Colin Knudsen

car lover, coo @ proaction

[Jamie Rotbert @jrotbert]

Thank you to the OpenAI Developers team for the feature and interview! Colin and I had a blast talking all things Codex.

[dani bauer @danizeres]

Proaction is taking action with Codex

[Colin Knudsen @Colinknudsen97]

Super excited to collaborate with @OpenAIDevs and showcase how we use Codex to optimize every part of Proaction!

[OpenAI Developers @OpenAIDevs]

Customer call today. New product workflow tomorrow.

Proaction is a 5-person team building fleet management software with Codex across sales demos, support follow-ups, marketing assets, and engineering work.

[OpenAI Developers @OpenAIDevs]

🤳 Agentic OS for a Phone

A voice-first mobile OS. Users talk, agents answer, and they can take action across the phone.

https://t.co/cslNNbo31l

[Colin Knudsen @Colinknudsen97]

@KRoelandschap @ItsPretsky @DiscountTire Erik and the @ItsPretsky team are the best!

[Colin Knudsen @Colinknudsen97]

@DePINConnection is a @DIMO_Network veteran and has one of our largest fleet deployments on the network.

Thanks for putting out a great deep-dive (and including a mention of @VehicleGenius)!

[DePIN Connection @DePINConnection]

This deep dive on DIMO covers everything you need to know about the project!

#DePIN #DIMO @DIMO_Network @ilCapoFox @DaveCryptosNews

https://t.co/9HQAwNfw6s

[Andy C @Ajchatham]

Remember the Smartphone Wars?

The next 10 years of the automotive industry are going to make that look like a snowball fight

- Cars are a ~5x larger market than phones

- Legacy automakers & suppliers are massive unionized employers with political influence

- Car brands are a national source of pride. Historically having a domestic auto industry is viewed as a national security asset.

This will get ugly as the knives come out: public markets seem to have priced in a very high chance that some or all of the legacy players like @GM, @Ford , @MercedesBenz , @Stellantis, @VW etc will go bankrupt in the next 5-7 years.

Who is going to survive? What's the right strategy?

OEM's are all trying to position themselves to take advantage of overlapping technology S-Curves: EVs, Autonomy (AI), Connectivity.

One thing is clear:
These changes & competitive pressures on legacy auto create opportunities for new models to emerge.

This is what we're focused on at @digi_infra_inc and @DIMO_Network - creating an open protocol & network of connected cars and empowering devs to build apps that are 10x better than what any individual OEM can deliver.

[Colin Knudsen @Colinknudsen97]

@Tesla continues to lead the way towards a future of more accessible vehicle data!

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

All design & engineering of the original @Tesla Roadster is now fully open source.

Whatever we have, you now have.

https://t.co/5d10soAYr8

[Colin Knudsen @Colinknudsen97]

@DIMO_Network and @joinmarble are teaming up to address this by allowing drivers to leverage their vehicle data to receive personalized, data-driven insurance policies, and significant cost savings.

https://t.co/bBvp9WHzbF

[Car Dealership Guy @GuyDealership]

Brewing issue in the car market:

Record-high auto insurance rates.

It’s hurting volume and profitability in a big way, even more so than high interest rates.

I’m hearing reports of car buyers being quoted policies at >$1,000/month in certain markets (!)

What are y’all seeing?

[Colin Knudsen @Colinknudsen97]

@phyde They need the @VehicleGenius QR code solution so bad….

[Branden Flasch @brandenflasch]

Just spent ~20 min talking to someone with a Polestar 2 that turned out was a rental from @Hertz.

They essentially had the same frustrations as @OutofSpecMom and @OutofSpecDave below - didn’t request it (prepaid for a rental but it would’ve been over $100 more for a 4 day rental to get a gas car??) and didn’t get any education from the staff on how to use it, how to charge it, etc.

Let’s not kid ourselves - for many people, driving an EV is a huge adjustment and putting someone into an EV that didn’t request it in an unfamiliar city, almost certainly without home charging, is a recipe for a poor experience that will likely turn people off from considering purchasing an EV for themselves.

