# Tesla Chief Designer Franz Von Holzhausen; A $30,000 Ducati X Diavel S

An episode of [Bloomberg Hot Pursuit!](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1710787142), 19 Sep 2025, 47 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/4778f66f-5d19-456a-9820-b08f00dfd567/cb50d33a-787c-4a35-9cee-b35d0111834c/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=42336c1a-f7c2-4898-885b-b08f00e0bb66

Tesla chief designer Franz Von Holzhausen joins the show and tells Matt and Hannah about plans for the company to redesign its door handles to address safety concerns. Plus, Matt has a $30,000 Ducati X Diavel S to try, and Hannah is having Rolls-Royce trouble. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News. I'm Hannah Elliott and
[0:09] Speaker 1: I'm Matt Miller.
[0:10] Speaker 2: This is Hot Pursuit. Coming up on today's podcast, we
[0:18] Speaker 2: talk with Tesla's chief designer, friends vun Holtz Howsen.
[0:23] Speaker 1: This is a very well timed conversation. I do have
[0:26] Speaker 1: to say, Matt, yes, he has been in the.
[0:28] Speaker 2: News because they have been in the news, and he
[0:30] Speaker 2: addresses the stories on the Bloomberg about door handles, but
[0:34] Speaker 2: also talks about designing what I really consider to be
[0:38] Speaker 2: a timeless vehicle, the model S.
[0:41] Speaker 1: You know, when you pointed out during our conversation that
[0:44] Speaker 1: it's been around for fifteen years now, my first thought
[0:46] Speaker 1: is time flies, and that's insane. But also you're kind
[0:51] Speaker 1: of right. I mean, this is one of the few
[0:53] Speaker 1: vehicles that really hasn't had basically any noticeable updates aesthetically
[0:58] Speaker 1: since then, and it it fits right in I mean,
[1:01] Speaker 1: I obviously I see him all over here in La.
[1:04] Speaker 1: All right.
[1:05] Speaker 2: We're also going to talk about our viewer emails, because
[1:08] Speaker 2: we get a lot of emails from viewers that have
[1:09] Speaker 2: the same complaint about.
[1:11] Speaker 1: Me, which we will discuss. I've got thoughts on that.
[1:16] Speaker 2: We'll go over it over, and we do want you
[1:19] Speaker 2: to write to us. Remember our email address is hot
[1:23] Speaker 2: Pursuit at Bloomberg dot net. So first, let's talk about
[1:28] Speaker 2: what we've been driving and what we've been doing over
[1:31] Speaker 2: the past week. I have had the opportunity to get
[1:35] Speaker 2: off of my Harley Davidson and get back on a Dukati.
[1:38] Speaker 2: You know, I've had wow long history with Ducatti. I've
[1:41] Speaker 2: had fifteen of them, including the original Xdavels, which was
[1:46] Speaker 2: like their first attempt at a feet forward cruiser. But
[1:50] Speaker 2: since May, since I picked up my Harley Davidson Fat Bob,
[1:53] Speaker 2: I've only been riding the hog. So recently, my buddy
[1:57] Speaker 2: Jason Chinook, who runs Ducatti of North America, he hooked
[2:01] Speaker 2: me up with the x D novel S, the new
[2:04] Speaker 2: version of the V twin cruise that I had. But
[2:08] Speaker 2: this one has a V four one hundred and seventy
[2:12] Speaker 2: horse power and looks like worlds different from the original
[2:16] Speaker 2: x Davels.
[2:17] Speaker 1: Now, I know. Dukatti is claiming this is a bold
[2:19] Speaker 1: nude chapter in the In the line, obviously the bike
[2:24] Speaker 1: looks very hot. Do you agree? Is this a bold
[2:27] Speaker 1: new chapter or is it more like a slight step forward.
[2:30] Speaker 2: So I am not in love with the way it looks,
[2:37] Speaker 2: although I was, why, Well, it just looks to me
[2:40] Speaker 2: sort of in a way like big and brutish and
[2:44] Speaker 2: Ducatti's I prefer to look sleek and almost feminine.
[2:48] Speaker 1: The Ferrari of motorcycles, if you will.
[2:50] Speaker 2: Exactly yes. And it's got, for example, it's got a
[2:55] Speaker 2: passenger seat for a passenger with a big old butt.
[2:58] Speaker 2: You know, what are you.
[2:59] Speaker 1: Say saying, Matt, are you against big butts? No?
[3:02] Speaker 2: I like big butts, and I cannot lie, but I
[3:05] Speaker 2: will say, it just doesn't really make sense to me
[3:08] Speaker 2: on this bike, and coming from I had the old
[3:12] Speaker 2: X Davels, like I said, which looked more like kind
[3:16] Speaker 2: of a rebel like American kind of out West cruiser
[3:22] Speaker 2: looked a lot more like what something you know, Keanu
[3:26] Speaker 2: Reeves would ride. And this thing looks very futuristic, which
[3:30] Speaker 2: I'm I'm just not in love with.
[3:32] Speaker 1: I kind of love a futuristic motor bike. I mean,
[3:35] Speaker 1: that's like the whole matrixy. Like you're in sort of
[3:38] Speaker 1: a long flowing black leather jacket and it's like you're
[3:42] Speaker 1: wearing wrap around black glasses and your bike. Actually that's
[3:46] Speaker 1: a look.
[3:46] Speaker 2: I actually didn't think about that. Keanu was in obviously
[3:49] Speaker 2: the Matrix did ride a Ducatti nine ninety six.
[3:52] Speaker 1: This is this is like the vibe. I'm kind of
[3:54] Speaker 1: curious if your months of riding a Harley have changed
[3:59] Speaker 1: your perception and change your preferences a little bit.
[4:02] Speaker 2: Well, I don't think they've changed my esthetic preferences, because
[4:06] Speaker 2: I still am in love with Ducatti's Panagali. I still
[4:10] Speaker 2: have a couple of Ducatti Monsters Classic Monsters that I love.
[4:14] Speaker 2: The Multi Strata is my favorite bike of all time.
[4:17] Speaker 2: But riding the Harley has changed the way I ride
[4:20] Speaker 2: bikes because it's got so much torque down low. I
[4:24] Speaker 2: keep it between like two thousand and five thousand rpm,
[4:28] Speaker 2: Like five thousand is the absolute upper limit, right.
[4:30] Speaker 1: Not getting uptied about anything.
[4:32] Speaker 2: No, And so I get on this bike yesterday. I
[4:34] Speaker 2: picked it up at the Hudson Valley Motorcycles in Austining,
[4:38] Speaker 2: and I'm riding it back to my house in Scarsdale.
[4:40] Speaker 2: And it took me a second to get used to
[4:42] Speaker 2: the fact that it has like an eleven thousand redline.
[4:45] Speaker 2: You know, you live in the upper Revs and I
[4:49] Speaker 2: wasn't there, so I was like, this sounds kind of weird.
[4:52] Speaker 2: This feels kind of weird, and when I did open
[4:54] Speaker 2: it up, it was kind of scary how fast it is.
[4:58] Speaker 2: My Harley Davidson is pretty sporty for Harley, but it's
[5:01] Speaker 2: nothing compared to this. And I went back and I
[5:04] Speaker 2: looked at horse power to pounds. I always think it's
[5:09] Speaker 2: the easiest to understand how many pounds is each horse
[5:14] Speaker 2: horse pushing. And so in a nine to eleven in
[5:17] Speaker 2: a karrerass, a new nine to nine to two dot
[5:19] Speaker 2: two karrera s you have four hundred and seventy three
[5:22] Speaker 2: horse power. It weighs about thirty four hundred pounds. So
[5:25] Speaker 2: each horse essentially is pushing pushing seven point two pounds.
