Last week we explored how SaaS companies should think about defensibility, as AI both speeds up innovation and lowers barriers to compete. (LINK)

But what about offense? As AI-powered tools enable dramatically faster (and cheaper) software development cycles, will more advantage accrue to the large entrenched incumbent company, or to the small, agile startup? The question may be best answered by considering which has more to lose, and harkens back to Clayton Christensen’s seminal work, “The Innovator’s Dilemma.”

Christensen notes, “Successful companies fail not because they make mistakes, but because they listen to their best customers and focus on highly profitable products instead of new, disruptive technologies.”

Smaller, more agile startups are often better positioned to attack incumbents because they have the luxury of not having a legacy business (and customer reputation) to protect. Christensen notes, “These start simpler, cheaper, and often worse than existing products. They appeal to small or overlooked customer groups. Over time, they improve quickly and take over the mainstream market.”

Incumbent companies will inevitably approach AI from a position of conservatism: AI will make their existing operations more productive, but they need to proceed with caution, given the risk that AI may make a mistake that causes negative reputation risk. As a result, the pace of innovation will be slower than a singularly focused startup that doesn’t risk the same downside.

Startups have the potential to accelerate without fear of jeopardizing their incumbent business. Startups also have the advantage of not being burdened by historical code bases, business processes, or cultures, which means they can architect their firms to be truly driven by AI, instead of simply leveraging AI as a productivity enhancer.

The industry’s disruptors won’t be incumbent companies overhauling how they work; rather, the true AI-native companies will be startups.

We believe the advantage from AI accrues more to the startup than to the incumbent, making it that much more important for incumbents to focus on shoring up their defense across the four areas we mentioned last week: Brand (Trust), Networks, Proprietary Data, and Channel Ownership.

Until next week,

Steve Greenfield
General Partner
Automotive Ventures

Bugatti CEO Mate Rimac said the supercar market is entering its “Swiss watch phase,” with the wealthiest buyers rejecting high-tech electronics and electric vehicles in favor of precision mechanics and hand-crafted details. Rimac, the 38-year-old EV entrepreneur who took over Bugatti in 2021, said the car market is splitting in two: The mainstream global car market is becoming dominated by lower-priced EVs, many from China, while the very top of the car market will be driven by wealthy buyers who want more old-school cars with loud internal combustion engines and emotional appeal. He compared the car industry to watches, where digital and smart watches have taken over most of the market, while high-priced Swiss mechanical options remain popular with the wealthy. “For normal cars, normal people, the vast majority will be electric,” Rimac said. “The upper segment, like sports cars and upwards, are going to stay combustion for a very long time, exactly like watches. Only like 5% of watches are made in Switzerland, but that’s where 90% of profits are made. An Apple Watch or any kind of smart watch can do so many more things. But no one will pay $200,000 for it.” | CNBC

Things are getting ugly in the German auto industry, and they’re only going to get worse. Though it will likely survive the onslaught, it will emerge as a smaller industry, with a smaller workforce and a smaller manufacturing footprint. This is sort of easy to predict because we’ve seen it all before in the U.S. auto industry, back when General Motors and Chrysler filed for bankruptcy in 2009. In a sentiment widely attributed to Mark Twain, history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. Here’s the situation: Europe’s auto market is flat. It’s not growing. In China, German automakers, like other foreign car companies, are watching their sales and market share plummet. U.S. tariffs have added billions of dollars in costs. And stringent EU emissions regulations, including an ICE ban in 2035, look almost impossible to achieve for legacy automakers. | Wards Auto