What’s the solution? Better education from rental staff (realistically this should be done via quick start guides, videos, etc - rental agency staffing is a problem that is not likely to get better) and seamless charging options and education about them (even charging a Tesla could be challenging for someone that doesn’t know to look on the screen and that you simply plug in - I’ve been asked many times how billing works, etc).

Rental car companies, do better.
@Hertz @Enterprise

[Colin Knudsen @Colinknudsen97]

@brandenflasch @Hertz @OutofSpecMom @OutofSpecDave Large scale training of existing employees will take time.

@VehicleGenius developed a solution to educate EV rental drivers in real time!

Renters simply scan the QR code sticker in their rental car, and get connected to an EV expert via SMS text immediately.

[Pete Weishaupt @peteweishaupt]

@TheSmokingTire I still think coachbuilding will make a big comeback in the EV era.

You’ll have one “skateboard’ with your battery and you’ll put whatever body you want on top of that.

[Colin Knudsen @Colinknudsen97]

Navigating the car industry has NEVER been harder. @vehiclegenius is here at the perfect time.

[Farzad 🇺🇸 🇮🇷 @farzyness]

The US Auto Industry is not healthy.

Inventories of North American made cars are down 88% since their peak in February of 2014 and down 70% from pre-COVID levels.

US domestic auto production is down 63% since their peak in July of 2015 and down 33% from pre-COVID levels.

Average new car prices at US New Car Dealers are up 25% from pre-COVID levels, even after the recent drop from COVID peaks. Prices at peak (June 2022) were 49% above pre-COVID levels.

Used car dealers are near record retail sales, up 50% from pre-COVID levels, signifying a big shortage of new & affordable vehicles in the US.

Some additional stats since I've hit the picture limit:

- Used Car and Truck prices are up 40% from pre-COVID levels.

- Delinquency rate on consumer loans (includes auto loans) from commercial banks is up to 2.23% as of Q1 of 2023 and steadily climbing at a rate of 7.8% per quarter. At current rates, we will surpass pre-COVID levels by the end of Q3 of 2023 (next month).

- Average auto inventory to sales ratio pre-COVID was ~2.5 cars in inventory per car sold. Today, it's 0.838 cars in inventory per car sold.

In summary - we have record low inventories, record low production, at record high prices, which has dramatically boosted demand for affordable vehicles. These "affordable" vehicles can only be found in the used car market, and due to this increase demand, has in turn dramatically boosted prices in the used car market.

Let me know if you have any other takeaways from this data.

All data can be found here: https://t.co/vNnutMjD1w

[Colin Knudsen @Colinknudsen97]

@doggydaddyjeff @GuyDealership @vehiclegenius can help! DM me and we’ll see what we can do for you.

[Colin Knudsen @Colinknudsen97]

@GuyDealership This is largely due to the new Sequoia replacing the ~15 year prior model. There was clearly a lot of pent up demand by consumers waiting for the new *significantly* upgraded model.

Unfair to compare sales/growth between the two different models IMO.

[Colin Knudsen @Colinknudsen97]

(potentially) hot take: the new Hyundai Santa Fe will be one of the hottest selling SUVs amongst the 25-40 crowd.

[Andy C @Ajchatham]

While the automotive world is focused on the @Tesla NACS charging plug becoming a de-facto standard,

Tesla quietly open-sourced a new part of their stack that shows another way they're lapping the competition

A quick intro on Fleet Telemetry & why it matters👇

[Colin Knudsen @Colinknudsen97]

Product: @vehiclegenius, a Tesla-like app experience for every car.

We are combining live location-based roadside assistance with an interactive vehicle roadmap that helps you track overall spend, book maintenance, and identify savings on insurance and financing through one subscription.

Traction: 50 early test subscribers. 450 waitlist members.

Founding Team:
CEO (Automotive transaction expert, bought/sold 75+ cars)
COO (Automotive expert, product manager experience)
CTO (fmr senior solutions architect at Mercedes-Benz, owns dev-shop we will be utilizing)

Raising pre seed. East Coast Based.