January 19, 2016 • 41 mins
With help from ex-Tesla employees and a Chinese tech-tycoon, Faraday Future is planning to revolutionize the electric car market. But how? Join Scott and Ben as they take a closer look at the controversial new company.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car Stuff from how Stuff Works dot Com. I'd welcome
to car Stuff. I'm Scott on Ben. As always, we
are joined with our super producer knowl the Uh, well,
let's let's wait on this. Let's keep this nickname is secret.
(00:24):
Wouldn't that be appropriate? Oh maybe it would be appropriated, right,
because there's nothing but secrecy veiling what we're talking about today.
And that's even and it's current because we're we're recording
this in the early part of news came out just
this week as we're recording this about this vehicle, and uh,
even so, even so with this public reveal, there's still
(00:44):
a lot that we don't know about this company, this vehicle,
what's to come. There's it's just it's shrouded in secrecy.
Is it vaporware? Is it? Right now? It's a concept
car and a lot of intrigue and interest, ladies and gentlemen.
Today we are talking about the Faraday f F zero one. Yeah,
(01:05):
and you know this is the thing. We'll preface this
whole podcast by saying, right now, there's just not a
lot of details out there still, and this is after
a big press conference reveal at what iss the Consumer
Electronic show out in Las Vegas appropriately enough, I was,
we'll find out that's where they're building some giant factory.
Maybe yeah, possibly, And Okay, I feel like I really
(01:29):
need to say this up front, and we'll get into
the topic and just a moment here. But anytime we
bring something like this up, anything close to this, someone
always says, do your research. You've gotta you've gotta remember
the history. You gotta remember history, the way things play out.
And and sure, I get that there are certain companies
that come along that have a little bit more promise
(01:50):
to them, and I think that Elio Elio felt to
me like one that had a little bit more promise.
Tucker had a lot of promise. But I think we
both have the same and you know, what happened to
Tucker Dale was a complete scam out and out. Absolutely
there have been others throughout history. There's some that you
know along the way that we just haven't really talked
about much. There's so many of these vaporware type cars.
(02:11):
There's there's there's Carbon Motors with their police vehicles. There's
Detroit Electric with their Tesla like um electric car that
we've seen that's near production, but has been near production
for many years now. And there are other things that
actually occur but fizzle in the pan, like Fisker. Yeah,
(02:33):
that's right. Yeah, so Fiskers out there, we've seen them
at car show. Yeah, we've seen Fiskers, but very low
production numbers. And also there's a lot of there's there's
a lot of behind the scenes litigation going on with
Fisker right now too. I think I've heard a recent
lawsuit that's happening, something about a copyright infringement maybe or
something similar along that line. And I'm not sure. I'm
(02:53):
gonna have to look at up. I saw it along
the way he was. I was digging into info about
this vehicle because there's a there's a lot of contra
sit around it. We don't know a whole lot about it.
We know a few specs. But then again, the car
that they showed was just like not a shell, but
it's a it's a prototype. It's not on a power platform. No, no, okay,
(03:13):
And I promise we'll get to it. But but but
I want one of the one of the quick thing
we need to to make sure that people understand is
the car that they revealed in January that uh, that
Faraday Future that uh, you know revealed at the at
the cs in is not what they intend to be
their production vehicle, right, no one has seen their production
vehicle yet. Yeah, this is like the ultimate extreme version
(03:36):
of what they say they're capable of doing, you know, eventually.
And that's the whole thing. They say they can do this,
they make promises. Uh, you know, trust us is with
something that they say a lot um and and we
always have a lot of skepticism when we hear that.
So that's the thing like throughout this whole thing, if
it sells like we're it sounds like we're trying to
sell the idea that yeah, it's gonna happen or it's
(03:56):
not gonna happen. I don't know. I'm not gonna say
either way on this one. Gonna stay on the fence
because I like to I like the point of the
position of you know, being hopeful but remaining skeptical about it.
So let's talk before we get into the concept car itself.
Let's talk a little bit about Faraday Future sure, which
which is a great name. They're aiming to be Tesla killers,
(04:20):
as they have said before, smart smart choice for the name. Yeah,
the Faraday Future. Yeah that's great. Yeah, Michael Ferreday, right, Yeah,
that's appropriate. Well, yeah, it is in a way. I mean,
if you look up who Michael Faraday is. He was
born in s died around eighteen sixty seven, so this
is a long, long time ago. But he was known
for advancements in the field of electromagnetism and electro chemistry
(04:44):
and some of some of the stuff that, Uh, well,
I guess it's a clever way to name the company,
just as Tesla was a clever name way to name
the Tesla Motor Corporation, right right. Fans of science fiction
will probably realize the Faraday cage is used so often
in so many stories. I have been in a Faraday
(05:06):
cage before, as like, I raised my hand to be
a volunteer at a I think it was a Cranbrook
Institute of Technology or what Cranbrook Institute wherever they had
a science um presentation. A kid was really small. I
raised my hand in the crowd united did volunteer to
go in the cage, and it was gonna happen. I've
seen it done before, but I raised my hand. The kid,
the kid you know, my kid next to me, she's
(05:28):
flipped out when she sees what happens, like I'm getting
harmed in there because you's sit in this metal mesh
cage and they shoot lightning at you. Really, I mean
that's what it looks like. It's happening, and it's loud,
and it's impressive looking, but you're unharmed inside. And and
the idea of banning the Faraday cage that's insulating something
from or isolating something from r f I and which
is radio frequency interference. So it's it's a it's like
(05:50):
an insulator of sorts. And in thirty one he discovered
electromagnetic induction that is the principle behind the electric transformer
and generator. Yeah, so it makes this all plays into
electric motors, electric motors or of course what power the
Faraday f F zero one concept? Right, Yes, this company
(06:11):
is I don't want to say sketchy, I will say new,
and it has foreign funding from a very wealthy investor.
And the investor, now you want to talk about the
investor because this is this is critical for this whole thing.
The money required to set something like this up is
just it's it's a mountain of money really, I mean
(06:33):
we talked about Elio and what they still require in
order just to get their first production model out there.
They still need like what was it a quarter of
a million dollars or quarter of a billion I'm sorry,
quar a billion dollars? Uh? This this company is funded
apparently by a billionaire who is not going to throw
everything he's got behind it. But uh, there's a roundabout
(06:53):
way that they traced who the who the founder of
this is as well, or who the who the people
may be contributing to it would be. Um, they say
that the billionaire behind Faraday Future, or is he We're
not really sure. And they call him the Steve Jobs
of China by the way, right, yeah, he started the
what could be called the Chinese version of Netflix Lead TV. Yeah,
(07:14):
exactly TV. So that's right, And um, he said, they
say that they're not revealing the exact ownership of Faraday
so yeah, yeah, as part of the secrecy. Who owns Faraday? Yeah?
The billionaire in question, Zeu Tang, which I'm probably mispronouncing,
he is in a strategic partnership. He does not necessarily
(07:38):
own Faraday Future, so he's an investor. And how how
do we know he's an investor. There's kind of this
this roundabout way that they did this, so all right,
they the idea is that they they were around for
about well like more than a year before they had
this this recent you know, press release, but at the
csen as we mentioned, and it was the company itself
(07:59):
was originally incorporated in California back in May as Lee
TV e n v Inc. So that's the trace that
they can look at their in according to papers that
are filed with the California Secretary of State, the address
is in Beijing, and that's associated with Lee TV, which
is a holding company founded by uh this this tech pioneer. Again,
(08:21):
every single thing about this company is shrouded in secrecy
at this point. Even after the press conference, they were
pretty elusive about some of the uh the questions that
have been asked of them by the press immediately afterwards.
I was actually surprised that they even took questions from
the press afterwards, based on some of the some of
the answers that I that I read in his interviews. Yes,
(08:42):
we also know that this strategic partnership is probably part
of something bigger on Lee TV's part, or I should
say LISTI the the parent company. Right. Uh. The idea
here is that this guy often talks about how his
company has already surpassed Apple in numerous areas. Right, that's
(09:06):
pretty bold statement. It's true that he it's a bold statement.
I don't know. I don't know if it's true that
they have surpassed Apple and stuff like design because that's
sort of an aesthetic. Yea. Here, but his company is
involved in film production, smart TVs, video streaming, mobile phones, bicycles,
more and more stuff. Unlike Netflix here in the US,
(09:28):
it isn't. This company is involved in multiple things, and
they've got a lot of people at the top right
now that they can count on that they know that
have have will some significant experience in the automotive world. Right, yes, yes, yes,
So in July, that's really when we started hearing about them, Right,
that's when we first learned of Faraday Future, we being
(09:50):
the public. And when we learned about it, we also
learned that they were headhunters. Yeah, well we heard Okay,
there's the startup company that's out there. They don't have
a factory at they've got an office space in California
and at this at this California office. They are kind
of headhunting. They're they're they're uh, they call these the
(10:11):
term poaching, but I don't really see anything wrong with
what they're doing here. They're they're they're gathering the best
of the field in order to to create a new company.
