Alexandre A🇫🇷🇨🇦

Automotive. AI. Economy. Innovation. I connect the dots across mobility markets from Toronto.

[Alexandre A🇫🇷🇨🇦 @AlexInTheKnowTO]

AI is making everyone in automotive faster.
It's not making everyone better. That line should be on the wall of every analytics team in this industry. 🧵

[Alexandre A🇫🇷🇨🇦 @AlexInTheKnowTO]

When the platform owns both the discovery moment and the follow-up, the dealer relationship with the customer starts earlier, but so does Cox Auto's grip on that relationship. Useful tool. Worth watching who it serves most.

[Alexandre A🇫🇷🇨🇦 @AlexInTheKnowTO]

📡 Cox just collapsed the funnel and the CRM into one data layer. It isn't targeting efficiency only. It's that Autotrader and KBB intent signals now feed directly into dealer outreach before the shopper ever raises their hand. #DealerTech #AutoRetail

[Alexandre A🇫🇷🇨🇦 @AlexInTheKnowTO]

The real story is that Tier-1 labour leverage is back, and OEMs who assumed supplier workforce risk was someone else's problem are about to relearn that lesson. 🔩 #UAW #SupplyChain (2/2)

[Alexandre A🇫🇷🇨🇦 @AlexInTheKnowTO]

American Axle, Three Rivers: this isn't just a wage dispute. AAM supplies driveline components to GM, Stellantis, and others... a prolonged strike ripples into OEM production schedules within days, not weeks. (1/2)

[UAW @UAW]

ON STRIKE!

Strike day 2 at American Axle in Three Rivers, MI.

UAW Local 2093 members are striking for a fair contract that includes fair wages, affordable healthcare, sick leave, and time with family.

#UAWRegion1D

[Hedgeye @Hedgeye]

Anthropic’s Claude officially rolls out Opus 4.8

[Alexandre A🇫🇷🇨🇦 @AlexInTheKnowTO]

🏗️ Anthropic at $900B means the infrastructure layer just got priced. Every enterprise AI stack built on top of it now pays rent to whoever owns the foundation. That's not a valuation, that's a toll road. #AIStrategy

[unusual_whales @unusual_whales]

BREAKING: Anthropic surpassed OpenAI as the world’s most valuable AI start-up, with a valuation of $900 billion, per NYT

[Alexandre A🇫🇷🇨🇦 @AlexInTheKnowTO]

The cognitive trap: treating the bridge as logistics infrastructure and CUSMA as a trade policy problem. Canada is assembling physical, institutional, and diplomatic leverage simultaneously before negotiations formally open. That is industrial sovereignty in motion (2/2)

[Alexandre A🇫🇷🇨🇦 @AlexInTheKnowTO]

Canada spent $6.4B building the Gordie Howe Bridge to secure its own supply chain corridor. The CUSMA review starts July 1. Those two facts are not a coincidence (1/2) #CanadianAuto #CUSMA

[Alexandre A🇫🇷🇨🇦 @AlexInTheKnowTO]

The car is no longer the endpoint but it's one node in a Physical AI stack. #AutomotiveStrategy

[Alexandre A🇫🇷🇨🇦 @AlexInTheKnowTO]

🤖 China just redefined what an auto show is. At Beijing 2026, L3 autonomous driving entered mass production, Agentic AI replaced generative AI as the cockpit standard, and a dozen OEMs debuted humanoid robots.

[Alexandre A🇫🇷🇨🇦 @AlexInTheKnowTO]

🧭 Jeep + Land Rover isn't a product story but platform survival bet. Two brands with overlapping premium-off-road DNA and shrinking standalone economics. If this becomes shared architecture, badge differentiation becomes the only moat left. #AutomotiveStrategy

[Automotive News @Automotive_News]

Column: "Although no brands were cited in the announcement from Stellantis and JLR about jointly developing vehicles ... it’s pretty clear a potential deal involves Jeep and Land Rover."