The reignited trade war between the U.S. and its northern neighbor hit a fever pitch this week after President Trump proclaimed, “We don’t need Canada, they need us.” The American auto industry, however, views things differently. Detroit’s carmakers in particular could see some of their most profitable products walloped if Trump follows through on a threat to double tariffs on cars and auto parts from Canada to 50% from 25%. Stellantis assembles the Chrysler brand’s popular Pacifica minivan just across the border in Windsor, Ontario. General Motors produces pickup trucks at a factory in Oshawa, Ontario. Ford is set to begin making F-Series Super Duty trucks later this year at a plant near Toronto in Oakville, in addition to at a factory in Kentucky. And Ford and GM each produce engines in Canada for trucks and SUVs sold in the U.S. Canada—the U.S.’s second-largest trading partner—accounted for 8% of North American vehicle production in 2025, according to industry-data provider Omdia. While that is down from about 13% a decade ago as jobs and production have moved to Mexico and the U.S., the country remains a key maker of cars and parts—not to mention a buyer of them. Canada is the biggest export market for larger American trucks. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

After years of favoring large, expensive vehicles, American car buyers are now shifting towards smaller, more affordable options. Recent data from Kelley Blue Book and Cox Automotive shows sales growth concentrated in subcompact SUVs, compact, and midsize cars, while full-size pickups and SUVs saw softer increases. This trend is driven by soaring average transaction prices, which hit nearly $50,000 in July, coupled with high monthly payments and interest rates. Consumers are becoming more selective, indicating a potential ceiling for vehicle costs. This shift could restrain overall industry prices, suggesting affordability might be the next major automotive trend. | Forbes ($)

The fight against Flock Safety is getting louder and more sophisticated, even as the company’s AI-enabled cameras continue to spread across America. Flock has 120,000 cameras in 49 states that capture 20 billion license plates a month—along with dents, bumper stickers and other identifying features. The company says it is giving police a powerful tool to catch criminals. But the same bipartisan public anger that has risen up from towns and cities to stall data centers is now aimed at Flock’s spreading camera network. Republican members of Congress have introduced bills to restrict the technology. President Trump has weighed in too, saying last week that Flock’s cameras were “under review.” Flock opponents held rallies in 44 states, while a number of towns—including two in Massachusetts in the past few days alone—said they would stop using the cameras. As with data centers, the debate over Flock has spilled into this year’s elections, from Florida to Rhode Island to San Francisco. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

According to surveys from the polling firm YouGov, more Americans now oppose law enforcement’s use of police cameras that track license plates
than support it, a reversal from last year as a growing backlash raises concerns about its potential for invasive monitoring and police misuse. The cameras have been widely promoted as a crime-fighting breakthrough by private companies such as Flock, which since 2017 has installed more than 120,000 of them nationwide. But in a YouGov survey shared exclusively with The Washington Post, Americans said the systems wouldn’t make them feel any safer and they were reluctant to have the cameras installed near their homes. | The Washington Post ($)

Clashes are erupting nationwide as communities wrestle with privacy rights and the rapid spread of AI-enabled cameras. Often affixed inconspicuously to poles, they photograph the back of every passing vehicle and collect license plate data—as well as color, make, model and features like a bumper sticker or a gun rack. How these billions of photographs are used, stored and shared has spawned local fights, lawsuits and a national movement aimed at getting cities to cancel contracts with the biggest supplier, Atlanta-based Flock Safety. Founded in 2017, Flock began by selling its solar-powered cameras, known as automated license plate readers, to neighborhood groups. It now dominates the market and has more than 12,000 customers, including police departments, retailers, schools and homeowners’ associations. Flock promotes its 20 billion license plate reads a month—and ability to solve crimes across jurisdictions—to prospective law-enforcement customers. Its cameras are in more than 6,000 communities. About 50 cities and counties have canceled Flock contracts or deactivated cameras since early last year. The list includes liberal college towns like Cambridge, Mass. Conservatives also oppose government collection of personal data. Right-leaning Lockhart, Texas, and Warrenton, Va., rejected proposals to enter into contracts with Flock. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