So um, they've got people like Nick Sampson, who is
the senior vice president of R and D Engineering and
he's the former director of Vehicle and Chassis Engineering from
Tesla Motors. They've got um and it's not the only
Tesla Motors, you know, top person at this company. Uh,
(10:32):
they have Dag Reccorn who was also at Tesla Motors.
UM he's the former director of manufacturing at Tesla Motors.
A matter of fact, um Alan Cherry, who was he
was the former senior director of the human resources department
at Tesla Motors. They're they're, they're gathering everybody, even even
hr Um. Another guy from Tesla Tesla Motors was Tom Westner.
He was the former director of Purchasing there. And then, oh,
(10:55):
this is kind of interesting. Richard Kim. Now Richard Kim
is the guy that they had out on stage at
the cs UH press conference or reveal or ever you
wanna call it. He was the designer, I believe, of
the f F zero one concept vehicle, and he's also
a founding member. He comes from BMW. He's a founding
member of BMW I Design and the lead designer on
(11:17):
the I three and the I eight concept vehicles back
when BMW came out with those. So this guy knows
that stuff. I mean, all these people really know there's
stuff and there's more to it than this. They've got
four hundred, well they have more than four hundred back
in July. As of recently, as of January, we've heard
that they've up that number to somewhere around five hundred people.
And I think in the US, Yeah, in the US,
(11:37):
and they're gonna double that, I believe when the factory
comes around. And lead TV, let's keep in mind, has
seven hundred employees in its auto division. That's pretty big. Now, Okay,
you know what one of those quick thing here and
I might have to dig through my notes just a
minute here as we as we talked about this, but um,
they said something and I'll find it somewhere along the
(11:59):
way as we talk here, But they said they don't
see themselves as an auto company. And I find that
funny because here they're at CS for feeling in a
car that everybody's kind of either crazy about or a
skeptical of or as uh, you know, says it's ridiculous
or whatever whatever the emotions were around it. But they
say they're not building it so much as a car,
because they are coming out with a production car soon,
(12:19):
they say, but more as like a tool, like a
like a way to keep you connected when you're on
the go between places where you're connected. Um, so not
so much, not so much car, more of like a gadget. Yeah,
more of a computer that happens to roll around and
you're and you're always in so you would always be
(12:39):
connected at home. It would be like a seamless transition.
Transition is what they want between you know, when you're
at home or out of you know, doing whatever you
do around the city or whatever, and then in transit
and then when you get to the office or if
you get to the airport or wherever you get you know,
you're driving to. This is like a like a gadget,
like a tool that you can use. So let's let's
(13:00):
recap before we dive into the concept car. So we've
got a fairly mysterious company, certainly with mysterious ownership. Sure
one publicly acknowledged billionaire investor. Uh, it's eight months old
as we record this, right, Um, probably older, but we
(13:20):
didn't hear about it until July. Great point, and they
least a concept car and are garnering acclaim for a
car that no one has seen. Yeah, that's right. Now.
Should we talk about the car yet or do you
want to talk about the factory that they're gonna build you? Oh? Yeah,
that's right, they're building a factory. Um, we'll tell you what.
(13:42):
Let's talk about the car first. Yeah, because there's some
there's some well I guess tentative spects out there, maybe
some sure, some speculations on the spects. Are we talking
in the concept car or the production concept vehicle because
we don't know anything at all about production. We don't
even know the shape of the production vehicle. We just
know that it probably look like the concept vehicle, which
is a crying shame, my friend, because that vehicle is awesome. Yeah,
(14:07):
it really is. It looks like a a sports car
that races that lama. I mean, it's like one of
those prototype vehicles that race. It's it's incredible looking, it
really is. Some people call it ridiculous though, because they
know it will never see production or never going to
be a road car. Really, but I think it's interesting.
I really like the looks of it. They've also they've
also been accused of creating an unbuildable car, which you know,
(14:32):
they object to. They say that it's it's perfectly it's
perfectly feasible to build, and it would work if it
was just on empowered platform. So right now, this is
at CS. This is not a car you could hop
into heist style and drive away the platform. Okay, we'll
come back to the platform, because that's key to this
(14:52):
whole story. So what they revealed what or what they
unveiled I guess was a high performance concept vehicle and
has and i'll say a claimed one thousand horse power.
So they're they're saying, you know, each of the wheels
each as a as a motor, four motors, four motors, yees,
so it's all wheel drive, one thousand horse power. And
then they claim that the zero to sixty time would
(15:13):
be under three seconds. But this is all theoretical, right.
They also claim a top speed over of over two
hundred miles per hour. Okay, so all this stuff can
kind of be run through you know, computers, and through
maybe through wind tunnel and determine exactly Like, well, okay,
this thing theoretically could reach the speed and with this
weight and with the shape and etcetera. So I understand
(15:33):
how they get that. I really do. I get so
cool those It does look really cool it. I mean,
I gotta say class roof. It does have a glass
roof the front end. When I when I saw the
front end with it's kind of got like these pass
through cooling areas for the motors. And to me, that
looks like if you look up an older concept vehicle
called the Ferrari F eight concept vehicle, the front view
(15:56):
looks a lot like that. The back view sort of similar,
but but this one maybe even has an edge on
that one. I think it's kind of it's really cool. Um.
Other things that it has. It has a glass roof
which opens like a canopy like a like a jet fighter.
UM has a white carbon fiber interior which I've never
seen before. It's really interesting looking. Um. And then a
couple of other little things that I don't know, I'm
(16:17):
questionable about, like questioning smartphone in the steering wheel. Yeah,
that's that's one. Yeah, But I mean I can understand
that for maybe a street car, but I'm not so
sure about why a race car needs that, especially because
it does live Maybe it's part partly it's because the
smartphone connects to do live analysis, right. Possibly. I mean
we've all seen the F one steering wheels that are
overly complex, I mean incredibly complex. Um, this is not
(16:41):
that level of complexity, but um, it's I guess it
could be close with whatever a smartphone could do. I mean,
you have to I can't imagine having to scroll through
screens while you're there. It's about it seems better to me,
like the F one style, to have a a specific
button for each feature rather than having to find it.
You know, it's on the third screen as you swiped
the lift because he is a really difficult to do
that while you're racing. So, uh, there's that. There's also
(17:04):
a halo system that supports the driver's head and neck,
so clearly a race car. UM, and a helmet, as
I I wanted to mention earlier than um, it provides
a driver with water and oxygen. It can be pumped
into the helmet, which I think is kind of a
neat idea. Now, can you put other liquids in their
nut booze? Of course, but like you know, juice or soda.
Sure you get a hankering for a what like a
(17:25):
high sea punch or something Hawaiian Hawaiian punch, some caprissa
and you want Hawaiian punch, ben remember that old gang
uh it hurts? Don't out of Hawaiian? All those Oh
I remember a slug bug thing kind of. I don't
know how I made it through childhood without the Hawaiian punch. Alright, alright,
so so okay. The thing is that realistically this won't
(17:49):
be the production vehicle. Obviously it won't, and they're even
saying it won't be. This is like the as I've
said before, it's like the ultimate top end version of
what they could do. But the the idea behind this
whole thing is that it's a platform for them to
build on and and and it's very modular. Yeah, it's
called the variable platform architecture. According to a statement by
(18:12):
one of the senior vps at Faraday, a guy named
Nick Sampson, the platform is done on a modular, flexible
basis such that we can change the size of the platform.
He's got a quote here. I'll go on. We can
change the number and power of the drive systems. We
can change the physical size and electrical size of the
battery packs, so we can get bigger and larger packs
(18:33):
and smaller packs both on the electrical size and physical side,
because of the modularity of how the battery architecture is
being done, which is unique compared to anybody else in
the industry. And that goes well, I'll say it again,
the underlying story is all about the platform that's being built,
and that goes directly to what you were saying earlier
(18:55):
when they don't consider themselves necessarily a car company. Yeah, sure,
they're gonna do things in a different way. And it
may not sound different when you hear that, because we've
heard of platform engineering. Uh, and she's going way way back,
where you take the same chassis and engine and you
put a different body on it and use a lot
of components that are similar in vehicles so that you
can produce uh, many different models on the same production line. Right.
(19:18):
That's totally possible, and it's happened for a long long
time in an automotive history, long time, decades and decades.
But you go ahead, you can go. I'm just gonna say,
but their flexibility doesn't stop there because you write about
their business model, which is just well true. I mean,
can I can I stay on this for just doing
(19:38):
if that's right? Because I wanted to emphasize how different
this is from other car manufacturers, because you may think
that it sounds a lot like well, what I mean,
who doesn't? Yeah, sure, Like, Okay, here's here's a good example. Um,
maybe maybe we can all relate to this one the
Chevy vaults and the Cadillac l R. That's a modular type.
(20:00):
I I guess in a way. Uh you know, we've
talked about how they take the Chevy vold underpinnings and
put a catallact body and um accessories and trim and
all that on top of it and charge what was
it like, forty five thousand allars more, seventy five thousand
allars more something like that. It was This is not
that type of badge engineering or I don't even know
if that's a really good badge engineering example. It's different
(20:22):
than that. There's more to the E l R than
there's to the vault of course, but um probably the
wrong term to use there. But what this is doing there,
they're completely redesigning the way that battery or they're say,
I should say they're say they're redesigning the way that
batteries will be looked at. So instead of having, uh,
you know, a one large battery pack that they have
to deal with with getting in and out. And you know,
(20:42):
remember all the time we talked about how hard it
is to change those battery packs, and that's what Tesla's
kind of working on these quick change things. But those
batteries are like eleven pounds or a thousand pounds waiting.
