Ford and Tesla Going Steady, Buttons Beat Back Screens, Airport Toys Rising

The Automotive Troublemaker w/ Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier

Welcome to the pregame of a great Memorial Day Weekend. Today we talk about Farley and Musk getting cozy, tactile buttons making a comeback, and a touch of our childhood coming to DFW Airport.

• In a landmark move towards EV infrastructure unification, Ford announced a deal with Tesla to access its Supercharger network from 2024 which will allow Ford's electric vehicles to use Tesla's extensive charging network. The announcement came, appropriately, from Ford CEO Jim Farley and Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Twitter Spaces yesterday.
  • This deal makes Ford the first major automaker to adopt Tesla's proprietary charging standard, connecting Ford's EVs to the largest high-speed Supercharger network in the U.S.
  • Ford electric vehicles fitted with the Combined Charging System (CCS) port will be able to access Tesla's V3 Superchargers through a Tesla-developed adapter.
  • From 2025, Ford plans to equip future EVs with Tesla's charging standard, eliminating the need for an adapter.
    
• Goodbye, frustrating touchscreens, hello old friend: Buttons are back! Responding to considerable consumer dissatisfaction, several leading car manufacturers are reversing the trend of intricate touch screens that have dominated dashboard design in recent years.
  • Notably, Porsche is leading the charge by reintroducing buttons in their 2024 Cayenne model.
  • Nissan and Hyundai are also lauded in the article for resisting the touch screen trend, underscoring a conscious commitment towards ensuring driver safety.
  • 2013 guidance from the NHTSA recommends that a driver should be able to complete any infotainment task with glances of under two seconds, with the total time spent looking away from the road not exceeding 12 seconds
  • Touchscreens also happen to be the cheapest way to add functionality
• The iconic toy store of your childhood, Toys R Us, wants to help you make good use of those layovers with a new store in Terminal A of the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, marking its first-ever airport location.
  • The store will feature a life-size 3D giraffe and an array of top brand toys, and is scheduled to open in time for the 2023 holiday season
  • Yehuda Shmidman, CEO of WHP Global, who acquired Toys R Us in 2021, said in an announcement that the concept could be introduced in airports worldwide. The parent company has recently increased its footprint by 50% by introducing Toys R Us store-in-stores at all Macy’s locations.

Hosts: Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier
Get the Daily Push Back email at https://www.asotu.com/

JOIN the conversation on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asotu/

Read our most recent email at: https://www.asotu.com/media/push-back-email