A years-long car theft epidemic in Canada has gotten so bad that, despite a police crackdown, thieves break into homes just to steal car keys. Thousands of cars vanish each year. The phenomenon, records and interviews show, is driven in part by an unexpected source: a booming black market for Western vehicles in wartime Russia. While Western export bans have severed Russia from much of the auto market, they have not tempered the demand for brand-name SUVs and trucks. That has given rise to a sophisticated network of criminals that steals cars, hides them in shipping containers and sends them to Russia, often by way of the Middle East. Pickup trucks like Dodge Rams, Toyota Tundras and Ford F-150s are in particularly high demand. | The New York Times ($)

Two months after Chinese-owned electric-vehicle maker Polestar was forced to exit the U.S. market, the company is telling its American dealers that it was blindsided by the decision. Polestar said in an Aug. 18 letter to dealers, seen by The Wall Street Journal, that it still doesn’t have an explanation for why it must cease U.S. sales while Volvo Cars—a corporate cousin that sells a nearly identical car—was allowed to remain. The decision was issued June 24 by the U.S. Department of Commerce as part of a wider crackdown on Chinese vehicle technology. The Trump administration is implementing a new rule aimed at preventing China from spying on Americans via connected-vehicle technology. Polestar is the first automaker to be effectively blocked from the U.S. under the rule, which originated during the Biden administration. Polestar also said the Commerce Department had signaled it would be allowed to stay in the U.S., just like its corporate cousin, Volvo Cars. Polestar and Volvo share the same Chinese majority owner, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, and two of their models are built on the same production line in South Carolina, with nearly identical hardware and the same software inside. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

EBay is banning the sale of air bags and air-bag parts on its website, beginning next month, following multiple reports of fatalities involving components believed to be counterfeit and installed in used cars. The e-commerce platform said that air-bag inflaters—which ignite and rapidly fill an air bag during a crash—will no longer be permitted to be sold on eBay by any seller, nor will air bags themselves. “This decision was made following a comprehensive review of the risks these products may pose to eBay users,” the company said in a statement announcing the move. The policy goes into effect Sept. 24. The statement didn’t mention counterfeit parts. An eBay spokeswoman declined to comment beyond the statement. Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that faulty air bag inflaters have blown apart and killed at least 10 drivers in recent years. Three others have been injured, including as recently as June. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

A 2025 AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety survey found that 96 percent of drivers had engaged in at least one aggressive driving or road rage behavior in the previous year. Those behaviors ranged from honking in anger and blocking another driver from changing lanes to weaving through traffic and tailgating. More than 1 in 10 reported engaging in conduct AAA classified as violent, including deliberately hitting another vehicle or forcing one off the road. Meanwhile, violent crime continues to fall sharply nationwide after last year’s historic decline. Across 30 U.S. cities tracked by the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank, the homicide rate fell 18 percent in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period last year — and was 31 percent below 2019 levels. Deaths from roadway violence have not shown comparable drops. Available data indicates that firearm-involved road rage violence rose sharply over the past decade. Community violence takes a far larger toll and is concentrated among small groups in small sections of neighborhoods. Roadway violence is different. Its gateway is ordinary life, and its potential victims could be anyone. A commute, school drop-off or trip to the grocery store can put strangers in conflict in seconds. That does not make road rage deadlier. But it makes the danger less predictable and easier to stumble into. Gun Violence Archive data compiled by The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence, shows that the number of road rage shooting victims grew more than fivefold, from roughly two a week in 2014 to nearly nine a week in 2024. During that span, more than 3,500 victims were shot and about 900 were killed. | The Washington Post ($)

Electric vehicles for years have been dogged by worries about fire. Headlines from the early 2020s were filled with Teslas burning in garages and Chevrolet Bolts taken off the road due to flammable batteries. Federal safety investigators urged automakers to give emergency responders better guides on how to fight lithium-ion battery fires. It seemed like EVs represented a new kind of fire risk. But EVs are not driving the recent growth in recalls warning that vehicles could erupt into flames at any time, even when parked and turned off.
A The Washington Post analysis of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHTSA recall notices found that conventional gas and diesel vehicles made up the vast majority of vehicles covered by the “park outside” label since 2021. | The Washington Post ($)