This is what they call strings of batteries that are
put together. And you can add a subtract battery strings
to model by the potential, weight, the efficiency, the range,
(21:04):
you know, all that stuff on a single to you know,
everything that surrounds the anxiety behind a single charge, how
far you can go right would be adjusted. And additionally,
you can also move the motor. The placement of the
motor can change motor or motors because you can do
you can do you can do one to four motors,
depends on what you need and you want wheel rear wheel,
(21:24):
all wheels, single wheel, if you wanted to, I don't
know why you do that, then maybe, um, I don't know.
There's there's so many different things about this that that
does seem like it's a smart move. But then again,
like it's all right right now, it's all just just
a great idea. Well that's exactly right, yeah, right now,
it's all just great. Well, okay, I want to talk
about this business model, because if we're talking about the
(21:46):
big dream Scott, let us not stop at eight and
a half yards. Let's go the whole nine. Not only
are these going to be according to the company's party line,
not only are these going to be incredibly adaptable modular cars,
but they're also going to change the way you buy
them because their business model will not be, um, you know,
(22:10):
the old traditional Yeah, the more traditional model where where
in you or Knoll or I or you listeners would
go to a dealership, buy a car, probably get a
payment plan, and then over a series of months, payoff
that car. What they're doing instead is they want users
(22:30):
to subscribe to a plan. So this is even different
than Tesla. I was thinking you were set me up
for you go to the mall and buy one. Oh yeah,
they would maybe in the future. But you subscribe to
a plan that gives access to autonomous vehicles of differing types.
So one day subscriber could get a cargo vehicle and
(22:51):
the next day of sedan. So they're incorporating car sharing
into this idea as well, Right, okay, but I'm sure
you know there's gotta be there. There has to be
a way to own one of these two. I would
think that along the way they're going to make that
part of it as well. It doesn't sound uh like
a like a smart idea to say this is all
we're doing. Is just you're gonna subscribe and that's it.
But but then again, we haven't heard any details to
(23:14):
say otherwise yet, so so what you're reading is really
all we know at this point is that, yeah, it
will be a car sharing platform and you can kind
of order up the specific vehicle you need for that
day to arrive at your door. Right, you can have
it if you need a truck, a pickup truck for
the weekend to move there. It is again, well, yeah,
maybe I don't know if it's a great process or
(23:39):
if it will actually happen. Yeah, we always and we
always qualify this with, you know, for the right individual
in the right circumstance, right, I mean, you go back
to our previous podcast about car sharing and all that
and uh, you know, and another program similar to this,
and you'll you'll understand where we where we come from on.
I like to own stuff, Yeah, I do. If I
pay for something I want to, I want to and
(24:00):
I do too. And you know, I mean it's tough
to say, like you're gonna you're gonna subscribe to a
car service and then something relatively untested like this and
then trust that it's going to happen. I mean, but
there have to be people that do this, you know,
the pioneers I guess sure got to be first, the
ones that really believe, true believers. Stanley would say, Now
(24:21):
with that, with that moment, with those stats on the
f F zero and the we we've talked about these
specs and Scott, you are right it is all not
specification but speculation. Very good. We did that, yeah, because
we we've seen virtual tests and stuff. Now, Faraday teases
(24:45):
that this concept may go into some sort of limited production,
but they're aiming for what is it, to have their
production car, the production car now they're that. They claim
also that they are testing right now out on the roads.
They've got a vehicle that is out among us somewhere
testing and that you know, eventually we'll see this car.
(25:06):
I don't know when they plan to reveal that vehicle
or what the shape will be, or you know, anything
like that. I mean, there's a hint of it in
one of the teaser videos and it almost looks like
a like a crossover STV type vehicle something like that.
They the outline at least looked like that, but we
know that that stuff dramatically changes as production, uh you know,
approaches or speculated production approaches. Because that's the big news. Well, yeah,
(25:31):
that is the big news with the factory, right, yes, sir,
in Nevada. And you know that factory was almost built
here in Georgia. Oh yeah, I heard that. There were
a couple of states, right, California, Nevada, Louisiana, Georgia, Louisiana. Okay,
there you go again with the where they gonna take
over Elio space. Why who's gonna get that? Yeah? I
(25:51):
don't know. So that they broke ground recently on factory
in Nevada, a billion dollar factory. This is a this
is a big, big factory. Now yeah, yeah, with your
pinky in your mind, that one. Um, I don't know.
I mean, I I'd love to see this happen. And
(26:12):
do you think they're gonna what do you think? I mean,
we're about a month away from when they say they're
gonna break ground and actually start building this factory. But uh,
they've received something like Wilson state incentives like three and
thirty five million dollars and state incentives from Nevada to
build what it says will be a one billion dollar
manufacturing plant. And this is north of Las Vegas, just
(26:33):
north of Las Vegas, right, They're gonna hire four people,
and that's a lot of people. They're bringing those jobs
to the states. Well, this is a lot of big talk,
you think, I mean, is it gonna happen? That's that's
the thing. Like they can promise this and here's here's
what typically happens in this case. In about two weeks,
we're gonna hear that there's a delay in the in
the groundbreaking or something. There's there's problems with the paperwork.
(26:55):
So they're gonna work that out and it's gonna be
Midsummer before they do anything, and then it just kind
of slowly falls off the radar. I wonder if that's
going to happen with this or not. I mean, I
just I can smell this coming, sort of like you
know the Elio thing happened, you know, like it just
gets put off and put off and put off, and
they bring out a concept vehicle, you know, a proof
of production. I guess, you know, a driver that they
(27:18):
can drive around and say like, yeah, we're gonna build
this vehicle, but will it ever happen? We're ever gonna
get over that last pump to make it to production
rights like Bill Dallas from Wonderland thing jam yesterday, jam tomorrow,
but never jam today. It maybe maybe I have to
do a quick correction. Though I misspoke. I think I misspoke,
(27:38):
and I said eight months. It's eight months old. That's
not true. It's eighteen months old. Yeah, I had I
had had a slip of the tongue, So I going
to catch that before we get to now, Okay, eighteen
So just just so I'm clear on this, I thought
eight months I was from last July because that's when
we first really heard about them, when we started appearing
the news and when they were cherry picking from uh,
(27:58):
from from other companies you know, like like Tesla and
BMW and there's a couple others that I want to
mention here. They've they've got other employees that come from
you know, Ford and Fiat Chrysler and I think motor
friend even said that, Um, they're taking people that that
worked on interiors of Lamborghini and Ferrari and land Rover.
So uh, they they've got a lot of talent in
(28:19):
that top end of their their executive group there. Um.
But yeah, I guess we haven't really heard about them
for very long. I mean last summer was really last
thing we heard about them, But they incorporated before that,
like you said, eighteen months ago. You want to know
something weird too, What's that that factory that they're going
to build is going to be in the same industrial
park as the test track for the hyper loop? Is
(28:40):
that right? Yeah? Yeah? Well you know what as in
Tesla building or have they built a giant battery factory
there in Nevada as well? So Nevada has really drawn
in some good business with these the tax incentives, I think, Um, yeah,
I wish I wish this had happened here in Georgia,
of course, for for very selfish reasons, because maybe the
factory we can go see what's really go on it.
(29:00):
We could keep this, we can kind of keep track
of what's happening. That would it's interesting such tight wraps.
So yeah, you know, and oh, here's I found that
quote that I was talking about before. Now this is,
um it's not necessarily quote, it's just more of the
idea and it'll let you understand where they're coming from.
