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It’s the start of another great week as we talk about Dodge’s noisy little addition to the EV race, Tesla bumping the price of Autopilot in a tweet, and your favorite striped cereal mascot becomes a YouTuber. And it’s only Monday.
- Dodge clears its own lane with the announcement of its first EV complete with signature sound, “The Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust”
- “NASCAR-banned aerodynamics. A multispeed transmission. And an exhaust system patterned after a pipe organ. Put it all together and you’re looking at the battery-electric Dodge Charger Daytona SRT Concept.”
- Tim Kuniskis, brand CEO said they did it “Because we can”. Also said in their Detriot reveal, "Dodge is going to get lost if we're trying to do the same thing as everybody else, so let's go, let's invent, let's create, let's do something different than [what] anybody else out there is doing,"
- Looks nostalgic but feels fresh
- Consumer responses on twitter range from embracing the aggressive EV to calling it ‘Woke’
- Here is what it sounds like
- Tesla’s Autopilot price will increase to $15k up from 12k per Elon Musk’s tweet on Sunday
- The tweet read “After wide release of FSD Beta 10.69.2, price of FSD will rise to $15k in North America on September 5th. Current price will be honored for orders made before Sept 5th, but delivered later.”
- A follow up tweet shortly after read “Note, you can upgrade your existing car to FSD in 2 mins via the Tesla app”
- The technology has been under scrutiny as the NHTSA sent a letter to Tesla last week regarding the first of its two pending Autopilot defect investigations, posing several questions related to how the company is monitoring and enforcing driver engagement and attentiveness,
- Many Tesla customers started posting their own videos showing just how capable the software is. The NHTSA responded to some advising against the use of real pedestrians
- Musk has said the valuation of the FSD tech is essential to establish Teslas overall value
- Tony the Tiger is the first mascot to stream on Twitch
- VTubing is becoming a popular trend on Twitch where larger than life personalities stream their gaming setups and live games.
- “This innovative concept taps into the growing popularity of VTubing on Twitch, where we saw VTubing content increase 467% year-over-year last year,” Adam Harris, Global Head of Twitch’s brand partnership studio, said.
- The mascot also recently began a TikTok acc
Join Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier every morning for the Automotive State of the Union podcast as they connect the dots across car dealerships, retail trends, emerging tech like AI, and cultural shifts—bringing clarity, speed, and people-first insight to automotive leaders navigating a rapidly changing industry.
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