President Donald Trump is presiding over an unexpected clean energy boom, as rising electricity demand spurs investment in new capacity despite the U.S. administration’s efforts to thwart a solar and wind rollout. Clean energy additions will rise by a record 45 gigawatts this year, according to S&P Global Energy — equivalent to the average electricity demand of Turkey. The increase is roughly 25 per cent higher than the record set in 2024. The U.S. president’s war in Iran, which has driven up global energy prices, along with surging power demand from AI data centres and developers’ rush to capitalise on expiring tax credits, are driving the cleantech boom, said analysts. Trump’s administration has also been pragmatic in the face of its energy needs. | Financial Times ($)

President Trump has been scornful of electric cars for years. But his administration is now pouring billions of dollars into the battery technology that powers them. Large lithium-ion batteries have become one of the rare energy technologies that both parties in Washington strongly support — though for very different reasons. The Biden administration saw batteries as a green energy tool crucial for addressing global warming and sought to encourage manufacturing them, for use in electric vehicles and to backstop wind and solar power on electric grids. The Trump administration has rolled back efforts to expand clean energy, but officials have nonetheless come to see batteries as essential for many of Mr. Trump’s priorities, including powering A.I. data centers and manufacturing drones for the military. The Trump administration has been particularly alarmed by China’s dominance of global supply chains for lithium-ion batteries, and in recent months has made a major push to bolster domestic production of many battery components and associated critical minerals. | The New York Times ($)

Michael Dunne from Dunne Insights makes the argument that future historians will point to the mid-2020s as the moment when China took over the global auto industry, sending traditional automakers reeling toward extinction. | The San Francisco Standard

A new analysis from the Center for Automotive Research shows how the explosive global growth of Chinese brands is challenging U.S. automakers in international markets. Chinese carmakers' share of the global market increased from 14% in 2020 to 25% in 2025, approaching Japan's 26%. U.S. global share is essentially flat, at 12%. China had excess production capacity of about 15 million vehicles in 2025 — equivalent to an entire year of U.S. auto sales — giving its companies a powerful incentive to keep exporting. Chinese automakers' sales have already tripled in Western Europe and increased sevenfold in other markets since 2020. In Mexico, sales of Chinese cars soared to 14.5% of the market in 2025, up from less than 1% in 2020. CAR's analysis found China's entire industrial system — strong supply chains, massive scale, fast development speed, intense domestic competition and yes, favorable government policy — works together to reinforce its competitive advantage. | Axios ($)

China’s share of global manufacturing surpassed the U.S. in 2000 and is now approaching a level where it represents nearly one-third of all manufacturing on the planet. As this chart from Wells Fargo shows, the one-third level appears to be a historical ceiling on the total share any single country can take. With the U.S. now attempting to reindustrialize and Europe doubling down on defense industries, might another rebalancing be about to take place? | Fortune ($)

Chinese automakers are betting big on European production with plans to build as many as 1.5 million vehicles a year in the region by 2035. But economists warn that Europe could risk becoming a final assembly destination without capturing the higher-value manufacturing and supply chain jobs that drive real industrial growth. BYD, Chery, Leapmotor and others are building new plants or taking advantage of underutilized production lines at European manufacturers. The ramp-up begins this year and will become increasingly significant by 2030. | Automotive News ($)

London’s world-famous black-cab drivers have lost almost a third of their income to private-hire competition. Now, cabbies and private-hire drivers alike are bracing for a new wave of technological change: the arrival of robotaxis. Waymo, owned by Alphabet Inc., and Wayve, a UK start-up backed by Uber, are racing to make London their European launch pad for paid, driverless services. Roughly six months after Waymo’s vehicles began cruising the streets in testing mode, drivers view them with scorn, bravado and trepidation. Some even admit they will be doing their best to lead their new competitors astray. Some drivers point to the potential to force autonomous vehicles (AVs) to give way in heavy traffic, sabotage their sensors, ensure that they became stranded in box junctions where they would be fined, or even to lodge insurance claims asserting “it drove into me!” after any collision. | The Financial Times ($)