It says Faraday hopes to distinguish itself by branding the
car less as transportation than as a tool for the
(29:22):
connected class. So what do you think about that? I
mean tool for the connected class, that's what they said. Yeah,
it says people's lives are changed by the Oh this
is a Faraday spokesperson, by the way, spokeswoman. Her name
is Stacy Morris, and she says people's lives are changed
by their mobile devices. Uh, you know, the way we
interact the car industry hasn't caught up sufficiently. The car
(29:43):
still feels like a place where you're disconnected. Um. So
the idea is that I think another one maybe, Um, Kim,
who had done the reveal, said something like, you know,
you get in your range Rover and uh, you know, sure,
it's a great machine. It's the hundred thousand dollar truck,
you know, and suv. But you get in and you
use your phone for navigating and you know, things like that,
(30:04):
and you're fumbling with it all the time. You know,
you don't have a place to set it down. Really
that it's comfortable. That's part of why they make things
like a design where they can actually fit into the
steering wheel. So it's not necessarily seeking text play you're
driving or or make phone calls. It's for stuff that
a lot of us really do use it for practical
reasons that are that are non distracting, you know, some
some way to get around town like using your your
Ways app or whatever on the go. It's just a
(30:26):
smart place to put it. And you know, I and
I agree that that is a smart place in the
steering wheel because we see a lot more console design
realizing that it needs to be less distracting, more in
front of the driver, more intuitive, more mediate. This was
this FF zero was a passion project of Kim's. Yeah sure,
and we see that, Yeah, I did. Yeah, and you know,
(30:46):
we we also see we understand that you know, um,
one of the Apple systems and Android systems that are
in cars to they're they're hoping that, um, this will
this will be an alternative to that. You know, they're
gonna have their own way of doing things. They haven't said,
you know, if they're gonna partner with any either of
those by any means, but they look at it again
as a as like a gadget. The vehicle is more
of a gadget than a car. So that's just an
(31:09):
interesting take on this whole thing. And I mean, it's
really confusing at this point. So maybe we'll get some
some more answers soon, but right now, if this is
just kind of like putting it out there, letting you
guys know about it and seeing what you think about
it too, it would love to get some opinions on
what you think, because I gotta say, I mean, I
really do just my spiky senses are tingling. Then I
(31:30):
feel like this is a this is more of a
like an Elio thing. It's gonna get close, but is
it ever gonna make it to production? You know, I
gotta say, I've already heard conspiracy theory or two about
this company, one being that it was a shell company
of Apples as they were using because you know, Apple
has so much money right now that they were using
(31:52):
it as a disguise to start entering into Tesla's market.
Right Sore, there's happening here, I I will say, or
that they are further along then a lot of other companies,
but they're not out of the woods yet. They're not
(32:12):
out of the garage yet. Yeah, good good? Are they? Are? They?
I mean? I wonder if they're really going to be
true competition for Tesla because this is this luxury electric
car market, which is what it will probably be, and
it will be a luxury electric car. Um. So is
it really truly going to compete with Tesla in this
in this luxury electric car market? Do you think? Do
you think it's gonna um? You know what's what's the
(32:35):
old term cut the mustard? Is that right? You think
it's gonna make it? Uh? I feel like I am
molder in the X Files, you know what I mean?
I want to believe I'm okay, I got it. Okay,
I know not really, you didn't watch the X File.
I was in it. Strictly for the Simpsons on the
Tracy Ullman Show. After that, before I don't remember which
(32:57):
like the last five minutes, the files, episodes of waiting
for those little tiny bits of Simpsons in between the
Tracy Ellman Show that we got. Yeah, oh man, it's
a deep cut. You know. This has nothing to do
with anything, but I felt so old when I looked
at even just season one of The Simpsons and the
Tracy Ullman stuff. Sure changed radically, incredible change. But that's
(33:18):
the way off track. So want you want to believe,
and and I agree, I kind of feel that way too.
I want to believe too, but it's just you've got
to be so skeptical at this point with with what
we've seen even in our own lifetime. Yeah. Well, here's
here's the thing, Scott. This is and listeners you probably
(33:38):
have probably are having some of the same thoughts. Um
if you've if you've read some of the market speculation
about auto is. One thing that manufacturers have on their minds,
at the forefront of their minds right now, is that
it appears that younger people the marketing term is millennials,
I believe, are not as much of a car cold yeah,
(34:00):
and want to have a car or transportation as convenience,
not um not necessarily as an object to be maintained
to own. They want to service and please. In no
way misconstrued that too to think that we're saying that
the car culture is dead or anything like that. No,
(34:21):
we had a full podcast about that, did we. We
definitely said that's not the case. But um, yeah, they
do see it as more of a a tool or
a gadget. And and I can kind of understand why.
When you get into a brand new vehicle, I mean
there's a lot of electronic goodies there. Oh yeah, man,
I feel like I'm some some guy who fell through
a time warp from the fifteen hundreds or something. When
(34:43):
I hop in a car afterteen it feels like the future, man,
because you know it already. These cars already know too
much about you when you sit down. Oh, by the way,
the FF zero supposedly reads biometric data data from the
uh driver. Yeah you know, I thought, Okay, that's not
anything brand new for race cars. That's true. They always
(35:05):
are monitoring race car driver performance. You know, I guess
body performance. I can you imagine that in a production car, Well,
that'd be a little weird. I mean, I don't like it.
Where would the probes go? That's Mike made, that's my
team question. I mean, I'm hoping that it's more like
like sensors on the steering wheel or something. But your
heart rate, um, heart rate, temperature, stuff like that you
(35:27):
just never know. You never know. But also also I
think it's a violation of privacy because who if it
is a car that is connected to the cloud and
it measures, it will know where you are at all
times for your GPS right, and it will also know
your state of mind, possibly things about your health that
(35:48):
you might not know. Oh yeah, I mean we see
the stuff where they're reading facial expressions to fud your
mood and whether or not you're sleepy, if you've got
a good if you got a good night's rest the
night before. They and it was all they really do
have things out there. They're not they're that completely there yet,
but they're getting darn close to understanding just about everything
about you when you sit down. Yeah, and I you know, guys,
(36:11):
I don't want to be some kind of kop, you know,
putting tinfoil over my windows or something. I don't want
to come across that way. But I do I do
believe that many of these things that are being portrayed
as conveniences do have um serious potential uh for harm. Yeah, sure,
(36:35):
you mean for invasion of privacy. Invasion of privacy, yes, specifically.
And and the other thing is, I think a lot
of this stuff is inevitable, you know, And I just
hope on balance that it's good and I hope that
this I do hope that Faraday succeeds. It depends on
what you do with the data to make it and
to make all that. I mean, there can be the
uh you know, just kind of them, I guess, the
(36:56):
garden variety version of that, where they use it to
you know, perfect the perfect the product, you to make
it better for the next generation or you know, the
next generation of vehicle. I mean. But but then again,
there's also the other the downside of that, where they'll
use the data in a different way for whatever reason.
I mean, you can only speculate at this point, you
know what that might be. But Okay, so I kind
(37:16):
of am along the same same lines as that. Yeah,
I'm sure we wish them luck and everything, but I
just say, remain skeptical I'm gonna stick with that line.
Just remain skeptical. We've seen it before, we've seen it before,
and you have two listeners. We hopefully will come back
soon with an update. What we can promise everybody, Scott
(37:37):
is we can promise that we'll keep an eye on
it for you and let you know if it goes
poof as vaporware is want to do, or if it's
if it really starts to roll. Yeah, I mean, I
I just feel like it's going to be one of
these lingering stories. It's just going to kind of kind
of hang out there with a near production ready model
(37:58):
for a long long time. But but again, yeah, we could,
we could talk about this all day. Just does remain skeptical.
That's it. That's it. And as as you said, let
us know what you think. You can find us on
Facebook and Twitter where we are car stuff hs W
and Scott, I gotta say you've been knocking it out
with the with the Facebook stuff. Oh, thank you very much.
I've been. I've been uh well, I guess, combing through
(38:20):
all kinds of tumbler pages and uh and uh other
Facebook pages and you know, stuff I find interesting and
things that I see around town. I've been shooting with
my my own personal camera. Um. I'm just trying to
put something interesting up there every day, and maybe a
little bit more than you get from, you know, some
of the other sites. I try to dig into it
just a little bit and give you maybe you know
a few lines of history, or you know why it's important,
(38:42):
or why it's significant, There's something like that. So there's
a little bit more to it than just just just
a photo of pretty photo. Yeah, and but also the
photos are great pictures of unusual cars with stories. I
really enjoyed the uh in some of it is just stuff.
Scott C's like a old segment, right, like that wooden
truck cap in the parking lot. Oh yeah, you know.
(39:03):
And when I when I post posted that one, I
didn't say this, but it has a bent plywood edge
on it on both sides and it's very very smooth,
very fluid design, very cool and it's unique. I've never
seen one like that. I would bet you anything that
guy's got a really cool skate ramp at home and
he did the same thing too, Because I think you
can bend plywood with with heat and water, yes, but
you have to have the right forms and you have
(39:24):
to read the right technique to do that. Yeah, you
really have to know what you're doing. And I would
bet anything that that guy is a skater. I can
from his Uh he's got a lot of stickers on
the back. Yeah, the decals on the back and uh,
those are all about surfing and stuff like that. And
I would guess that he's probably a skater as well.
So that's my guess. And he doesn't even know that
he's Internet famous. Help he's he's practically um an internet
(39:47):
star because he appeared on the Car Stuff not just
going no, but but I do try to keep it
interesting and I try to give you just a little
bit more information about stuff than, uh than what is
initially available on like a tumbler page or something like that.
And while you are online, if you would like to
hear more about Elio motors Dale or Tucker and Tucker
is when you're gonna have to set down for it.
(40:09):
Just some multipart podcasts, visit us at our website car
Stuff Show dot com, where you can listen to every
single episode we have ever done. And oh brother, there
are a few. Yeah. When you get to the to
the back end of those on our high speed stuff.
Be kind and that was the early That was the
early days, the learning curve, it really was. And if
(40:31):
you have an idea for a topic that you would
like to hear more about in the future, or you
have you have some insider info on the mysterious future
of Faraday Future, we'd love to hear from you. You
can go ahead and send us an email directly. We
are car stuff at how stuff work dot com. For
more on this and thousands of other topics is how
(40:52):
stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think,
send an email to podcast and how stuff works dot com.