[5:30] Speaker 2: And that turns out to be almost exactly the same
[5:33] Speaker 2: as my Harley, because the Harley has ninety five horse power. Interesting,
[5:38] Speaker 2: but it weighs like six hundred and fifty pounds or
[5:41] Speaker 2: six seventy five or something, So those two are pretty similar.
[5:46] Speaker 2: The Dukati blows them out of the water.
[5:50] Speaker 1: What is the dukatiweh five hundred pounds?
[5:53] Speaker 2: The Dukati weighs about five hundred pounds exactly. I think
[5:55] Speaker 2: it's like five hundred and five and it has one
[5:58] Speaker 2: hundred and sixty eight horse power, so it's pushing. Each
[6:01] Speaker 2: horse is pushing three pounds.
[6:04] Speaker 1: Right, You're flying absolutely lying.
[6:07] Speaker 2: And this isn't there like track bike, you know, this
[6:10] Speaker 2: is like their Poser boulevard cruiser. And so it was
[6:15] Speaker 2: a little bit scary at first, as I was as
[6:18] Speaker 2: I was riding at home. Then I got used to it,
[6:23] Speaker 2: and it's like, I'm reminded at how it feels to
[6:27] Speaker 2: pilot a vehicle that you can pretty much put anywhere
[6:30] Speaker 2: you want at any time, you know, forward or backward.
[6:33] Speaker 2: Because the brakes are also phenomenal. It turns in like
[6:37] Speaker 2: a dream at least compared to you know, a Harley
[6:41] Speaker 2: soft Tail. And yeah, it just made me feel really confident,
[6:45] Speaker 2: really happy.
[6:45] Speaker 1: Is it worth thirty grand?
[6:47] Speaker 2: It is very expensive, that's true. And if this is
[6:51] Speaker 2: the kind of thing that you're into, yes, it's definitely
[6:54] Speaker 2: worth thirty grand. Yeah. Would I pay that much? No,
[6:58] Speaker 2: I would take that money in buy a new one.
[7:00] Speaker 1: Could you okay? And so my other question is could
[7:02] Speaker 1: you ride this for a few hours every day and
[7:05] Speaker 1: be okay? Physically?
[7:07] Speaker 2: Yeah, you can because it's feet forward, but that's another
[7:09] Speaker 2: thing I was thinking, like, so, I you know, obviously
[7:13] Speaker 2: that's why I bought a Harley Davidson. I want that
[7:15] Speaker 2: sort of feet forward cruiser position. It's relaxed, it's chill,
[7:18] Speaker 2: but on this kind of bike, on a Ducatti, I
[7:22] Speaker 2: really want my feet under me. Yeah, because you want
[7:25] Speaker 2: to be able to push it into corners, put your
[7:29] Speaker 2: weight on your feet, dig you know, get your well
[7:32] Speaker 2: not that for me.
[7:34] Speaker 1: No, no, no, okay, no, we don't want to go
[7:36] Speaker 1: for others.
[7:37] Speaker 2: In any case, very cool and a different interesting and
[7:44] Speaker 2: like variety is the spice of life, right, So I'm
[7:47] Speaker 2: living this, living the dream I have it for I'm
[7:50] Speaker 2: gonna probably keep it for a week.
[7:51] Speaker 1: Okay, So that's fun. You'll have your fun. I mean,
[7:54] Speaker 1: do you want to talk about something on the very
[7:56] Speaker 1: other side of the spectrum.
[7:58] Speaker 2: Yes, old rolls rises, Yes, Oh which ones do you
[8:02] Speaker 2: have again? Which Rolls Royce do you have? Again?
[8:05] Speaker 1: We have some silver Shadows from the seventies and a
[8:10] Speaker 1: silver Spur from the eighties. In eighty eight, and then
[8:15] Speaker 1: a Tudor Shadow which is an early shadow that was
[8:19] Speaker 1: done by park mull and or Ward which is an
[8:21] Speaker 1: early division that was working with Rolls Royce at the time,
[8:24] Speaker 1: so kind of you know, call it seventies and and
[8:27] Speaker 1: one from the eighties four door mostly rolls Royces, and
[8:33] Speaker 1: I you know, we've talked about them. These are not
[8:37] Speaker 1: expensive cars. They're fun to drive, they've got they're not
[8:39] Speaker 1: expensive to buy. They've not expensive to buy. But I
[8:44] Speaker 1: am god, I am good. I was like, do I
[8:45] Speaker 1: even want to talk about this? And the like, yeah,
[8:47] Speaker 1: I have nothing to hide. Look, sometimes it's a challenge
[8:49] Speaker 1: and it is a slightly dysfunctional relationship, and the irony
[8:53] Speaker 1: of it all is all. None of them are are
[8:57] Speaker 1: None of them were drivable? Not on Monday?
[9:00] Speaker 2: Are you serious?
[9:02] Speaker 1: Well, look, we sort of rotate through. Obviously, you can
[9:05] Speaker 1: only drive one car at once. And on Monday afternoon,
[9:08] Speaker 1: I had a dentist appointment in Pasadena, and so I
[9:11] Speaker 1: thought I would take my own. Mind, you know, we
[9:13] Speaker 1: share some of them, but this Silver Shadow in particular
[9:16] Speaker 1: is mine. It was given to me as a gift,
[9:20] Speaker 1: and so it's a great car. No, honestly, no issues.
[9:25] Speaker 1: Some slight electrical stuff, but you know, it's been doing
[9:29] Speaker 1: this thing. It's been doing this thing. Where after like
[9:33] Speaker 1: fifteen or twenty minutes of driving with no warning at all,
[9:37] Speaker 1: it'll just lose power. And I fix that by quickly
[9:43] Speaker 1: putting it into neutral and then restarting it, and it
[9:46] Speaker 1: restarts fine, and then I go along my merry way.
[9:49] Speaker 1: And it's not that big a deal. It's not a
[9:51] Speaker 1: big enough get dangerous. Well, it's if you know what's happening.
[9:56] Speaker 1: It's not scary when you're on the highway. If you
[9:58] Speaker 1: didn't know what's happening, you might get a little worried.
[10:00] Speaker 1: But I know what's happening, so it's not a big deal.
[10:03] Speaker 1: I just go with it. And it wasn't enough that
[10:07] Speaker 1: I thought I want to give the car to barrier
[10:09] Speaker 1: Charlie for a week or two. I want to be
[10:11] Speaker 1: driving it. I don't want to mess with it being
[10:13] Speaker 1: in the shop. I travel too much. There's too much
[10:16] Speaker 1: other fun stuff to be doing anyway.
[10:19] Speaker 2: Also, I imagine I don't want to pry too deeply,
[10:22] Speaker 2: but you can pry Charlie.
[10:25] Speaker 1: He's the igapoo, Yeah, Charlie, iapoo.
[10:27] Speaker 2: He's the famous Rolls Royce mechanic.
[10:30] Speaker 1: Mechanic he's been here are.
[10:32] Speaker 2: I imagine the shop rate is not cheap right, and
[10:37] Speaker 2: especially getting parts. I just can't imagine the repair bills.
[10:41] Speaker 1: It's not as expensive as you, you know, a couple grand.
[10:46] Speaker 1: It's not like thousands. US call it a couple grand
[10:52] Speaker 1: once to twice a year. It's not thousands and thousands
[10:56] Speaker 1: of dollars. If you're imagining tens of thousands of dollars.
[10:59] Speaker 1: It is not that. It's like a couple grand a
[11:02] Speaker 1: couple times a year.