The driverless future is here—but, to borrow from William Gibson, it’s not evenly distributed. Waymo’s self-driving robotaxis are available in cities in California, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas. Aside from California, where the technology originated, those are all red or purple states. In every other blue state, meanwhile, driverless taxis are still not allowed to operate. If you live in Miami or Dallas, you can summon a Waymo to get where you’re going. If you live in Boston or New York, you can’t. This is not an accident. In Democratic jurisdictions, a coalition of labor unions, anti-tech activists, and politicians have kept driverless vehicles off the streets. (Colorado, which passed a bill authorizing driverless vehicles in 2017, before the current backlash, is on track to become the exception later this year.) They argue that the new technology would make the roads more dangerous and throw millions of human drivers out of work, all to enrich a handful of tech oligarchs. | The Atlantic ($)

The estimated cost per vehicle for Waymo's various platforms vs. Tesla's Cybercab. | Platform Aeronaut

Former Lyft drivers are ceding the roads to robots, and helping the machines get five-star ratings. In Nashville, Lyft's flexdrive subsidiary plans to open its largest vehicle cleaning and maintenance depot yet in October — to service Waymo robotaxis. The 80,000-square-foot facility will employ about 70 full-time workers, about half of whom formerly drove for Lyft. The situation offers an early glimpse at what AI may mean for millions of workers: eliminating some jobs while creating new work around the machines taking over. | Business Insider ($)

Breakthroughs in AI are fueling hopes that more data and smarter models can provide a shortcut to self-driving vehicles. Waymo, after more than 15 years and 200 million driverless miles, says there is none. The answer could determine whether the AV race is a long, expensive slog that rewards Waymo's head start — or a new track that lets newer rivals hit the road faster. Srikanth Thirumalai, Waymo's vice president of onboard software, said that it takes more than just better AI to safely deploy AVs at scale. | Axios

While Congress has yet to pass comprehensive robotaxi legislation, federal regulators have stepped up their scrutiny. The Trump administration’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently warned autonomous-vehicle companies that vehicles unable to safely interact with police, firefighters, and other first responders pose a danger to the public. Even in states that have broadly welcomed autonomous vehicles, governments are grappling with how to oversee them. Texas this year began enforcing new permitting requirements for commercial AV operators, while cities in Florida have complained that state preemption laws leave them with little power to respond to problems on their own streets. Even in states that have broadly welcomed autonomous vehicles, governments are grappling with how to oversee them. | The Verge ($)

Toaster-shaped taxis that don’t have a driver or a steering wheel have started rolling across San Francisco and charging for rides in Las Vegas. The all-electric cars are the first robotaxis offering rides on the roads without standard driver features like a dashboard and pedals. They can drive in either direction and hold up to four passengers who sit facing each other. Windows stretch across much of the sides. The vehicles are called Zoox and they come from a new entrant in robotaxis: Amazon. Amazon is betting it can become a major player in the growing robotaxi market, which Goldman Sachs expects to grow to nearly $19 billion in sales by 2030, from $376 million last year. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

The race to launch hands-off, eyes-off Level 3 autonomy is losing out to a more pragmatic — and profitable — strategy: improving Level 2 systems. Level 2 allows automakers to provide hands-off highway driving and many of the same customer benefits as Level 3 at a fraction of the cost, while keeping drivers legally responsible, industry experts say. The shift reflects a fundamental business calculation: Automakers can generate more revenue from advanced Level 2 systems through three channels — selling the feature as an option, protecting residual values, and reducing warranty costs through over-the-air updates. That combined value exceeds what they can charge for the feature alone, according to Capgemini, which expects the advanced driver-assistance market to grow to $100 billion by the early 2030s from $24 billion in 2026. Growth is increasingly expected to come from software, artificial intelligence models and over-the-air updates rather than additional sensors, said Heiko Huettel, Capgemini executive vice president of automotive software. | Automotive News ($)

