortage of qualified operators is impacting job sites everywhere, precisely at a time when demand for housing, mineral mining, and renewable energy construction is going from peak to peak. That’s why companies from Caterpillar to Tesla to Einride are pushing to advance autonomy the way they are.
First revealed as a concept in 2021, Volvo CE’s CX01 autonomous “single drum” asphalt roller concept has seen continuous development in the years since. Making its Volvo Days debut, the CX01 has shed the original single drum design for a “split drum,” with each half being controlled by an internalized, independent electric motor.
The CX01’s electric motors not only help to propel and steer the roller, they also vibrate the drums individually, using some trick software calibration to effectively “cancel each other out,” delivering all the benefits of vibrating drum rollers without the noise.
It’s so smart, you guys
It’s also worth noting that the CX01 is something of an “extended range” EV, instead of a “pure” BEV. That’s because it uses a small, 1.4L diesel engine to spin a generator that powers not batteries, but capacitors (those blue things, above right). Those capacitors can be charged on grid power (or from an accompanying TC13 trench compactor), but they’re much better than batteries at releasing energy really quickly, enabling the diesel to operate at its maximum efficiency while maintaining extremely precise, high-torque movement from the motors.
Volvo CE engineers envision a team CX01 rollers units deployed on larger job sites that could work together and communicate with other pieces of equipment on the site. The connected equipment could help survey the job site, report on the conditions of the mat (density, temperature, and passes), and leverage AI to determine when and where to compact without the need for human operators.
All of which is great, sure – but they had me at “giant OneWheel.”
Volvo TA15 autonomous electric haul truck
Volvo TA15 autonomous haul truck; photo by the author.
Part of Volvo CE’ “TARA” line of autonomous products, the “production ready” TA15 autonomous electric haul trucks are already part of a number of pilot programs on Volvo customer job sites. Being autonomous, they’re ideally suited to performing repetitive routes, dozens of times per day, without exposing human operators to fatigue or injury.
“TARA enables you to downsize and replace larger diesel-powered vehicles with a fleet of autonomous electric Volvo TA15s capable of running 24/7,” reads the official TARA release. “This not only helps you cut emissions and increase productivity, it will also help you rightsize your machinery and optimize your hauling routes.”
And that brings us to the real topic at hand: sustainability.
Electrek’s Take
Volvo SD110 single drum roller, via Volvo CE.
As we’ve often discussed on The Heavy Equipment Podcast, there are two types of sustainability, and both are important. The first is the “classic” version of sustainability, in that our choices need to sustain the planet and environment we live in. The second is sustainability of the business – the ability to keep doing business in a way that ensures the survival of the business, itself.
Looking at the conventional Volvo SD110 conventional roller, above, you can see the incredible amount of materials – of steel, rubber, plastic, glass, etc. – that simply isn’t needed to produce the CX01 roller we started this article with.
All that added mass has a massive hidden carbon cost. The cost of getting those materials out of the ground, the need for bigger, heavier roads to support the weight of the machine, and the bigger, burlier trucks and trailers needed to transport it. Heck, even the operator’s commute to and from the job site adds to the carbon cost of the SD110, over and above the harmful emissions from its diesel engine’s exhaust stack.
The CX01? It’s objectively more sustainable than the SD110 roller in every way, and does pretty much the same job.
Following successful inbound implementations in the Pacific Northwest, North Carolina, and Mexico, Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) is expanding the reach of its electric semi fleet into Arizona with long-time associate JB Hunt.
JB Hunt will add the new Freightliner eCascadia electric semi to its Arizona fleet immediately, and put it to work delivering aftermarket truck parts from DTNA’s parts distribution center (PDC) in Phoenix to multiple DTNA dealers along a dedicated route.
The electric Freightliner truck is expected to cover approximately 100 miles in a given day before heading “home” to a Detroit eFill charger installed at Daimler’s Phoenix facility.
“This solution with DTNA is a great example of our commitment to supporting customers’ efforts to reduce their carbon footprint and work towards energy transition,” explains Greer Woodruff, executive vice president of safety, sustainability and maintenance at JB Hunt. “JB Hunt owns and operates several eCascadias on behalf of customers, and our drivers have really enjoyed their in-cab experience. As customer interest continues to grow, we are here to enable their pursuit for a more sustainable supply chain in the most economic means possible.”
Daimler is analyzing future expansion opportunities throughout its internal parts distribution and logistics with an eye on electrifing additional routes and further reducing the carbon footprint of its logistics operations.