[11:04] Speaker 2: For this, I fear like the ten twenty Yeah, no
[11:08] Speaker 2: dollar bills of a Bentley, like an eighties Bentley.
[11:11] Speaker 1: We've never had a ten grid. We've never had anything
[11:13] Speaker 1: more than a four digit bill on that car, and
[11:16] Speaker 1: usually it's low.
[11:17] Speaker 2: I just I wonder, I'm you know, the guys, some
[11:21] Speaker 2: of the guys from Rolls Royce are coming in here today.
[11:23] Speaker 2: Thank you for walking that up. How do you think
[11:27] Speaker 2: one of your older Rolls Royce cars, And I don't
[11:30] Speaker 2: mean in terms of acceleration or breaking, but like in
[11:33] Speaker 2: just in terms of the magic carpet right feel, how
[11:36] Speaker 2: do you think they compare two a new Roles? This
[11:38] Speaker 2: is it the same kind of similar?
[11:40] Speaker 1: Honestly, very similar. And I even made this point to
[11:43] Speaker 1: Magnus when he came to wait for the tow truck
[11:46] Speaker 1: with me this last time, just as a sign of
[11:48] Speaker 1: moral support, because he's so sweet. The car, even though
[11:53] Speaker 1: it kept dying for no particular reason on my on
[11:57] Speaker 1: my on the one thirty four out to Pasadena, it
[12:00] Speaker 1: would start up again, no problem, and it was silent
[12:03] Speaker 1: and totally smooth. There's no you know, it's a beautiful
[12:06] Speaker 1: driving car. It just has taken to dying. And then
[12:12] Speaker 1: of course when I pulled in, I didn't make it
[12:14] Speaker 1: to the dentist office, doing my little trick right, just
[12:16] Speaker 1: throw it into neutral and then restarted, and then you know,
[12:19] Speaker 1: it's fine. By the time I had got to the
[12:22] Speaker 1: dentist and I stopped it, it was there was some smoke.
[12:26] Speaker 1: There was some smoke. There was enough smoke that a
[12:28] Speaker 1: couple people helpfully had to tell me that my radiator
[12:32] Speaker 1: was out, which this is not a radiator issue. The
[12:34] Speaker 1: car was not overheating. This is something different. But it's
[12:38] Speaker 1: like not the time for some one was a man,
[12:40] Speaker 1: one was a woman to tell me that my radiator's out.
[12:43] Speaker 1: It's like, well it's not, and don't talk to me.
[12:46] Speaker 1: I don't want your help. All that to say, to
[12:51] Speaker 1: answer your question, I think very similar, very smooth, very quiet.
[12:58] Speaker 1: If you want to avoid driving like a jerk Virols Royce.
[13:03] Speaker 1: It calms you down. It might be like a Harley.
[13:06] Speaker 2: I love it. I love it. Yeah, that's the same.
[13:08] Speaker 2: That's very similar. Now, let's talk about some of these
[13:11] Speaker 2: emails we've been getting, and we'll get to the concerns
[13:14] Speaker 2: about my rude, borish style in just a moment. But
[13:21] Speaker 2: first I want to talk about the protesters at the
[13:25] Speaker 2: IAA the EI in Munich. Yes, what did we learn?
[13:29] Speaker 1: So we got a great email from Mike who was
[13:32] Speaker 1: so nice and he actually is was in Munich on
[13:36] Speaker 1: his way to the open space of the ia show.
[13:39] Speaker 1: And Mike, thank you for enlightening me that I did
[13:43] Speaker 1: get the protesters goals wrong last week. Mike said that
[13:48] Speaker 1: their actual main thing is about climate change and the
[13:51] Speaker 1: effect motor vehicles in particular are still having, and they're
[13:55] Speaker 1: very opposed to subsidies for the industry as well as
[13:57] Speaker 1: the damage already done by existing technologies. So basically they're
[14:01] Speaker 1: protesting that they feel the you know, the political parties
[14:04] Speaker 1: are too cozy with the industry lobby, and so they're
[14:07] Speaker 1: pushing for actual tighter regulations on the automotive side.
[14:13] Speaker 2: Right. Yes, I love that. Mike points out there called
[14:18] Speaker 2: klima kleber in German.
[14:20] Speaker 1: I wasn't going to butcher that.
[14:21] Speaker 2: Well, it means climate gluer. And these are have to
[14:23] Speaker 2: be my favorite protesters because they're the ones who actually
[14:26] Speaker 2: super glue themselves onto things. Have you ever seen them
[14:30] Speaker 2: do it?
[14:31] Speaker 1: No? All I heard about was tomatoes being thrown.
[14:33] Speaker 2: Oh my god, it's fantastic. So for example, in London,
[14:37] Speaker 2: a few of them super glued themselves to double decker
[14:41] Speaker 2: buses a few years back, and then like they can't
[14:44] Speaker 2: come off, They've got to have, you know, first responders
[14:48] Speaker 2: come and get them loose.
[14:50] Speaker 1: That's vere Fonda.
[14:51] Speaker 2: I just love it when I love it when protesters
[14:55] Speaker 2: chain themselves to things or glue themselves to stuff.
[14:59] Speaker 1: And would you ever yourself to a tree mat to
[15:01] Speaker 1: save it? Mmm?
[15:03] Speaker 2: I don't think so, because for me, that's like kind
[15:06] Speaker 2: of wasting the time of first responders who could be
[15:09] Speaker 2: saving someone's life or you know, I think it's hilarious,
[15:14] Speaker 2: and but I love trees. Don't get me wrong. I'm like,
[15:17] Speaker 2: I'm a fan of the climate. I just want Forward
[15:21] Speaker 2: to bring back big inch V eight's and put them
[15:24] Speaker 2: in the f one fifty.
[15:25] Speaker 1: These aren't mutually exclusive goals.
[15:27] Speaker 2: Yeah they can't.
[15:28] Speaker 1: I mean, I think we can have both exactly.
[15:30] Speaker 2: It's not for everybody. Look at the raptor are right.
[15:32] Speaker 2: It's a great truck with a super charged five liters
[15:36] Speaker 2: V eight, which some people need, but not everyone needs,
[15:39] Speaker 2: and not everyone.
[15:40] Speaker 1: Wants it exactly.
[15:42] Speaker 2: And what they do is they just price it at
[15:44] Speaker 2: like one hundred grand.
[15:45] Speaker 1: So fine, yeah, fine, price control.
[15:49] Speaker 2: Okay, So we got another email, yes, which one from
[15:52] Speaker 2: Matt exactly not me, right, no different Matt, a different Mat.
[15:58] Speaker 2: And at first I'm reading this and he takes issue
[16:02] Speaker 2: with my with my complaints about the Ribbon software because
[16:06] Speaker 2: I didn't like the software experience. I love the Rivian design,
[16:09] Speaker 2: I love the way it sits, I appreciate the way
[16:12] Speaker 2: it drives, but I just didn't like the fact that
[16:14] Speaker 2: it doesn't get satellite radio from a satellite, the key
[16:18] Speaker 2: card doesn't really work.
[16:20] Speaker 1: Those are valid I actually think those are valid points.
[16:23] Speaker 2: Yeah, I had a number of issues with it doesn't
[16:26] Speaker 2: have Apple car Play, which I don't care that much about.
[16:29] Speaker 2: If you have something better, like GM has a far
[16:31] Speaker 2: better product, so it doesn't bother me. But Rivian doesn't.
[16:35] Speaker 2: So in any case, he says he could not disagree more.