In 2009, Usain Bolt set the men’s 100-meter dash world record of 9.58 seconds at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin. On Saturday, a humanoid robot developed by the Chinese company X-Humanoid beat that record by 0.19 seconds, according to Chinese state media. The robot ended its sprint by slamming full speed into a padded wall, falling down and being carried away by human assistants. High-profile feats of robotic athleticism have become increasingly common in China, where a humanoid robotics industry has flourished, aided by generous state support and billions in investment. Robots have danced and performed martial arts at the country’s top events. At the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing over the weekend, they boxed and participated in soccer matches. One played tennis against a human opponent, moving across the court and angling itself to return volleys. Earlier this year, a robot ran a marathon faster than any human in history. | The New York Times ($)

The humanoid-robot industry shipped about 20,000 units globally last year, with Chinese manufacturers accounting for 95%, according to Bank of America Global Research. Gan Xiaobin, an official at China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said in July the country expects to build more than 100,000 humanoids this year. BofA forecasts 1.2 million annual shipments globally by 2030. The implications of China's supply-chain dominance extend beyond commercial competition. In July, the Trump administration banned imports of new Chinese humanoids, citing the need to protect the U.S. AI industry from threats of disruption and cyberattacks. Beijing’s effort to build intelligent robots follows the industrial-policy blueprint it deployed for electric vehicles and solar panels: Subsidize a strategic sector, build capacity early, and stoke fierce competition to drive down costs. Such investment serves China’s ambition to win control of critical industrial technology and displace Western competitors. But cars and solar were mature industries when China accelerated production. Humanoids, by contrast, remain an early-stage technology with limited domestic or foreign demand and unresolved problems in dexterity, reliability, intelligence and cost, analysts and industry executives say. Government entities are at once major financiers and customers of the same robots – artificially boosting demand. That all makes China’s gamble on humanoids a riskier prospect. | Reuters ($)

For years, Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates said he was optimistic that the world would become a better place thanks to artificial intelligence. He imagined the technology freeing people from work and speeding up inventions that would fight diseases and climate change. But in a new essay published online Wednesday, the philanthropist says he is worried that AI could do more harm than good. Gates said in an interview that it’s fair to say he’s now scared of what could go wrong with AI absent urgent intervention. Over the past year, Gates said, he’s grown alarmed about the technology’s increasing capabilities to complete workplace tasks and go on hacking sprees. Most of all he’s worried about a lack of progress in regulating AI and minimizing its downsides. | The Washington Post ($)

Google is now automatically expanding its AI search summaries at the top of the results page for some searches, as reported by Search Engine Roundtable. The change, when it kicks in, pushes the typical list of links from a search much farther down Google’s results page; instead of seeing part of an AI Overview with a “Show more” button you can click, you’ll Google will show a full AI Overview at the top of your search, an “Ask anything” box under that, and then the list of links. It can lead to a lot of scrolling. | The Verge ($)

DNV has published its "MARITIME FORECAST TO 2050" document, which provides a perspective on potential innovation across marine transportation and shipping over the next few decades. | DNV

Donald Trump’s administration is teaming up with a British company to help it build a fleet of nuclear-powered merchant vessels to challenge China’s growing dominance of commercial shipbuilding, a top U.S. official has said. Stephen Carmel, administrator of the U.S. Maritime Administration at the transport department, told the Financial Times that Washington would sign a public-private partnership agreement on Monday with Core Power, which would help accelerate development of nuclear propulsion for shipping. The first-of-a-kind agreement aims to fast-track construction of a U.S.-flagged nuclear-powered fleet by designing a regulatory framework that enables speedy licensing, availability of insurance, port access and high standards of safety. | Financial Times ($)