Bas
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car Stuff from how Stuff Works dot Com. I'd welcome
to car Stuff. I'm Scott on Ben. As always, we
are joined with our super producer knowl the Uh, well,
let's let's wait on this. Let's keep this nickname is secret.
(00:24):
Wouldn't that be appropriate? Oh maybe it would be appropriated, right,
because there's nothing but secrecy veiling what we're talking about today.
And that's even and it's current because we're we're recording
this in the early part of news came out just
this week as we're recording this about this vehicle, and uh,
even so, even so with this public reveal, there's still
(00:44):
a lot that we don't know about this company, this vehicle,
what's to come. There's it's just it's shrouded in secrecy.
Is it vaporware? Is it? Right now? It's a concept
car and a lot of intrigue and interest, ladies and gentlemen.
Today we are talking about the Faraday f F zero one. Yeah,
(01:05):
and you know this is the thing. We'll preface this
whole podcast by saying, right now, there's just not a
lot of details out there still, and this is after
a big press conference reveal at what iss the Consumer
Electronic show out in Las Vegas appropriately enough, I was,
we'll find out that's where they're building some giant factory.
Maybe yeah, possibly, And Okay, I feel like I really
(01:29):
need to say this up front, and we'll get into
the topic and just a moment here. But anytime we
bring something like this up, anything close to this, someone
always says, do your research. You've gotta you've gotta remember
the history. You gotta remember history, the way things play out.
And and sure, I get that there are certain companies
that come along that have a little bit more promise
(01:50):
to them, and I think that Elio Elio felt to
me like one that had a little bit more promise.
Tucker had a lot of promise. But I think we
both have the same and you know, what happened to
Tucker Dale was a complete scam out and out. Absolutely
there have been others throughout history. There's some that you
know along the way that we just haven't really talked
about much. There's so many of these vaporware type cars.
(02:11):
There's there's there's Carbon Motors with their police vehicles. There's
Detroit Electric with their Tesla like um electric car that
we've seen that's near production, but has been near production
for many years now. And there are other things that
actually occur but fizzle in the pan, like Fisker. Yeah,
(02:33):
that's right. Yeah, so Fiskers out there, we've seen them
at car show. Yeah, we've seen Fiskers, but very low
production numbers. And also there's a lot of there's there's
a lot of behind the scenes litigation going on with
Fisker right now too. I think I've heard a recent
lawsuit that's happening, something about a copyright infringement maybe or
something similar along that line. And I'm not sure. I'm
(02:53):
gonna have to look at up. I saw it along
the way he was. I was digging into info about
this vehicle because there's a there's a lot of contra
sit around it. We don't know a whole lot about it.
We know a few specs. But then again, the car
that they showed was just like not a shell, but
it's a it's a prototype. It's not on a power platform. No, no, okay,
(03:13):
And I promise we'll get to it. But but but
I want one of the one of the quick thing
we need to to make sure that people understand is
the car that they revealed in January that uh, that
Faraday Future that uh, you know revealed at the at
the cs in is not what they intend to be
their production vehicle, right, no one has seen their production
vehicle yet. Yeah, this is like the ultimate extreme version
(03:36):
of what they say they're capable of doing, you know, eventually.
And that's the whole thing. They say they can do this,
they make promises. Uh, you know, trust us is with
something that they say a lot um and and we
always have a lot of skepticism when we hear that.
So that's the thing like throughout this whole thing, if
it sells like we're it sounds like we're trying to
sell the idea that yeah, it's gonna happen or it's
(03:56):
not gonna happen. I don't know. I'm not gonna say
either way on this one. Gonna stay on the fence
because I like to I like the point of the
position of you know, being hopeful but remaining skeptical about it.
So let's talk before we get into the concept car itself.
Let's talk a little bit about Faraday Future sure, which
which is a great name. They're aiming to be Tesla killers,
(04:20):
as they have said before, smart smart choice for the name. Yeah,
the Faraday Future. Yeah that's great. Yeah, Michael Ferreday, right, Yeah,
that's appropriate. Well, yeah, it is in a way. I mean,
if you look up who Michael Faraday is. He was
born in s died around eighteen sixty seven, so this
is a long, long time ago. But he was known
for advancements in the field of electromagnetism and electro chemistry
(04:44):
and some of some of the stuff that, Uh, well,
I guess it's a clever way to name the company,
just as Tesla was a clever name way to name
the Tesla Motor Corporation, right right. Fans of science fiction
will probably realize the Faraday cage is used so often
in so many stories. I have been in a Faraday
(05:06):
cage before, as like, I raised my hand to be
a volunteer at a I think it was a Cranbrook
Institute of Technology or what Cranbrook Institute wherever they had
a science um presentation. A kid was really small. I
raised my hand in the crowd united did volunteer to
go in the cage, and it was gonna happen. I've
seen it done before, but I raised my hand. The kid,
the kid you know, my kid next to me, she's
(05:28):
flipped out when she sees what happens, like I'm getting
harmed in there because you's sit in this metal mesh
cage and they shoot lightning at you. Really, I mean
that's what it looks like. It's happening, and it's loud,
and it's impressive looking, but you're unharmed inside. And and
the idea of banning the Faraday cage that's insulating something
from or isolating something from r f I and which
is radio frequency interference. So it's it's a it's like
(05:50):
an insulator of sorts. And in thirty one he discovered
electromagnetic induction that is the principle behind the electric transformer
and generator. Yeah, so it makes this all plays into
electric motors, electric motors or of course what power the
Faraday f F zero one concept? Right, Yes, this company
(06:11):
is I don't want to say sketchy, I will say new,
and it has foreign funding from a very wealthy investor.
And the investor, now you want to talk about the
investor because this is this is critical for this whole thing.
The money required to set something like this up is
just it's it's a mountain of money really, I mean
(06:33):
we talked about Elio and what they still require in
order just to get their first production model out there.
They still need like what was it a quarter of
a million dollars or quarter of a billion I'm sorry,
quar a billion dollars? Uh? This this company is funded
apparently by a billionaire who is not going to throw
everything he's got behind it. But uh, there's a roundabout
(06:53):
way that they traced who the who the founder of
this is as well, or who the who the people
may be contributing to it would be. Um, they say
that the billionaire behind Faraday Future, or is he We're
not really sure. And they call him the Steve Jobs
of China by the way, right, yeah, he started the
what could be called the Chinese version of Netflix Lead TV. Yeah,
(07:14):
exactly TV. So that's right, And um, he said, they
say that they're not revealing the exact ownership of Faraday
so yeah, yeah, as part of the secrecy. Who owns Faraday? Yeah?
The billionaire in question, Zeu Tang, which I'm probably mispronouncing,
he is in a strategic partnership. He does not necessarily
(07:38):
own Faraday Future, so he's an investor. And how how
do we know he's an investor. There's kind of this
this roundabout way that they did this, so all right,
they the idea is that they they were around for
about well like more than a year before they had
this this recent you know, press release, but at the
csen as we mentioned, and it was the company itself
(07:59):
was originally incorporated in California back in May as Lee
TV e n v Inc. So that's the trace that
they can look at their in according to papers that
are filed with the California Secretary of State, the address
is in Beijing, and that's associated with Lee TV, which
is a holding company founded by uh this this tech pioneer. Again,
(08:21):
every single thing about this company is shrouded in secrecy
at this point. Even after the press conference, they were
pretty elusive about some of the uh the questions that
have been asked of them by the press immediately afterwards.
I was actually surprised that they even took questions from
the press afterwards, based on some of the some of
the answers that I that I read in his interviews. Yes,
(08:42):
we also know that this strategic partnership is probably part
of something bigger on Lee TV's part, or I should
say LISTI the the parent company. Right. Uh. The idea
here is that this guy often talks about how his
company has already surpassed Apple in numerous areas. Right, that's
(09:06):
pretty bold statement. It's true that he it's a bold statement.
I don't know. I don't know if it's true that
they have surpassed Apple and stuff like design because that's
sort of an aesthetic. Yea. Here, but his company is
involved in film production, smart TVs, video streaming, mobile phones, bicycles,
more and more stuff. Unlike Netflix here in the US,
(09:28):
it isn't. This company is involved in multiple things, and
they've got a lot of people at the top right
now that they can count on that they know that
have have will some significant experience in the automotive world. Right, yes, yes, yes,
So in July, that's really when we started hearing about them, Right,
that's when we first learned of Faraday Future, we being
(09:50):
the public. And when we learned about it, we also
learned that they were headhunters. Yeah, well we heard Okay,
there's the startup company that's out there. They don't have
a factory at they've got an office space in California
and at this at this California office. They are kind
of headhunting. They're they're they're uh, they call these the
(10:11):
term poaching, but I don't really see anything wrong with
what they're doing here. They're they're they're gathering the best
of the field in order to to create a new company.
So um, they've got people like Nick Sampson, who is
the senior vice president of R and D Engineering and
he's the former director of Vehicle and Chassis Engineering from
Tesla Motors. They've got um and it's not the only
Tesla Motors, you know, top person at this company. Uh,
(10:32):
they have Dag Reccorn who was also at Tesla Motors.