[16:40] Speaker 2: And he has a Kia evy five or no, he
[16:46] Speaker 2: has an Ionic five, which is the sister brand, and
[16:50] Speaker 2: we were saying the Keya EV nine is better, but
[16:52] Speaker 2: he says the Ionic five software is well, he said
[16:56] Speaker 2: it sucks basically.
[16:58] Speaker 1: No, he actually oh, oh oh right, Okay, I see
[17:02] Speaker 1: I'm reading it again.
[17:03] Speaker 2: You're right, yeah, he says it doesn't remember any of
[17:05] Speaker 2: his regents setting no dog mode. I don't know what
[17:08] Speaker 2: dog mode is, but I hope I'm going to write
[17:10] Speaker 2: back back to Matt and find out what is. Bluetooth
[17:12] Speaker 2: pairing takes forty five seconds, which is way too long.
[17:16] Speaker 1: No, and that's actually a huge improvement. I remember being
[17:19] Speaker 1: in some Lexus and Accuras back in the day that
[17:23] Speaker 1: like on a fifteen minute drive, you won't have time
[17:25] Speaker 1: to connect the bluetooth. It takes that long, right, Well,
[17:28] Speaker 1: so forty five seconds is still.
[17:31] Speaker 2: Still too long in today's We've made progress. So anyway,
[17:35] Speaker 2: he loves the Rivian software at least compared to Tesla, Kia, Hyundai,
[17:41] Speaker 2: et cetera. But his PS is the.
[17:43] Speaker 1: PS really got us because Matt, I mean, God love you,
[17:49] Speaker 1: but I'm in New Yorker. Dude, I lived in Manhattan
[17:52] Speaker 1: for almost twenty years. So so Matt makes the case
[17:55] Speaker 1: that the other Matt the rider makes the case that
[17:59] Speaker 1: Matt the co host, Matt Miller talks over me too much.
[18:03] Speaker 1: But he had recently listened to a podcast about Stuff
[18:07] Speaker 1: you Should Know, and the podcast said that East Coast
[18:10] Speaker 1: New Yorkers tend to talk over people, and so that
[18:12] Speaker 1: must be why Matt Miller is talking over me on
[18:14] Speaker 1: the podcast. But I'm a New Yorker too. But here,
[18:17] Speaker 1: Matt doesn't live in New York.
[18:18] Speaker 2: Here's the thing, right, I'm from Ohio.
[18:20] Speaker 1: That actually doesn't live in New York.
[18:22] Speaker 2: Well, I live in Scarsdale. But I will say that
[18:26] Speaker 2: this has been a problem for me my whole life.
[18:29] Speaker 2: I don't just talk over you too much. I do
[18:32] Speaker 2: it to my wife, I do it to my mom.
[18:35] Speaker 2: I do it. I have three little brothers, and I
[18:37] Speaker 2: talk over them constantly.
[18:39] Speaker 1: And I really had to to be heard.
[18:41] Speaker 2: I mean, maybe that's why. But it's something that I've
[18:44] Speaker 2: I've been working on and I don't want to do.
[18:48] Speaker 1: You know what. It's sort of a it's a good
[18:51] Speaker 1: bad combo because the other thing is I love listening
[18:56] Speaker 1: This is why I'm a journalist. I love it. If
[18:59] Speaker 1: I I am talking to somebody interesting, I will just
[19:02] Speaker 1: listen and pepper in a question or two, and I'm
[19:04] Speaker 1: just loving listening. So part of it is, you know,
[19:07] Speaker 1: I am not a trained TV personality like mattis, so
[19:11] Speaker 1: we're actually coming from two sort of different backgrounds. Where
[19:15] Speaker 1: my background is I asked a question and then I
[19:17] Speaker 1: shut up and listen, and Matt is a little bit
[19:20] Speaker 1: more bombastic, which makes you great at your job. Would
[19:23] Speaker 1: you say that's fair, Matt?
[19:24] Speaker 2: I think that's very kind of you and I. You
[19:28] Speaker 2: know what this is. It's a complaint we've gotten since
[19:30] Speaker 2: we started this podcast well over a year ago. It's
[19:32] Speaker 2: something that my wife also, she listens every week and
[19:36] Speaker 2: says she hates it when I talk over you because
[19:38] Speaker 2: she wants to hear what you have to say, just
[19:40] Speaker 2: like I think a lot of our listeners. So it's
[19:43] Speaker 2: something that I need to deal with. I have been
[19:45] Speaker 2: working on it. I was I thought I had improved
[19:47] Speaker 2: to some extent. I will say that last Saturday I
[19:50] Speaker 2: started my we go vy. I took my first shot.
[19:53] Speaker 2: Oh my goodness of this GLP one.
[19:56] Speaker 1: I admire you so much. For talking about this.
[19:59] Speaker 2: So well, yeah, it's not. I mean I talk about
[20:01] Speaker 2: it on TV all the time as well. So I
[20:05] Speaker 2: obviously I want to lose a few pounds. I really
[20:08] Speaker 2: want to lower my blood sugar, reduce my chance of
[20:10] Speaker 2: heart attack, and a number of other things. But I
[20:14] Speaker 2: read I've been like deep into it since I injected
[20:17] Speaker 2: myself for the first time. And by the way, the
[20:18] Speaker 2: injection doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt at all.
[20:20] Speaker 1: Where did you injectate?
[20:21] Speaker 2: I did it in my stomach, which is what I'm
[20:23] Speaker 2: hoping to lose here. But I didn't even realize I
[20:26] Speaker 2: had done it. I thought maybe I missed it, I
[20:29] Speaker 2: didn't push the button right or something. But it actually
[20:31] Speaker 2: doesn't just doesn't hurt. But the cool thing I found
[20:34] Speaker 2: is apparently the semi glue, tide whatever the chemicals have
[20:40] Speaker 2: an anti inflammatory effect on your brain. So a lot
[20:44] Speaker 2: of users experience a focus or a clarity, which I'm
[20:48] Speaker 2: looking forward to.
[20:49] Speaker 1: Okay, let me ask a question to be the Devil's advocate.
[20:52] Speaker 1: Is that new found clarity? Is it possible that is
[20:56] Speaker 1: a side effect from doing fewer other substances? Is that
[21:00] Speaker 1: maybe clouding the clarics?
[21:02] Speaker 2: Yes? So That's another thing I've found, like people who
[21:06] Speaker 2: for example, smoke wheed a lot when they start, no
[21:10] Speaker 2: when they start taking we go the orozepic or a
[21:13] Speaker 2: zep bound or whatever, they they don't have an urge
[21:17] Speaker 2: to do that as much, to smoke wheed as much,
[21:20] Speaker 2: or take gummies or drink alcohol or any of these
[21:24] Speaker 2: other things. Smoke cigarettes, you know, stuff yourself with hogendas
[21:30] Speaker 2: like exactly. So it kind of apparently curves curves your
[21:34] Speaker 2: cravings beyond just food, and it eliminates also what's known
[21:38] Speaker 2: as food noise, which I have a lot of. But
[21:42] Speaker 2: food noise isn't just about food. It's like so many
[21:45] Speaker 2: other things like I need a smoke, I need a beer,
[21:48] Speaker 2: I need a this, I need a that, and maybe
[21:50] Speaker 2: even for example, using your cell phone like all the
[21:53] Speaker 2: time hoping for that dopamine hit. And so I think
[21:56] Speaker 2: it's pretty cool. It's like an experiment for me, and
[21:58] Speaker 2: I'll see how it goes.
[22:00] Speaker 1: Thank you for sharing that information with us, for trusting
[22:03] Speaker 1: us to hold that. We are here along with you
[22:07] Speaker 1: on the journey and we wish you the best as
[22:09] Speaker 1: long as you are healthy and happy. I am healthy
[22:13] Speaker 1: and happy, So thank you.