-Richard Truett, reporter for Automotive News

#JLR #JaguarLandRover #Stellantis #Jeep

[Alexandre A🇫🇷🇨🇦 @AlexInTheKnowTO]

The inflection point no one is naming yet: BYD is building 20 Canadian dealerships before demand. Geely's Lotus shipped its first EVs here. Canada opened 49k Chinese EV slots per year. Decision-makers should ask: are we securing sovereignty, or filling a gap U.S. tariffs created?

[Alexandre A🇫🇷🇨🇦 @AlexInTheKnowTO]

📡 OEMs aren't selling your car's data anymore. A global study of 559 automotive professionals confirms the pivot: it is an internal asset, not a revenue stream. Predictive maint, ADAS improv, product dev. Who controls the data loop controls the next vehicle cycle. #SDV #AutoAI

[Alexandre A🇫🇷🇨🇦 @AlexInTheKnowTO]

🌎OEMs are rationing shipments and managing exemptions, not absorbing tariffs: that’s a supplier posture, not a retail strategy. The real risk isn’t April’s 3.9% volume drop; it’s that key exemptions could expire before negotiators lock in a stable CUSMA‑aligned floor. #auto

[Alexandre A🇫🇷🇨🇦 @AlexInTheKnowTO]

🇨🇦 Canada’s April auto market came in at 178K units, down 3.9%, with SAAR at 1.83M. Tariff pressure is already influencing supply-chain and assortment decisions across the North American auto market, before broad consumer pricing effects fully show up. #CUSMA #CanadaAuto

[Alexandre A🇫🇷🇨🇦 @AlexInTheKnowTO]

Watch the 3,000-mile gap. That's not a safety study. That's a legal bridge. The moment Belgium signs off, every other EU market faces the same question: do we run our own delta, or inherit someone else's answer? The harmonization race just started. (3/3)

[Alexandre A🇫🇷🇨🇦 @AlexInTheKnowTO]

🇧🇪 Belgium isn't just testing FSD. It's testing whether one Dutch approval becomes the EU regulatory skeleton key. That's the real story. (1/3) #Tesla #AVregulation

[Sawyer Merritt @SawyerMerritt]

Belgium is moving closer to allowing Tesla FSD (Supervised) testing on public roads in Flanders.

Flemish mobility minister Annick De Ridder says testing of Tesla’s FSD system on Flemish roads could begin “within days” as regulators review Tesla’s documentation. “The vehicle will be tested over ~3,000 miles to evaluate any differences with Dutch road infrastructure and traffic rules. If the results are positive, work can be done quickly on a provisional European type-approval that is valid on the entire Belgian territory," the minister said.

This follows the Netherlands recently becoming the first EU country to approve Tesla FSD (Supervised).

[Alexandre A🇫🇷🇨🇦 @AlexInTheKnowTO]

Netherlands sets precedent. Belgium runs a delta study against Dutch infrastructure. If it clears, provisional European type-approval applies territory-wide. This is how patchwork becomes policy. Regulators are writing the playbook in real time. (2/3)

[Alexandre A🇫🇷🇨🇦 @AlexInTheKnowTO]

If Audi stabilizes faster than expected, the paddock could copy the model. Complementary leadership: Binotto on tech and systems, McNish on people and track side becomes the template. Not a trend. A new baseline that could inspire Caddy F1. (2/2)

[Alexandre A🇫🇷🇨🇦 @AlexInTheKnowTO]

🏁 McNish is a structural argument for Audi F1. Mental toughness, embracing constant progress and nurturing marriage like relationships with the rising team. #Audi is betting that endurance culture is a missing variable for his F1 team-building. A testable hypothesis. (1/2) #F1

[Autosport @autosport]

Allan McNish has been named Audi's new F1 racing director, assuming many of the responsibilities held by Jonathan Wheatley before his unexpected exit ⬇️

https://t.co/6Ebiyu1bkT