UM he's the former director of manufacturing at Tesla Motors.
A matter of fact, um Alan Cherry, who was he
was the former senior director of the human resources department
at Tesla Motors. They're they're, they're gathering everybody, even even
hr Um. Another guy from Tesla Tesla Motors was Tom Westner.
He was the former director of Purchasing there. And then, oh,
(10:55):
this is kind of interesting. Richard Kim. Now Richard Kim
is the guy that they had out on stage at
the cs UH press conference or reveal or ever you
wanna call it. He was the designer, I believe, of
the f F zero one concept vehicle, and he's also
a founding member. He comes from BMW. He's a founding
member of BMW I Design and the lead designer on
(11:17):
the I three and the I eight concept vehicles back
when BMW came out with those. So this guy knows
that stuff. I mean, all these people really know there's
stuff and there's more to it than this. They've got
four hundred, well they have more than four hundred back
in July. As of recently, as of January, we've heard
that they've up that number to somewhere around five hundred people.
And I think in the US, Yeah, in the US,
(11:37):
and they're gonna double that, I believe when the factory
comes around. And lead TV, let's keep in mind, has
seven hundred employees in its auto division. That's pretty big. Now, Okay,
you know what one of those quick thing here and
I might have to dig through my notes just a
minute here as we as we talked about this, but um,
they said something and I'll find it somewhere along the
(11:59):
way as we talk here, But they said they don't
see themselves as an auto company. And I find that
funny because here they're at CS for feeling in a
car that everybody's kind of either crazy about or a
skeptical of or as uh, you know, says it's ridiculous
or whatever whatever the emotions were around it. But they
say they're not building it so much as a car,
because they are coming out with a production car soon,
(12:19):
they say, but more as like a tool, like a
like a way to keep you connected when you're on
the go between places where you're connected. Um, so not
so much, not so much car, more of like a gadget. Yeah,
more of a computer that happens to roll around and
you're and you're always in so you would always be
(12:39):
connected at home. It would be like a seamless transition.
Transition is what they want between you know, when you're
at home or out of you know, doing whatever you
do around the city or whatever, and then in transit
and then when you get to the office or if
you get to the airport or wherever you get you know,
you're driving to. This is like a like a gadget,
like a tool that you can use. So let's let's
(13:00):
recap before we dive into the concept car. So we've
got a fairly mysterious company, certainly with mysterious ownership. Sure
one publicly acknowledged billionaire investor. Uh, it's eight months old
as we record this, right, Um, probably older, but we
(13:20):
didn't hear about it until July. Great point, and they
least a concept car and are garnering acclaim for a
car that no one has seen. Yeah, that's right. Now.
Should we talk about the car yet or do you
want to talk about the factory that they're gonna build you? Oh? Yeah,
that's right, they're building a factory. Um, we'll tell you what.
(13:42):
Let's talk about the car first. Yeah, because there's some
there's some well I guess tentative spects out there, maybe
some sure, some speculations on the spects. Are we talking
in the concept car or the production concept vehicle because
we don't know anything at all about production. We don't
even know the shape of the production vehicle. We just
know that it probably look like the concept vehicle, which
is a crying shame, my friend, because that vehicle is awesome. Yeah,
(14:07):
it really is. It looks like a a sports car
that races that lama. I mean, it's like one of
those prototype vehicles that race. It's it's incredible looking, it
really is. Some people call it ridiculous though, because they
know it will never see production or never going to
be a road car. Really, but I think it's interesting.
I really like the looks of it. They've also they've
also been accused of creating an unbuildable car, which you know,
(14:32):
they object to. They say that it's it's perfectly it's
perfectly feasible to build, and it would work if it
was just on empowered platform. So right now, this is
at CS. This is not a car you could hop
into heist style and drive away the platform. Okay, we'll
come back to the platform, because that's key to this
(14:52):
whole story. So what they revealed what or what they
unveiled I guess was a high performance concept vehicle and
has and i'll say a claimed one thousand horse power.
So they're they're saying, you know, each of the wheels
each as a as a motor, four motors, four motors, yees,
so it's all wheel drive, one thousand horse power. And
then they claim that the zero to sixty time would
(15:13):
be under three seconds. But this is all theoretical, right.
They also claim a top speed over of over two
hundred miles per hour. Okay, so all this stuff can
kind of be run through you know, computers, and through
maybe through wind tunnel and determine exactly Like, well, okay,
this thing theoretically could reach the speed and with this
weight and with the shape and etcetera. So I understand
(15:33):
how they get that. I really do. I get so
cool those It does look really cool it. I mean,
I gotta say class roof. It does have a glass
roof the front end. When I when I saw the
front end with it's kind of got like these pass
through cooling areas for the motors. And to me, that
looks like if you look up an older concept vehicle
called the Ferrari F eight concept vehicle, the front view
(15:56):
looks a lot like that. The back view sort of similar,
but but this one maybe even has an edge on
that one. I think it's kind of it's really cool. Um.
Other things that it has. It has a glass roof
which opens like a canopy like a like a jet fighter.
UM has a white carbon fiber interior which I've never
seen before. It's really interesting looking. Um. And then a
couple of other little things that I don't know, I'm
(16:17):
questionable about, like questioning smartphone in the steering wheel. Yeah,
that's that's one. Yeah, But I mean I can understand
that for maybe a street car, but I'm not so
sure about why a race car needs that, especially because
it does live Maybe it's part partly it's because the
smartphone connects to do live analysis, right. Possibly. I mean
we've all seen the F one steering wheels that are
overly complex, I mean incredibly complex. Um, this is not
(16:41):
that level of complexity, but um, it's I guess it
could be close with whatever a smartphone could do. I mean,
you have to I can't imagine having to scroll through
screens while you're there. It's about it seems better to me,
like the F one style, to have a a specific
button for each feature rather than having to find it.
You know, it's on the third screen as you swiped
the lift because he is a really difficult to do
that while you're racing. So, uh, there's that. There's also
(17:04):
a halo system that supports the driver's head and neck,
so clearly a race car. UM, and a helmet, as
I I wanted to mention earlier than um, it provides
a driver with water and oxygen. It can be pumped
into the helmet, which I think is kind of a
neat idea. Now, can you put other liquids in their
nut booze? Of course, but like you know, juice or soda.
Sure you get a hankering for a what like a
(17:25):
high sea punch or something Hawaiian Hawaiian punch, some caprissa
and you want Hawaiian punch, ben remember that old gang
uh it hurts? Don't out of Hawaiian? All those Oh
I remember a slug bug thing kind of. I don't
know how I made it through childhood without the Hawaiian punch. Alright, alright,
so so okay. The thing is that realistically this won't
(17:49):
be the production vehicle. Obviously it won't, and they're even
saying it won't be. This is like the as I've
said before, it's like the ultimate top end version of
what they could do. But the the idea behind this
whole thing is that it's a platform for them to
build on and and and it's very modular. Yeah, it's
called the variable platform architecture. According to a statement by
(18:12):
one of the senior vps at Faraday, a guy named
Nick Sampson, the platform is done on a modular, flexible
basis such that we can change the size of the platform.
He's got a quote here. I'll go on. We can
change the number and power of the drive systems. We
can change the physical size and electrical size of the
battery packs, so we can get bigger and larger packs
(18:33):
and smaller packs both on the electrical size and physical side,
because of the modularity of how the battery architecture is
being done, which is unique compared to anybody else in
the industry. And that goes well, I'll say it again,
the underlying story is all about the platform that's being built,
and that goes directly to what you were saying earlier
(18:55):
when they don't consider themselves necessarily a car company. Yeah, sure,
they're gonna do things in a different way. And it
may not sound different when you hear that, because we've
heard of platform engineering. Uh, and she's going way way back,
where you take the same chassis and engine and you
put a different body on it and use a lot
of components that are similar in vehicles so that you
can produce uh, many different models on the same production line. Right.
(19:18):
That's totally possible, and it's happened for a long long
time in an automotive history, long time, decades and decades.
But you go ahead, you can go. I'm just gonna say,
but their flexibility doesn't stop there because you write about
their business model, which is just well true. I mean,
can I can I stay on this for just doing
(19:38):
if that's right? Because I wanted to emphasize how different
this is from other car manufacturers, because you may think
that it sounds a lot like well, what I mean,
who doesn't? Yeah, sure, Like, Okay, here's here's a good example. Um,
maybe maybe we can all relate to this one the
Chevy vaults and the Cadillac l R. That's a modular type.
(20:00):
I I guess in a way. Uh you know, we've
talked about how they take the Chevy vold underpinnings and
put a catallact body and um accessories and trim and
all that on top of it and charge what was
it like, forty five thousand allars more, seventy five thousand
allars more something like that. It was This is not
that type of badge engineering or I don't even know
if that's a really good badge engineering example. It's different
(20:22):
than that. There's more to the E l R than
there's to the vault of course, but um probably the
wrong term to use there. But what this is doing there,
they're completely redesigning the way that battery or they're say,
I should say they're say they're redesigning the way that
batteries will be looked at. So instead of having, uh,
you know, a one large battery pack that they have
to deal with with getting in and out. And you know,
(20:42):
remember all the time we talked about how hard it
is to change those battery packs, and that's what Tesla's
kind of working on these quick change things. But those
batteries are like eleven pounds or a thousand pounds waiting.