[22:15] Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you.
[22:16] Speaker 3: It's nice to hear.
[22:17] Speaker 2: By the way, right in to us. Our email address
[22:19] Speaker 2: is Hot Pursuit at Bloomberg dot net. Still ahead, welcome
[22:23] Speaker 2: Tesla's chief designer, Franz von Holtzhausend. I'm Matt Miller along
[22:26] Speaker 2: with Hannah Elliott. There's more Hot Pursuit right after this.
[22:38] Speaker 1: The man needs almost no introduction. Franz von Holdshausen, chief
[22:43] Speaker 1: designer of Tesla since two thousand and eight. Thank you
[22:46] Speaker 1: for joining us and also diner designer, because the last
[22:51] Speaker 1: time I read into you, Franz was at the Tesla Diner,
[22:54] Speaker 1: which is very cool looking. I have to say that
[22:58] Speaker 1: was really fun to see you there.
[23:00] Speaker 4: Yeah, it's great to see you guys. Great to meet you.
[23:02] Speaker 4: I'm happy to be here and.
[23:07] Speaker 3: Your mind.
[23:07] Speaker 1: So I have to ask, how's business at the diner
[23:09] Speaker 1: have you? Are you still there like every day or
[23:13] Speaker 1: has it tapered off a little bit for you?
[23:15] Speaker 3: Okay?
[23:15] Speaker 4: I think you know, we have a we have a
[23:18] Speaker 4: really great team there and you know, the design, the
[23:23] Speaker 4: design of the diner was really about how do we
[23:25] Speaker 4: bring a future vibe to charging? How do we make
[23:30] Speaker 4: the charging experience exciting again? And you know, looking at
[23:35] Speaker 4: the location in Hollywood, it made sense to bring a
[23:39] Speaker 4: bit of a movie theme into it as well. And so,
[23:41] Speaker 4: you know, the idea of come in charge, grab a
[23:45] Speaker 4: byte to catch a movie just had a really cool
[23:50] Speaker 4: vibe to it, and we wanted to compliment that with
[23:54] Speaker 4: inexperience in the building and the location that really made
[24:00] Speaker 4: you feel like you're stepping into something new and fresh
[24:03] Speaker 4: and a positive and a glimpse into where our future is.
[24:09] Speaker 4: But it's you know, all around you right at the moment.
[24:12] Speaker 2: It makes me a little bit jealous that you have
[24:14] Speaker 2: it out there in La and that Hannah got to go.
[24:17] Speaker 2: It's always the case that Hannah gets the good assignments
[24:19] Speaker 2: and I have to sit here in the studio. But
[24:22] Speaker 2: any plans to open a diner in New York.
[24:25] Speaker 4: Yeah, we've been talking about, you know, diners located around
[24:31] Speaker 4: the world, and so I think it's just a matter
[24:34] Speaker 4: of stay tuned.
[24:35] Speaker 3: We're checking it out.
[24:38] Speaker 2: Well.
[24:38] Speaker 1: I have to say, I thought it was so cool,
[24:40] Speaker 1: how you know an automaker thinks about building real, authentic
[24:46] Speaker 1: community with its fans, with its customers, with its buyers.
[24:51] Speaker 1: It's nice to see. Obviously, Tesla runs very deep for
[24:55] Speaker 1: the people who do love the brand, and I really
[24:57] Speaker 1: did see that. It was like a celebration and I
[25:01] Speaker 1: love that. You know, just the idea that you guys
[25:04] Speaker 1: are doing something to try to give back to your
[25:07] Speaker 1: customers isn't the wrong word, but to try to do
[25:10] Speaker 1: something fun. Obviously it's for everybody, but it certainly did
[25:14] Speaker 1: feel like a Tesla hub of people who really love
[25:18] Speaker 1: the brand.
[25:19] Speaker 4: Yeah, and it kind of in these trying times, I
[25:21] Speaker 4: guess it's the best way you could call it, especially
[25:24] Speaker 4: here in La. It's really great to see the community
[25:27] Speaker 4: coming together and the.
[25:30] Speaker 3: It felt like.
[25:33] Speaker 4: A space where you could be free and comfortable and
[25:36] Speaker 4: get a great you know, meal, sustainably sourced and just
[25:40] Speaker 4: enjoy enjoy the time and be around other folks that
[25:43] Speaker 4: are like minded, really thinking about the future and where
[25:46] Speaker 4: we're headed from a sustainability perspective. And you know, I
[25:50] Speaker 4: think that, like you touched on it, that sense of
[25:52] Speaker 4: community is really strong and powerful there, and you know,
[25:56] Speaker 4: complement that with great food and great a great I'm
[26:01] Speaker 4: you know, I don't see why you wouldn't want to
[26:03] Speaker 4: go there.
[26:03] Speaker 2: Franz, can you I want to go back before we
[26:07] Speaker 2: get to the future and talk about the beginning, because
[26:10] Speaker 2: I have long felt that the models is incredibly elegant
[26:15] Speaker 2: and doesn't seem to age. Right, it's got to be
[26:18] Speaker 2: fifteen years old and it still could be a new car.
[26:21] Speaker 2: That's not something you could say about Audi's BMW's Mercedes.
[26:26] Speaker 2: So how did you go about designing that? And like
[26:32] Speaker 2: tell us about the beginning with Elon and the idea
[26:35] Speaker 2: to do the supercharger networks, and like the whole start
[26:38] Speaker 2: of I hear it came together very quickly.
[26:41] Speaker 4: I mean, I don't know how much time we have.
[26:43] Speaker 4: This could be, you know, this like a book in itself,
[26:47] Speaker 4: but I think the abridged version is really when we
[26:52] Speaker 4: started we wanted to. We talked a lot about the
[26:56] Speaker 4: technology and how advanced the technology was. We saw a
[27:01] Speaker 4: lot of you know, if you recall that time two
[27:03] Speaker 4: thousand and seven, two thousand and eight, two thousand and nine,
[27:06] Speaker 4: you know, there is a lot of turmoil going on
[27:09] Speaker 4: in the world. But we also saw the like the
[27:13] Speaker 4: rise of ev and hybrid and a lot of companies
[27:18] Speaker 4: and a lot of people were really looking at we
[27:20] Speaker 4: have to really stand out and be unique and be
[27:23] Speaker 4: over the top kind of shout really loud from the
[27:26] Speaker 4: top of the hill. That you're trying to do something
[27:29] Speaker 4: sustainable and better. And you know, I think the products
[27:35] Speaker 4: that we were seeing were pretty extreme, and we felt like,
[27:40] Speaker 4: we have a great technology. Let's approach it from a
[27:43] Speaker 4: refined perspective. Let's look beyond just the immediate impact of
[27:49] Speaker 4: you know, bringing an ev into the marketplace, but really
[27:52] Speaker 4: look at it from a long term perspective, and how
[27:54] Speaker 4: do you get somebody that past the early adopters, will
[27:58] Speaker 4: continue to purchase the product and own the product and
[28:01] Speaker 4: feel good about it or aspire to it long term.
[28:04] Speaker 4: And so I think with that approach, we looked at
[28:06] Speaker 4: a little bit more classical design language, something that was
[28:12] Speaker 4: clean and elegant and refined that that you know, I
[28:18] Speaker 4: think it didn't have to make a big, huge splash
[28:23] Speaker 4: at an impact level. But over time it's obviously we've
[28:26] Speaker 4: seen that it's been able to sustain itself. And I think,
[28:29] Speaker 4: you know, just classic proportions, clean, elegant lines that the
[28:34] Speaker 4: language is really derived around this idea of efficiency. And
[28:38] Speaker 4: you know, when you don't when when when you're starting
[28:40] Speaker 4: a brand or you're starting a company like Tuzzle was.
