Tech Tuesday with Mike Dobuski from ABC

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is Tech Tuesday, and who doesn't like cheap tech? Tech?
Is what I said?

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Now, cheap is inexpensive or cheap is in? I found
this in the bargain bin for a dollar ninety nine.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Well, that's a good question, and ABC News Technology reporter
Mike Dubuski just may have the answer. Mike, Welcome to
the show.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Brother.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Yeah, great to be here, guys. A little bit of
everything today. We're talking about TMU, which has sort of
low cost goods at the tech story because it's an
e commerce retailer, but also there's some like news in
the just low cost device space that is kind of
interesting in both the smartphone and the automotive market.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Okay, so yeah, talk about this because I don't know,
did you hear Chucky was saying is it in cheap
as it? Well, did you say, Chuck.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Cheap is in inexpensive or cheap is in bargain bin?
I mean, you know, the crap stuff based inexpensive?

Speaker 1 (00:52):
I say, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
Well it certainly. Temu, the Chinese e commerce retailer, has
you know, faced critic for selling some pretty low quality
goods in the United States, but that really has not
stopped their ascendancy here in the US. This is again
a Chinese e commerce platform. They've been around since twenty
twenty two here in the States, and the reason that
they've been very popular, consistently topping app download charts is

(01:18):
because they do sell very cheap stuff and sometimes at
you know, you know, a benefit to people who are
looking for stuff that they don't necessarily need to be
of the highest quality, maybe like a Halloween costume or
something like that, or you know, a phone mount for
your car, that sort of thing. The good way to
think about Timu is as an alternative to Amazon on Walmart,

(01:39):
but a sort of order of magnitude less expensive. In fact,
they are so cheap that their slogan is shop like
a billionaire, because you're just able to afford so many
things because they're all so cheap. However, this is a
news item, guys, because this is a platform that is
now sort of operating in a bit of a different space.
Timu has been raising prices over the last few days

(02:01):
and sometimes pretty dramatically, up to one hundred and fifty
percent of charges we're seeing on some items on Timu,
and this is in part, of course, due to the
tariffs the Trump administration has imposed a one hundred and
forty five percent tariff rate on goods imported from China,
but also on this D Minimus exemption. Now, this is
a part of our US import code that has been

(02:22):
around for a long time. It was kind of set
up as a means by which to help travelers send
items and packages back home without having to pay an
exorbitant amount of money. Basically states that if you're sending
something from a foreign country to the US for less
than eight hundred dollars, that it's valued at less than
eight hundred dollars, you don't have to pay import duty
fees on it. And again, this is kind of meant

(02:43):
to be for individuals, but TIMU was able to basically
make a whole business out of this and establish a
very firm foothold here in the United States. While President
Trump has announced that on Friday, May second, D Minimus
exemption is going away, and it seems like an anti
apation of that, TIMU is raising prices.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Hey talk about this very basic but very cheap electric truck.
I think it's Slate Auto. I believe is that right?

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah, Slate Auto is the name of this new automobile. Manufacturer.
They're based in Michigan, and they pulled the wraps last
week off a new electric pickup truck. And you might
think pickup truck, and you think this big, hulking vehicle,
but this is actually a very compact vehicle. It's only
a few inches longer than a Mini Cooper, it's about
two feet shorter than a Ford Maverick, and it's completely electric,

(03:33):
about one hundred and fifty miles of electric range. It's
also very basic, guys, no radio, only one color is available,
and no power windows. When was the last time you
saw crank windows in a new car. However, all of
that basic myth allows Slate to sell this vehicle, they say,
for under twenty thousand dollars, and there's pretty much nothing

(03:55):
else in the market that competes with it at that price.
A pickup truck less than twenty thousand, that is electric,
that really just doesn't exist. And that's why this thing
has been garnering a lot of attention. They're factoring in
federal eb tax incentives to get to that price, which
obviously could change with you know, depending on how the
Trump administration wants to approach electric vehicle incentives in the

(04:17):
United States. But it's certainly been garnering a lot of
attention for that price and for the ability that says,
you know, this is kind of like a blank slate.
You can add back in stuff that you want, things
like a radio, things like amount for your phone or
for a tablet so that you can have a little
bit of infoteainment or a GPS or something like that.
You can even option in rear seats to turn this

(04:39):
into a small suv. It's a really kind of compelling
modular products. But there's some questions about weather Slate can
actually get this over the line, because, as we've seen
with Tesla and Lucid and Rivian and others, it's pretty
difficult to build an electric vehicle as a startup, especially
if you're trying to be profitable.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah, for sure, Mike Tubuski, ABC News Technology. We've very
interesting information. Thank you very much for jumping on with
us today. Appreciate you, Mike.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
Of course, I see you brother, all right.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
Looking at pictures of it, it kind of reminds me of
like a Dots and B two thousand pickup from nineteen eighty. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
got kind of that look in Bezos is a backer
of this company, so don't expect them to stay quiet long.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
Well, and the other part is right off, I'm thinking,
who's in the market for that without a radio one color,
but you can add those things. It sounds like yeah,
but still being a very cheap. You get into the twenties,
into the low twenties for if an EV is in
your in your wheelhouse or what have you.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
So