This is what they call strings of batteries that are
put together. And you can add a subtract battery strings
to model by the potential, weight, the efficiency, the range,
(21:04):
you know, all that stuff on a single to you know,
everything that surrounds the anxiety behind a single charge, how
far you can go right would be adjusted. And additionally,
you can also move the motor. The placement of the
motor can change motor or motors because you can do
you can do you can do one to four motors,
depends on what you need and you want wheel rear wheel,
(21:24):
all wheels, single wheel, if you wanted to, I don't
know why you do that, then maybe, um, I don't know.
There's there's so many different things about this that that
does seem like it's a smart move. But then again,
like it's all right right now, it's all just just
a great idea. Well that's exactly right, yeah, right now,
it's all just great. Well, okay, I want to talk
about this business model, because if we're talking about the
(21:46):
big dream Scott, let us not stop at eight and
a half yards. Let's go the whole nine. Not only
are these going to be according to the company's party line,
not only are these going to be incredibly adaptable modular cars,
but they're also going to change the way you buy
them because their business model will not be, um, you know,
(22:10):
the old traditional Yeah, the more traditional model where where
in you or Knoll or I or you listeners would
go to a dealership, buy a car, probably get a
payment plan, and then over a series of months, payoff
that car. What they're doing instead is they want users
(22:30):
to subscribe to a plan. So this is even different
than Tesla. I was thinking you were set me up
for you go to the mall and buy one. Oh yeah,
they would maybe in the future. But you subscribe to
a plan that gives access to autonomous vehicles of differing types.
So one day subscriber could get a cargo vehicle and
(22:51):
the next day of sedan. So they're incorporating car sharing
into this idea as well, Right, okay, but I'm sure
you know there's gotta be there. There has to be
a way to own one of these two. I would
think that along the way they're going to make that
part of it as well. It doesn't sound uh like
a like a smart idea to say this is all
we're doing. Is just you're gonna subscribe and that's it.
But but then again, we haven't heard any details to
(23:14):
say otherwise yet, so so what you're reading is really
all we know at this point is that, yeah, it
will be a car sharing platform and you can kind
of order up the specific vehicle you need for that
day to arrive at your door. Right, you can have
it if you need a truck, a pickup truck for
the weekend to move there. It is again, well, yeah,
maybe I don't know if it's a great process or
(23:39):
if it will actually happen. Yeah, we always and we
always qualify this with, you know, for the right individual
in the right circumstance, right, I mean, you go back
to our previous podcast about car sharing and all that
and uh, you know, and another program similar to this,
and you'll you'll understand where we where we come from on.
I like to own stuff, Yeah, I do. If I
pay for something I want to, I want to and
(24:00):
I do too. And you know, I mean it's tough
to say, like you're gonna you're gonna subscribe to a
car service and then something relatively untested like this and
then trust that it's going to happen. I mean, but
there have to be people that do this, you know,
the pioneers I guess sure got to be first, the
ones that really believe, true believers. Stanley would say, Now
(24:21):
with that, with that moment, with those stats on the
f F zero and the we we've talked about these
specs and Scott, you are right it is all not
specification but speculation. Very good. We did that, yeah, because
we we've seen virtual tests and stuff. Now, Faraday teases
(24:45):
that this concept may go into some sort of limited production,
but they're aiming for what is it, to have their
production car, the production car now they're that. They claim
also that they are testing right now out on the roads.
They've got a vehicle that is out among us somewhere
testing and that you know, eventually we'll see this car.
(25:06):
I don't know when they plan to reveal that vehicle
or what the shape will be, or you know, anything
like that. I mean, there's a hint of it in
one of the teaser videos and it almost looks like
a like a crossover STV type vehicle something like that.
They the outline at least looked like that, but we
know that that stuff dramatically changes as production, uh you know,
approaches or speculated production approaches. Because that's the big news. Well, yeah,
(25:31):
that is the big news with the factory, right, yes, sir,
in Nevada. And you know that factory was almost built
here in Georgia. Oh yeah, I heard that. There were
a couple of states, right, California, Nevada, Louisiana, Georgia, Louisiana. Okay,
there you go again with the where they gonna take
over Elio space. Why who's gonna get that? Yeah? I
(25:51):
don't know. So that they broke ground recently on factory
in Nevada, a billion dollar factory. This is a this
is a big, big factory. Now yeah, yeah, with your
pinky in your mind, that one. Um, I don't know.
I mean, I I'd love to see this happen. And
(26:12):
do you think they're gonna what do you think? I mean,
we're about a month away from when they say they're
gonna break ground and actually start building this factory. But uh,
they've received something like Wilson state incentives like three and
thirty five million dollars and state incentives from Nevada to
build what it says will be a one billion dollar
manufacturing plant. And this is north of Las Vegas, just
(26:33):
north of Las Vegas, right, They're gonna hire four people,
and that's a lot of people. They're bringing those jobs
to the states. Well, this is a lot of big talk,
you think, I mean, is it gonna happen? That's that's
the thing. Like they can promise this and here's here's
what typically happens in this case. In about two weeks,
we're gonna hear that there's a delay in the in
the groundbreaking or something. There's there's problems with the paperwork.
(26:55):
So they're gonna work that out and it's gonna be
Midsummer before they do anything, and then it just kind
of slowly falls off the radar. I wonder if that's
going to happen with this or not. I mean, I
just I can smell this coming, sort of like you
know the Elio thing happened, you know, like it just
gets put off and put off and put off, and
they bring out a concept vehicle, you know, a proof
of production. I guess, you know, a driver that they
(27:18):
can drive around and say like, yeah, we're gonna build
this vehicle, but will it ever happen? We're ever gonna
get over that last pump to make it to production
rights like Bill Dallas from Wonderland thing jam yesterday, jam tomorrow,
but never jam today. It maybe maybe I have to
do a quick correction. Though I misspoke. I think I misspoke,
(27:38):
and I said eight months. It's eight months old. That's
not true. It's eighteen months old. Yeah, I had I
had had a slip of the tongue, So I going
to catch that before we get to now, Okay, eighteen
So just just so I'm clear on this, I thought
eight months I was from last July because that's when
we first really heard about them, when we started appearing
the news and when they were cherry picking from uh,
(27:58):
from from other companies you know, like like Tesla and
BMW and there's a couple others that I want to
mention here. They've they've got other employees that come from
you know, Ford and Fiat Chrysler and I think motor
friend even said that, Um, they're taking people that that
worked on interiors of Lamborghini and Ferrari and land Rover.
So uh, they they've got a lot of talent in
(28:19):
that top end of their their executive group there. Um.
But yeah, I guess we haven't really heard about them
for very long. I mean last summer was really last
thing we heard about them, But they incorporated before that,
like you said, eighteen months ago. You want to know
something weird too, What's that that factory that they're going
to build is going to be in the same industrial
park as the test track for the hyper loop? Is
(28:40):
that right? Yeah? Yeah? Well you know what as in
Tesla building or have they built a giant battery factory
there in Nevada as well? So Nevada has really drawn
in some good business with these the tax incentives, I think, Um, yeah,
I wish I wish this had happened here in Georgia,
of course, for for very selfish reasons, because maybe the
factory we can go see what's really go on it.
(29:00):
We could keep this, we can kind of keep track
of what's happening. That would it's interesting such tight wraps.
So yeah, you know, and oh, here's I found that
quote that I was talking about before. Now this is,
um it's not necessarily quote, it's just more of the
idea and it'll let you understand where they're coming from.
It says Faraday hopes to distinguish itself by branding the
car less as transportation than as a tool for the
(29:22):
connected class. So what do you think about that? I
mean tool for the connected class, that's what they said. Yeah,
it says people's lives are changed by the Oh this
is a Faraday spokesperson, by the way, spokeswoman. Her name
is Stacy Morris, and she says people's lives are changed
by their mobile devices. Uh, you know, the way we
interact the car industry hasn't caught up sufficiently. The car
(29:43):
still feels like a place where you're disconnected. Um. So
the idea is that I think another one maybe, Um, Kim,
who had done the reveal, said something like, you know,
you get in your range Rover and uh, you know, sure,
it's a great machine. It's the hundred thousand dollar truck,
you know, and suv. But you get in and you
use your phone for navigating and you know, things like that,
(30:04):
and you're fumbling with it all the time. You know,
you don't have a place to set it down. Really
that it's comfortable. That's part of why they make things
like a design where they can actually fit into the
steering wheel. So it's not necessarily seeking text play you're
driving or or make phone calls. It's for stuff that
a lot of us really do use it for practical
reasons that are that are non distracting, you know, some
some way to get around town like using your your
Ways app or whatever on the go. It's just a
(30:26):
smart place to put it. And you know, I and
I agree that that is a smart place in the
steering wheel because we see a lot more console design
realizing that it needs to be less distracting, more in
front of the driver, more intuitive, more mediate. This was
this FF zero was a passion project of Kim's. Yeah sure,
and we see that, Yeah, I did. Yeah, and you know,
(30:46):
we we also see we understand that you know, um,
one of the Apple systems and Android systems that are
in cars to they're they're hoping that, um, this will
this will be an alternative to that. You know, they're
gonna have their own way of doing things. They haven't said,
you know, if they're gonna partner with any either of
those by any means, but they look at it again
as a as like a gadget. The vehicle is more
of a gadget than a car. So that's just an
(31:09):
interesting take on this whole thing. And I mean, it's
really confusing at this point. So maybe we'll get some
some more answers soon, but right now, if this is
just kind of like putting it out there, letting you
guys know about it and seeing what you think about
it too, it would love to get some opinions on
what you think, because I gotta say, I mean, I
really do just my spiky senses are tingling. Then I
(31:30):
feel like this is a this is more of a
like an Elio thing. It's gonna get close, but is
it ever gonna make it to production? You know, I
gotta say, I've already heard conspiracy theory or two about
this company, one being that it was a shell company
of Apples as they were using because you know, Apple
has so much money right now that they were using
(31:52):
it as a disguise to start entering into Tesla's market.