Some 18 years after California voted to launch a bullet train that would travel between San Francisco and Los Angeles in under three hours, the project now costs billions more than planned, is years behind schedule and has yet to lay its first track. The 2008 ballot measure passed narrowly, 52.7% to 47.3%, kick-starting America’s largest active infrastructure project. A legislative bill said it should be completed by 2020, and the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s initial business plan estimated a cost of $33 billion. After years of legal battles, cost overruns, leadership changes and political fights, the price tag is up to $126 billion, with a high estimate of $231 billion, and it isn’t expected to be fully operational until 2040. Since 2008, the authority has spent about $15 billion, purchasing thousands of land parcels and building giant overpasses, rail beds, walls and other concrete structures that now rise over California’s Central Valley. The work has generated thousands of jobs. But the Authority’s Inspector General estimated the project will “exhaust its current funding resources” as early as next year, according to its July report. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

The US Army tested an autonomous breaching vehicle with an onboard counter-UAS (C-UAS) turret during a live-fire exercise at Fort Bragg on August 18. As part of Project Sandhills 2.0, self-driving Ford Motor Company F-250 trucks were put through their paces, some armed with computer-controlled drone-killing shotgun turrets. Sandhills 2.0 builds on the original Sandhills project which spawned the Lancer UGV, built on the Polaris Inc. Ranger 1500 utility vehicle, which ended up being gifted to Ukraine. However, this new breaching solution adds C-UAS abilities to bolster their abilities to clear the way for human soldiers to advance. Breaching operations can be seriously compromised by a determined enemy using increasingly common FPV drone technology and this fact inspired the changes delivered in Sandhills 2.0. | Tom’s Hardware

Nearly 70 years after the Soviet Union launched the first satellite, there is more man-made material in space than ever before. The increasing quantity of satellites and debris in low-Earth orbit—roughly 100 to 1,200 miles above the planet—is raising concerns of collisions that could damage or destroy spacecraft and satellites. One worst-case fear is that debris could set off a chain reaction of crashes, leaving parts of low-Earth orbit unusable. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

The United States has dominated the commercial space industry for so long that many Americans take it for granted. But that technological edge is starting to dull, with unnerving national security implications. Two recent developments underscore what’s at stake. A Chinese aerospace company managed to land a rocket booster this month for the first time, an engineering feat that only two American companies have previously managed to pull off: SpaceX and Blue Origin. This allows for rockets to be reused, dramatically reducing the cost of space launches. Meanwhile, Russia is quickly deploying low-orbit satellites that can beam internet services to Earth. That system, called Rassvet, will help Russian forces regain the communications and targeting abilities over Ukraine that they lost when SpaceX founder Elon Musk cut them off from his Starlink service. Moscow has already launched two satellite packages this year — sooner than anticipated. With near-peer competitors determined to emulate American success, staying ahead will help ward off future conflict in the final frontier. | The Washington Post ($)

Our Automotive Ventures “Car of the Week”: a 1958 Aston Martin DBR1. | Tom Hartley Jnr

📢 Steve caught up with Camron Wilson and Michael Hayes from the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) to discuss how automotive dealers can prepare for AI. | NADA

📢 We’re very proud to be an investor in Auriga Space. | Auriga Space

📢 One investment thesis area at Automotive Ventures is that automotive dealers will be more profitable in the future, as AI unlocks labor efficiencies, currently representing 47% of a dealership's cost structure. | CBT News ($)

📢 Steve was back on the More Than Cars segment with Paul Daly. | More Than Cars ($)

CarGenius allows automotive dealers to control how their dealership shows up in AI searches. | CarGenius

Fixed Ops Roundtable Sep 21-25 | Virtual Event | Speaker | LINK

Automotive News Congress Sep 28-30 | Detroit, MI | Speaker | LINK

CIECA CONNEX Conference Sep 29 - Oct 1 | San Antonio, TX | Speaker | LINK

MEMA Aftermarket Technology Conference Oct 4-6 | Dallas, TX | Speaker | LINK

AICPA Dealership Conference Oct 19-20 | Nashville, TN | Speaker | LINK

Wholesale Auto Supply Annual Meeting Nov 10 | Florham Park, NJ | Speaker | LINK

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