[28:42] Speaker 4: At that time, there was no library of history to
[28:45] Speaker 4: draw from, so we had the opportunity to really kind
[28:51] Speaker 4: of create our own history.
[28:52] Speaker 2: It's interesting, by the way, Frands, that you say that
[28:55] Speaker 2: the languages are around efficiency. One of the people who
[29:01] Speaker 2: listen to this podcast wrote in and asked which you
[29:05] Speaker 2: consider most important when designing a vehicle, the beauty or
[29:08] Speaker 2: the aesthetics. I guess the drag coefficient or the ease
[29:11] Speaker 2: of manufacturing, because you've got to consider all three of
[29:13] Speaker 2: those things, right.
[29:14] Speaker 3: All three are equally important.
[29:16] Speaker 4: I think at the end of the day, the customer
[29:19] Speaker 4: cares a little bit less about the ease of manufacturing.
[29:21] Speaker 4: But you know, if we don't take that into consideration,
[29:24] Speaker 4: then it's really difficult for us to bring the products
[29:27] Speaker 4: to the customer.
[29:28] Speaker 1: So yeah, I was going to say, I remember back
[29:33] Speaker 1: in those early early days being with Elon, with him
[29:38] Speaker 1: taking me through a prototype, not a less prototype, and
[29:42] Speaker 1: he was talking about that like a computer on wheels,
[29:47] Speaker 1: and that was the first time I had ever heard
[29:49] Speaker 1: anybody make that comparison or connection. And even then he
[29:55] Speaker 1: was talking about how, no, this is going to be
[29:57] Speaker 1: like a seamless thing that's also connected to your phone,
[29:59] Speaker 1: and just sounded really different. I mean it was complete, right, yeah, completely,
[30:07] Speaker 1: and so from a design perspective, were you approaching the
[30:12] Speaker 1: design as this is a completely new paradigm for us,
[30:17] Speaker 1: this is even a computer or were you still I
[30:20] Speaker 1: mean you mentioned having nothing to draw on, so were
[30:23] Speaker 1: you thinking of it as a car or something different.
[30:27] Speaker 4: Well, at the end of the day, we knew it
[30:29] Speaker 4: was going to be a car, right, But I think
[30:31] Speaker 4: that perspective allowed us to open up the range of
[30:37] Speaker 4: possibilities and really explore beyond the traditional And I think
[30:41] Speaker 4: that's kind of getting back to this first principles perspective
[30:44] Speaker 4: where you know, we're not following just what you know,
[30:47] Speaker 4: like Lemmings off the cliff, what everybody else is doing.
[30:49] Speaker 4: We're really looking at how do we solve the problem?
[30:53] Speaker 4: And you know, we just saw that there was a
[30:55] Speaker 4: lot of consistent, kind of complacent and normalcy and the
[31:01] Speaker 4: way vehicles were being presented to the public. And we
[31:05] Speaker 4: looked at you know, technology in the computer space and
[31:10] Speaker 4: phone space and electronics just moving so quickly and being
[31:14] Speaker 4: able to adapt really quickly, and that's what you know,
[31:18] Speaker 4: the consumer, what us have in our life, and the
[31:22] Speaker 4: vehicle always felt like it was ten years behind all that.
[31:25] Speaker 4: So we really wanted to bring the vehicle into the
[31:27] Speaker 4: same level, if not as advanced, not more advanced than
[31:32] Speaker 4: you know, state of the art electronics at the time.
[31:34] Speaker 4: And with that we're able to, you know, continue to
[31:38] Speaker 4: evolve and upgrade. And you know, we brought over the
[31:42] Speaker 4: air updating to the vehicles really early, and you know
[31:46] Speaker 4: that's allowed vehicles like the model is to still stay relevant.
[31:50] Speaker 4: You know, there's so many people that I bump into
[31:52] Speaker 4: or talk to that own one of the very first models,
[31:56] Speaker 4: but because we keep the firmware and the software refreshing
[32:00] Speaker 4: an up to date and currents, you know that they
[32:03] Speaker 4: don't feel the need to have to upgrade the cars.
[32:06] Speaker 3: You know, it's still great right now and it still
[32:08] Speaker 3: feels relevant.
[32:09] Speaker 2: By the way, a lot of the cars that you've
[32:11] Speaker 2: worked on really do age well, because I've read that
[32:15] Speaker 2: you worked on the New Beetle and you worked on
[32:19] Speaker 2: the Pontiac Solstice, which is one of my favorites. I
[32:22] Speaker 2: love that, by the way, Hannah and the Dax Shepherd
[32:25] Speaker 2: movie Hit and Run and then and the models. But
[32:29] Speaker 2: I wonder, do you think the cyber truck is going
[32:31] Speaker 2: to age the same way, because it's obviously a much
[32:33] Speaker 2: more controversial design than the other three.
[32:37] Speaker 3: You know, I'm really.
[32:38] Speaker 4: Curious to see how Cyberchruck evolves. You know, I think
[32:41] Speaker 4: when when it came out, it shocked everybody. You know,
[32:44] Speaker 4: I think nobody really believed that we were serious so
[32:47] Speaker 4: that we're going to be able to do something like that.
[32:49] Speaker 4: And yet, you know, we put it into production basically
[32:52] Speaker 4: as we showed it. And I think it also I
[32:56] Speaker 4: think helped inspire a little bit of a movement in
[32:58] Speaker 4: the design world, at least in the automotive world, and
[33:00] Speaker 4: you see it in products as well. It got people,
[33:04] Speaker 4: you know, feeling like, okay, you we can break out
[33:07] Speaker 4: and we can be different, and it's okay. And you know,
[33:10] Speaker 4: the cyber truck is still a truck. It's still a
[33:12] Speaker 4: great truck. The underpinnings of it are not fake. There's
[33:16] Speaker 4: it's not just esthetically different and falls apart on every
[33:20] Speaker 4: other metric. It's you know, our direction was, we have
[33:25] Speaker 4: to make a truck that's that drives and handles like
[33:28] Speaker 4: a sports car, but has the functionality of a pickup
[33:32] Speaker 4: truck that you would expect and exceed on those levels.
[33:36] Speaker 4: And then you know, with that, we were able to
[33:38] Speaker 4: bring an aesthetic that was different based on a manufacturing
[33:41] Speaker 4: principle that helped us bring the products to to light
[33:48] Speaker 4: in a in a different way. Where we were putting
[33:51] Speaker 4: the toughness on the outside, we're using creating like an
[33:54] Speaker 4: exoskeleton in the vehicle, using different materials that didn't require paint.
[33:58] Speaker 3: So that's a much more animal process.
[34:01] Speaker 4: You don't have the big stamping requirements in the factory,
[34:05] Speaker 4: and so the process is different and the end results
[34:08] Speaker 4: is a really unique aesthetic with which.
[34:11] Speaker 3: I think, you know, does it last the test of time?
[34:17] Speaker 4: I think historically, looking back, you know, hopefully, I see
[34:21] Speaker 4: that it's sparked a movement that allow allowed everybody to
[34:26] Speaker 4: start to think a little bit differently about products that
[34:28] Speaker 4: we create and things that we put in our lives.
[34:30] Speaker 2: You're listening to Hot Pursuit from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Matt
[34:34] Speaker 2: Miller along with Hannah Elliott. We'll have more of our
[34:36] Speaker 2: conversation with Tesla's chief designer, Frans fund Whole thousand right
[34:40] Speaker 2: after the break. This is Bloomberg Hot Pursuit. I'm Matt
[34:51] Speaker 2: Miller along with Hannah Elliott. Now here's more of our
[34:53] Speaker 2: conversation with Frans vund hold thousand, chief designer at Tesla.