Right Sore, there's happening here, I I will say, or
that they are further along then a lot of other companies,
but they're not out of the woods yet. They're not
(32:12):
out of the garage yet. Yeah, good good? Are they? Are? They?
I mean? I wonder if they're really going to be
true competition for Tesla because this is this luxury electric
car market, which is what it will probably be, and
it will be a luxury electric car. Um. So is
it really truly going to compete with Tesla in this
in this luxury electric car market? Do you think? Do
you think it's gonna um? You know what's what's the
(32:35):
old term cut the mustard? Is that right? You think
it's gonna make it? Uh? I feel like I am
molder in the X Files, you know what I mean?
I want to believe I'm okay, I got it. Okay,
I know not really, you didn't watch the X File.
I was in it. Strictly for the Simpsons on the
Tracy Ullman Show. After that, before I don't remember which
(32:57):
like the last five minutes, the files, episodes of waiting
for those little tiny bits of Simpsons in between the
Tracy Ellman Show that we got. Yeah, oh man, it's
a deep cut. You know. This has nothing to do
with anything, but I felt so old when I looked
at even just season one of The Simpsons and the
Tracy Ullman stuff. Sure changed radically, incredible change. But that's
(33:18):
the way off track. So want you want to believe,
and and I agree, I kind of feel that way too.
I want to believe too, but it's just you've got
to be so skeptical at this point with with what
we've seen even in our own lifetime. Yeah. Well, here's
here's the thing, Scott. This is and listeners you probably
(33:38):
have probably are having some of the same thoughts. Um
if you've if you've read some of the market speculation
about auto is. One thing that manufacturers have on their minds,
at the forefront of their minds right now, is that
it appears that younger people the marketing term is millennials,
I believe, are not as much of a car cold yeah,
(34:00):
and want to have a car or transportation as convenience,
not um not necessarily as an object to be maintained
to own. They want to service and please. In no
way misconstrued that too to think that we're saying that
the car culture is dead or anything like that. No,
(34:21):
we had a full podcast about that, did we. We
definitely said that's not the case. But um, yeah, they
do see it as more of a a tool or
a gadget. And and I can kind of understand why.
When you get into a brand new vehicle, I mean
there's a lot of electronic goodies there. Oh yeah, man,
I feel like I'm some some guy who fell through
a time warp from the fifteen hundreds or something. When
(34:43):
I hop in a car afterteen it feels like the future, man,
because you know it already. These cars already know too
much about you when you sit down. Oh, by the way,
the FF zero supposedly reads biometric data data from the
uh driver. Yeah you know, I thought, Okay, that's not
anything brand new for race cars. That's true. They always
(35:05):
are monitoring race car driver performance. You know, I guess
body performance. I can you imagine that in a production car, Well,
that'd be a little weird. I mean, I don't like it.
Where would the probes go? That's Mike made, that's my
team question. I mean, I'm hoping that it's more like
like sensors on the steering wheel or something. But your
heart rate, um, heart rate, temperature, stuff like that you
(35:27):
just never know. You never know. But also also I
think it's a violation of privacy because who if it
is a car that is connected to the cloud and
it measures, it will know where you are at all
times for your GPS right, and it will also know
your state of mind, possibly things about your health that
(35:48):
you might not know. Oh yeah, I mean we see
the stuff where they're reading facial expressions to fud your
mood and whether or not you're sleepy, if you've got
a good if you got a good night's rest the
night before. They and it was all they really do
have things out there. They're not they're that completely there yet,
but they're getting darn close to understanding just about everything
about you when you sit down. Yeah, and I you know, guys,
(36:11):
I don't want to be some kind of kop, you know,
putting tinfoil over my windows or something. I don't want
to come across that way. But I do I do
believe that many of these things that are being portrayed
as conveniences do have um serious potential uh for harm. Yeah, sure,
(36:35):
you mean for invasion of privacy. Invasion of privacy, yes, specifically.
And and the other thing is, I think a lot
of this stuff is inevitable, you know, And I just
hope on balance that it's good and I hope that
this I do hope that Faraday succeeds. It depends on
what you do with the data to make it and
to make all that. I mean, there can be the
uh you know, just kind of them, I guess, the
(36:56):
garden variety version of that, where they use it to
you know, perfect the perfect the product, you to make
it better for the next generation or you know, the
next generation of vehicle. I mean. But but then again,
there's also the other the downside of that, where they'll
use the data in a different way for whatever reason.
I mean, you can only speculate at this point, you
know what that might be. But Okay, so I kind
(37:16):
of am along the same same lines as that. Yeah,
I'm sure we wish them luck and everything, but I
just say, remain skeptical I'm gonna stick with that line.
Just remain skeptical. We've seen it before, we've seen it before,
and you have two listeners. We hopefully will come back
soon with an update. What we can promise everybody, Scott
(37:37):
is we can promise that we'll keep an eye on
it for you and let you know if it goes
poof as vaporware is want to do, or if it's
if it really starts to roll. Yeah, I mean, I
I just feel like it's going to be one of
these lingering stories. It's just going to kind of kind
of hang out there with a near production ready model
(37:58):
for a long long time. But but again, yeah, we could,
we could talk about this all day. Just does remain skeptical.
That's it. That's it. And as as you said, let
us know what you think. You can find us on
Facebook and Twitter where we are car stuff hs W
and Scott, I gotta say you've been knocking it out
with the with the Facebook stuff. Oh, thank you very much.
I've been. I've been uh well, I guess, combing through
(38:20):
all kinds of tumbler pages and uh and uh other
Facebook pages and you know, stuff I find interesting and
things that I see around town. I've been shooting with
my my own personal camera. Um. I'm just trying to
put something interesting up there every day, and maybe a
little bit more than you get from, you know, some
of the other sites. I try to dig into it
just a little bit and give you maybe you know
a few lines of history, or you know why it's important,
(38:42):
or why it's significant, There's something like that. So there's
a little bit more to it than just just just
a photo of pretty photo. Yeah, and but also the
photos are great pictures of unusual cars with stories. I
really enjoyed the uh in some of it is just stuff.
Scott C's like a old segment, right, like that wooden
truck cap in the parking lot. Oh yeah, you know.
(39:03):
And when I when I post posted that one, I
didn't say this, but it has a bent plywood edge
on it on both sides and it's very very smooth,
very fluid design, very cool and it's unique. I've never
seen one like that. I would bet you anything that
guy's got a really cool skate ramp at home and
he did the same thing too, Because I think you
can bend plywood with with heat and water, yes, but
you have to have the right forms and you have
(39:24):
to read the right technique to do that. Yeah, you
really have to know what you're doing. And I would
bet anything that that guy is a skater. I can
from his Uh he's got a lot of stickers on
the back. Yeah, the decals on the back and uh,
those are all about surfing and stuff like that. And
I would guess that he's probably a skater as well.
So that's my guess. And he doesn't even know that
he's Internet famous. Help he's he's practically um an internet
(39:47):
star because he appeared on the Car Stuff not just
going no, but but I do try to keep it
interesting and I try to give you just a little
bit more information about stuff than, uh than what is
initially available on like a tumbler page or something like that.
And while you are online, if you would like to
hear more about Elio motors Dale or Tucker and Tucker
is when you're gonna have to set down for it.
(40:09):
Just some multipart podcasts, visit us at our website car
Stuff Show dot com, where you can listen to every
single episode we have ever done. And oh brother, there
are a few. Yeah. When you get to the to
the back end of those on our high speed stuff.
Be kind and that was the early That was the
early days, the learning curve, it really was. And if
(40:31):
you have an idea for a topic that you would
like to hear more about in the future, or you
have you have some insider info on the mysterious future
of Faraday Future, we'd love to hear from you. You
can go ahead and send us an email directly. We
are car stuff at how stuff work dot com. For
more on this and thousands of other topics is how
(40:52):
stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think,
send an email to podcast and how stuff works dot com.
Bas
CarStuff News
Hosts And Creators
Scott Benjamin
Ben Bowlin
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.