TBL Thinks New Tech Edition: EVs, AI, & 3-D Printing
Dear Readers,
Its Thinking Time! This week we cover EVs, iPhones, and 3D printing in real estate. Let’s get right to it.
TBL Thinks is our way to summarize the most important paywalled, longer reads relevant to global macroeconomics, helping you cut through the noise. With that in mind, please enjoy.
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Build Your Dreams…Around US EVs
The Hardest Sell in American Car Culture (The Atlantic) Americans love their cars. More specifically, Americans love their big cars. The big three automakers in the US—Ford, Stellantis (previously Fiat Chrysler), and GM—are known to primarily focus on their trucks and SUVs. Companies keep making bigger cars and people keep buying them. So why then does the CEO for Ford think “Americans need to get back in love with smaller cars?” Not one to body shame, but weight.
As players in the automotive industry all rush to join the EV race, the big three have had to reconcile with one basic fact: batteries needed to power monster vehicles are loss leaders, and batteries tend to be the most expensive part of any EV.
Ford is also aiming to introduce $30,000 EVs that will be profitable in about two and a half years as it faces tough competition from Chinese company BYD. Ford’s $30,000 EV will also face competition from Tesla’s new entry-level EV, expected to hit the market next year.
So why does the Chinese car maker BYD “Build Your Dreams” have everybody quaking in their boots? The company overtook Tesla to becomes the world’s biggest electric car company in the final quarter of 2023. BYD is selling its EV Seagull for less than $12,000—the current administration is looking to effectively ban the Chinese car company by quadrupling import tariffs from approximately 27% now to 100%.
BYD is backed by Warren Buffet and has quickly become the symbol for China’s EV industry. Trump’s declaration that he would welcome Chinese automakers to build factories in the US is also not doing much to ease the worries of American automakers. BYD is looking to set up one of the largest auto-factories in Mexico and is expected to create 10,000 jobs. Trade war or not, Chinese EV manufacturers are coming for everyone.
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Siriously Smart: Apple’s AI iPhone
Apple Unveils an AI iPhone (WSJ) Apple just unveiled the iPhone 16, and it’s counting on AI powering the phone’s operating system to bring it out of a sales slump. The new tools, called Apple Intelligence, will be compatible with iPhone 16 and iPhone 15 Pro. With limited new hardware features, the company is banking on drawing consumers back in with AI.
AI features will include text-generation and photo-editing capabilities. The software will be able to proofread a message to the boss on Slack, which is something this writer could really use on most days. It will offer personalized prioritization of emails and summaries of text messages; TLDR but in real life. Siri will have a new improved voice, better language understanding, and the ability to pull up personal information. The software will also offer “visual intelligence” wherein you can take a picture of a dog or a restaurant and it will show you the breed, or pull up the hours and allow you to make a reservation.
Whether AI is the boost Apple needs will remain to be seen. Apple’s arch-smartphone-rival Samsung has also been heavily advertising its phones’ AI capabilities, but AI was only a minor selling point for consumers after initial sales. Apple is also joining OpenAI to embed ChatGPT, which it views as the current leader in generative AI.
3-D Printing Your House Now
Can 3-D Printing Revolutionize Real Estate? Walmart Put that Question to the Test (WSJ) A Walmart Supercenter in Athens, TN added 8,000 square feet to its location, making the expansion the largest ever 3-D printed commercial real-estate project in US history. The company has more than 200 similar additions in the pipeline and wanted to see if the 3-D printing could get the job done cost effectively, but heat and humidity proved to be a detriment for the new technology, and after weeks of delay the project cost was roughly the same as traditional construction.
A lot of money rides on the success of 3-D printing and its capabilities to someday mass-produce components for the semiconductor and aerospace industries, and its potential to build faster and cheaper than traditional construction—a Texas startup is currently working on building a community of 100 3-D printed homes.
3-D printing, also called additive manufacturing, builds structures by layering material via a computer-programmed robotic arm, in contrast to traditional manufacturing which whittles away from raw material to build.
3-D printing has seen highs and lows in its successful use in the housing market, having been successfully used to print houses in Virginia and Austin but unable to reproduce the same in Iowa. Because the technology has not yet proven to be faster or cheaper than traditional construction, few commercial real-estate projects have been completed 3-D printing. Environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, and water all add to the complications around this new technology, and practical hurdles such as scaling up production or shipment of expensive and machinery do little to make matters easier. Not necessarily deflation-caliber, yet.
Until next time,
TBL Thinks
Unchained empowers you to fully control your Bitcoin with a collaborative multisig vault, where you hold two of three keys and benefit from a dedicated Bitcoin security partner. Purchase bitcoin directly into your cold storage vault and eliminate exchange risks with Unchained's Trading Desk.
Unchained also offers the best IRA product in the industry, allowing you to easily roll over old 401(k)s or IRAs into Bitcoin while keeping control of your keys.
Don’t pay more taxes than you need to. Use code TBL for $100 off when you create an account.