[34:58] Speaker 1: Franz, would you ever can that are making a smaller
[35:01] Speaker 1: version of the cyber truck or even an suv cyber
[35:07] Speaker 1: trucky type thing, something smaller that might have more volume potentially.
[35:12] Speaker 4: Those are definitely all things that we've considered. I think,
[35:16] Speaker 4: you know, wait and see is probably maybe.
[35:19] Speaker 3: The best it.
[35:21] Speaker 1: I hate that answer.
[35:23] Speaker 4: You know, We're working on so many really innovative and
[35:28] Speaker 4: fun and great things into the future, and I would
[35:31] Speaker 4: love to be able to share them.
[35:32] Speaker 2: But I would like a three row like a Tahoe competitor. God, listen,
[35:38] Speaker 2: you're sitting in what appears to be a multi seat vehicle.
[35:42] Speaker 2: Is that the robo van?
[35:45] Speaker 3: I'm in the robust?
[35:46] Speaker 2: Yes, the robusts okay, so tell us about that. It's
[35:50] Speaker 2: like a new mass transit vehicle. Are their plans to
[35:55] Speaker 2: show it anytime soon?
[35:57] Speaker 4: Yeah. We showed this vehicle almost a year ago now
[36:00] Speaker 4: at our ten ten event, which is really based around
[36:03] Speaker 4: autonomy and the future of transport. And you know, this
[36:08] Speaker 4: is a it's a fourteen passenger you know, up to
[36:10] Speaker 4: twenty with standing room autonomous van you call that really
[36:15] Speaker 4: just transforms the vision of what it means to be
[36:20] Speaker 4: moved around. This is you know, an idea of urban
[36:24] Speaker 4: transport where it's not quite as personal as an individual
[36:31] Speaker 4: cybercab rob a taxi experience, but gets you know, cost
[36:35] Speaker 4: per mile way down, allows the customer to have affair
[36:39] Speaker 4: for you know, ten or twenty cents a mile, and
[36:41] Speaker 4: really unlocks the ability for transport for people that maybe
[36:46] Speaker 4: are don't have the wherewith all the ability to afford transportation.
[36:52] Speaker 3: Now this gets them rather than.
[36:57] Speaker 4: You know, bus stop to bus stop, this gets them
[36:59] Speaker 4: closer to their destination, closer to their pickup spot, and
[37:04] Speaker 4: just freeze up transport for underprivileged folks. I think it's
[37:09] Speaker 4: really going to revolutionize transportation and that's you know, one
[37:13] Speaker 4: of our goals. And we also wanted to do it
[37:16] Speaker 4: in a fresh, futuristic way so that you really feel
[37:18] Speaker 4: like you're stepping into a better world, a better experience,
[37:22] Speaker 4: a more sustainable world, and just you know, I think
[37:26] Speaker 4: there's something about feeling good in the way that you're transported.
[37:32] Speaker 4: It's the same as you know, fashion or the house.
[37:35] Speaker 3: That you live in. You feel good about the things
[37:37] Speaker 3: that you put around you.
[37:38] Speaker 4: You feel good about when something is designed well, it
[37:41] Speaker 4: looks futuristic, it has an emotional connection that you can
[37:46] Speaker 4: feel positive about.
[37:47] Speaker 3: And that's the experience we're trying to get.
[37:49] Speaker 1: Is that something that we would see in the US.
[37:52] Speaker 1: Or is that for more, you know, very dense urban centers.
[37:56] Speaker 1: So that for the US, yeah, cool. Well, everybody loves
[38:01] Speaker 1: Waymos here in Beverly Hill. They're very excited about those Soma.
[38:07] Speaker 4: Taxi experiences coming to La Se And so.
[38:11] Speaker 2: I got to ask about the handle story that that
[38:15] Speaker 2: Bloomberg wrote about. You know, the door handles are flat
[38:19] Speaker 2: on Tesla's and the interior buttons are electric. I was
[38:25] Speaker 2: recently stuck in a Corvette which has the same kind
[38:29] Speaker 2: of thing, until I, you know, somebody the parking garage
[38:33] Speaker 2: pointed out that I could find the emergency latch. You
[38:35] Speaker 2: have a similar system, knitsays looking into this now, apparently
[38:40] Speaker 2: Beijing is looking into it. Have you considered a redesign
[38:43] Speaker 2: or a fix for these issues.
[38:46] Speaker 4: We actually have a mechanical release that's you know, basically
[38:49] Speaker 4: right at the electronic one two, and we're combining the two.
[38:53] Speaker 4: So you know, in the moment that you're in a
[38:56] Speaker 4: panic situation, the muscle memory to go to you know,
[39:01] Speaker 4: what you know is right there, so you just pull
[39:03] Speaker 4: a little bit further on the lever and you have
[39:05] Speaker 4: the mechanical release.
[39:07] Speaker 3: So that's something that we're working on. Yeah, and it's
[39:09] Speaker 3: in the cars.
[39:10] Speaker 2: Now, all right. So if there is, if there is
[39:14] Speaker 2: then a China ban, you're ready to roll that out.
[39:18] Speaker 2: So that I'm working well, actually the band the ban.
[39:21] Speaker 2: I guess the Chinese issue is the flat outer door handle.
[39:25] Speaker 2: So would would you would you do something? Would you
[39:29] Speaker 2: make a change, like you know Ferrari's have that little
[39:31] Speaker 2: crease you can reach into. Is there is there some
[39:34] Speaker 2: idea about that on the outside.
[39:36] Speaker 4: Yeah, we're working on it right now and just looking
[39:38] Speaker 4: at the you know, the details of the regulation if
[39:42] Speaker 4: and when that happens, and we'll have a really good
[39:45] Speaker 4: solution for that.
[39:46] Speaker 3: I'm not I'm not worried about that.
[39:50] Speaker 1: It makes sense, you know, I know, like it's one
[39:52] Speaker 1: thing for us adults to know that, but for kids,
[39:55] Speaker 1: you know, it's a little bit different to expect a
[39:57] Speaker 1: kid to know how to go for a manual relief.
[40:02] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[40:02] Speaker 4: So the idea of combining the electronic one and the
[40:04] Speaker 4: menu one together into one button, I think, you know, it
[40:07] Speaker 4: makes a lot of sense. It really helps to you know,
[40:10] Speaker 4: the muscle memory of reaching for something every day is
[40:15] Speaker 4: there and so you intuitively just grab the same thing
[40:17] Speaker 4: and you're free.
[40:19] Speaker 2: By the way, Franz, the the design language is very
[40:22] Speaker 2: clear across the sexy models, and the truck is obviously
[40:27] Speaker 2: a departure from the S, the three, the X, and
[40:30] Speaker 2: the Y. But do you stick with that design language
[40:35] Speaker 2: for future, you know, fifteen years later, twenty years later,
[40:38] Speaker 2: or is there a point where you guys decide to
[40:42] Speaker 2: change it up for the for the cars that you're making.
[40:46] Speaker 4: I mean, I think what we're actually looking at is
[40:48] Speaker 4: that every product that we're working on really deserves its
[40:52] Speaker 4: own unique identity and language, and we don't want to
[40:55] Speaker 4: pre prescribe a language to that. I think there's also
[41:01] Speaker 4: making sure that we're relevant and forward looking and you know,
[41:06] Speaker 4: not getting stale in terms of the delivery of the
[41:09] Speaker 4: products esthetically.
[41:11] Speaker 3: So we look at every product.
[41:13] Speaker 4: As if it's unique and potentially has its own identity
[41:17] Speaker 4: and going forward. So and I'm excited about the stuff
[41:20] Speaker 4: that we're working on, and I think, you know, you'll
[41:23] Speaker 4: start to see it pretty soon.
[41:25] Speaker 1: You know. This is an interesting idea that I've actually
[41:27] Speaker 1: been following a bit with other automakers too. For instance,
[41:32] Speaker 1: Mercedes has decided to go back to the roller style
[41:36] Speaker 1: volume control on the steering wheel. Just the bigger idea
[41:40] Speaker 1: that like, sometimes the most futuristic or advanced thing isn't
[41:45] Speaker 1: actually what consumers want. And it's been really interesting to see,
[41:49] Speaker 1: you know, sometimes it's two steps forward, one steps back.
[41:52] Speaker 1: It's still progress, but I have seen and I was
[41:55] Speaker 1: thinking the other day about BMW's big display key that
[41:59] Speaker 1: was like a computer screen in your hand. They realize
[42:01] Speaker 1: nobody wants this and they stop selling it. It's interesting that,
[42:06] Speaker 1: you know, maybe some tech is answering a question that
[42:09] Speaker 1: nobody's asking.
[42:12] Speaker 4: Yeah, I think you know, we're we're really looking at
[42:15] Speaker 4: looking at a world of autonomy and how do we
[42:18] Speaker 4: best serve the customer and autonomous experience. So, you know,
[42:23] Speaker 4: every car that Tesla sells right now has the ability
[42:27] Speaker 4: to be completely autonomous as the firmware continues to evolve
[42:30] Speaker 4: and develop, and I think, you know, so it's easier
[42:36] Speaker 4: and quicker to change software than it is hardware, and
[42:39] Speaker 4: we want to make sure that the hardware that we
[42:41] Speaker 4: have is really focused on an autonomous future where you're
[42:46] Speaker 4: not driving and the car is driving you, and what
[42:49] Speaker 4: are you doing with your time, what's your experience, how
[42:52] Speaker 4: are you doing, you know, the the meetings, the leisure time,
[42:56] Speaker 4: the movie watching, game playing, relaxing, basically in your journey.
[43:02] Speaker 4: And and what what is the you know, quote unquote
[43:05] Speaker 4: hardware that you have around you in your vehicle.
[43:08] Speaker 3: That's you know, where our headspace is.
[43:10] Speaker 4: So we're constantly looking at that future state of a
[43:14] Speaker 4: world where you know, in the in the very near future,
[43:17] Speaker 4: where you don't have to drive at all, if you know,
[43:23] Speaker 4: and if you do, it's maybe very little, you also
[43:27] Speaker 4: want to drive, you still have a great vehicle to
[43:28] Speaker 4: be able to do them.
[43:29] Speaker 2: You've mentioned sustainability also a couple of times. Frands Obviously,
[43:33] Speaker 2: that's I would think at the forefront of Tesla's uh yeah,
[43:39] Speaker 2: raison Tetra really and you've also mentioned that you want
[43:43] Speaker 2: to design a car that's maybe easy or not expensive
[43:48] Speaker 2: to produce so that more people can get it, and
[43:50] Speaker 2: you want to put I know that you want to
[43:53] Speaker 2: make a lower cost vehicle. Is it harder now with
[43:56] Speaker 2: these steel and aluminum Terrace because you build one of
[44:02] Speaker 2: the most American cars that there is in terms of production,
[44:04] Speaker 2: but you still have to import those those pieces.
[44:07] Speaker 4: Right, We're I think you know, we're looking at how
[44:12] Speaker 4: do we become or continue to be the most American
[44:15] Speaker 4: manufactured vehicles and ultimately the the you know, we we
[44:21] Speaker 4: just want to bring a great experience at an affordable rate.
[44:25] Speaker 4: It's you know, how do we design into that space?
[44:30] Speaker 4: What are the material choices that we use? How do
[44:32] Speaker 4: we leave a better future for you know, this planet,
[44:37] Speaker 4: making sensible choices on sustainable materials, et cetera. And I
[44:42] Speaker 4: think you know, we are an American company. People tend
[44:47] Speaker 4: to forget that and I think you know, being locally
[44:49] Speaker 4: sourced is really important to us, and we're continuing to
[44:53] Speaker 4: just explore how do we maximize on that level. And
[44:59] Speaker 4: I think you know, we have an incredibly creative team
[45:03] Speaker 4: that's really looking at, you know, bring sometimes bringing the
[45:07] Speaker 4: impossible at a lower cost, you know, the aspirational at
[45:11] Speaker 4: a lower costs.
[45:12] Speaker 3: And that's you know, always what we try to achieve.
[45:15] Speaker 1: All right, As I know we're run out of time
[45:17] Speaker 1: with you, I have one philosophical question. Though you've been
[45:20] Speaker 1: at Tesla for so long, what is the key to
[45:23] Speaker 1: your longevity? I mean you've been through thick and thin.
[45:27] Speaker 1: What's your what's your secret? Sauce?
[45:30] Speaker 4: I don't know if there's a secret sauce, but I think,
[45:32] Speaker 4: you know, we have a we have a really great team.
[45:34] Speaker 4: We're focused on, you know, delivering an exciting future, a
[45:38] Speaker 4: sustainable future that we all believe in. And I think
[45:42] Speaker 4: when we continue to bring products that are esthetically beautiful,
[45:48] Speaker 4: that are aspirational, and we figure out how to do
[45:51] Speaker 4: that in a sustainable and affordable way, then you know,
[45:56] Speaker 4: I think we Teesla continues on its mission and you know,
[46:00] Speaker 4: I think, you know, we have a team that's really
[46:04] Speaker 4: focused on doing that at a super high level, where
[46:07] Speaker 4: every detail counts, every millimeter accounts. And yeah, well in
[46:14] Speaker 4: the moment I stopped doing that, I guess that's maybe when.
[46:18] Speaker 2: Franz. It was great to get some time with you.
[46:21] Speaker 2: I really appreciate it. Obviously we could go on for
[46:23] Speaker 2: hours and hours, but I know you have a lot
[46:26] Speaker 2: to do. So thank you very much, Franz on whole
[46:28] Speaker 2: thousand there from Tesla.
[46:30] Speaker 3: It's been a pleasure.
[46:31] Speaker 2: Thanks all right, Our thanks to Frans vun whod thousand
[46:34] Speaker 2: for joining us. He is the chief designer at Tesla.
[46:38] Speaker 1: That does it for this week's show, Remember to follow
[46:41] Speaker 1: and subscribe to Hot Pursuit on Apple, Spotify and anywhere
[46:45] Speaker 1: else you listen. I would also say put in Bloomberg
[46:47] Speaker 1: Cop Pursuit if you're searching and you're not finding it
[46:49] Speaker 1: right away. Bloomberg Cop Pursuit on Apple, Spotify, and anywhere
[46:53] Speaker 1: else you listen. You can also send us your comments.
[46:56] Speaker 1: Email us at hot Pursuit at bloomberg dot net.
[47:00] Speaker 2: And check out Hannah's columns and stories on bloomberg dot
[47:03] Speaker 2: com and the Bloomberg Business App. Go there for car reviews,
[47:06] Speaker 2: events and stories you won't find anywhere else. Find it
[47:09] Speaker 2: all at Bloomberg dot com, slash Pursuits, slash Autos. I'm
[47:13] Speaker 2: Matt Miller and.
[47:14] Speaker 1: I'm Hannah Elliott. We'll be back in your podcast feed
[47:16] Speaker 1: again next week

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