0:00

Welcome to Car Stuff, a production

0:02

of I Heart Radio.

0:06

Welcome to Car Stuff, folks, thanks

0:08

for tuning in. I am one of your

0:11

hosts, Ben Bolan, and I am Kurt

0:13

garn And like many of us

0:15

now in the world today, Kurt and

0:18

I are recording remotely

0:20

from our separate bunkers.

0:23

Our good pal the Walter White

0:25

to my Jesse Pinkman Scott Benjamin

0:28

couldn't make it today but as well,

0:30

and sends his regards Kurt.

0:32

I want to check in before we get started. How

0:35

how are you doing? Man? How How long have you

0:37

been uh in the in this lockdown

0:39

stage? Um? I guess about

0:42

three three and a half weeks now. I've

0:44

been well though, UM, just hanging

0:46

in there like many people out there.

0:48

How about you been, I've been you know,

0:50

I've been doing pretty well. I've actually

0:53

I've actually taken the habit of

0:56

just getting out on the road just

0:58

to get out of the house. You know, I'm not

1:00

really I don't really have a reason to

1:02

go anywhere. I don't have because

1:04

I'm stocked up on everything I could need.

1:07

But I've always loved road trips.

1:10

I finally got a reliable vehicle before

1:13

all this stuff went down. And so

1:15

for anyone familiar with the Atlanta

1:18

area, our fair metropolis

1:20

usually as terrible, terrible traffic.

1:23

And I have been driving around

1:25

to eight five, which is an interstate

1:28

that encircles Atlanta.

1:30

I've just been driving around it, and it's a

1:33

It's a great drive, dude, because there's never

1:35

any traffic now used he

1:37

used to be notoriously busy

1:39

and choked up. Uh, and now you

1:41

can just zoom on by.

1:44

I would say, I feel like we do have

1:46

to point out if you are listening and

1:48

you're in an area where you

1:51

have been told that you cannot take

1:53

any non essential

1:55

trips, then please abide

1:57

by that to the best of your ability. But

2:00

I haven't been stopped by anybody, you

2:03

know. I haven't been like hot rotting or redlining

2:05

anywhere. But it's good to

2:07

get out there in nature. I mean, I don't

2:10

know if you if you all have been going on any

2:12

hikes or anything. Oh yeah,

2:14

It's been very important for me, at

2:16

least for my sanity to get out

2:18

there and enjoy some of the spring

2:20

weather, which I love so much. Um,

2:23

but running in my neighborhood and going

2:26

on walks and uh, just

2:28

trying to stay away from those purpose built

2:30

paths because I hear that people are all over

2:32

those these days for some reason. Oh

2:35

yeah, yeah, it's it's uh, it's real

2:37

strange. You know. I think I think we're

2:39

learning just how much

2:41

of a toll cabin fever can take

2:43

on people. But as

2:46

many folks have said, not just in

2:48

our country, but abroad in

2:50

Australia, in Europe and

2:53

in Asia, every country

2:56

that's dealing with this current COVID

2:58

nineteen pandemic has said, at

3:00

some point, we're all in this together. And

3:02

this got you and I thinking about

3:05

some tremendously impressive

3:07

acts, both in the current day

3:09

and in the past. So, Kurt,

3:12

a little while ago off air, you and

3:14

I were just kicking

3:16

around ideas, just shooting the breeze, and

3:18

we started talking about how

3:21

I believe our conversation started when when we

3:23

were talking about how Tesla, the

3:26

electric car company run by Elon

3:28

Musk, had pledged

3:30

to start building ventilators

3:32

to help with hospitals that were

3:35

in short supply and to help

3:37

patients who needed

3:39

these medical devices so

3:41

that they could get over the hump of infection,

3:44

which can be you know, can be quite

3:46

dangerous. But a medical

3:49

ventilator is something that you

3:51

wouldn't really expect a car

3:53

company to build, even one

3:55

that's a little bit more sci fi like

3:58

Elon Musk, you know, because he's known for his crazy

4:00

sci fi ideas. Yeah and less rewind

4:03

Uh. Several weeks ago when this thing

4:06

was ramping up in the United States and

4:08

Elon Musk came out on Twitter and said

4:10

the coronavirus panic is dumb and

4:13

that kind of rubbed people the wrong way.

4:15

Um, perhaps what he was saying

4:18

was that panic

4:20

isn't necessarily a productive

4:23

reaction. So what he has

4:25

decided to do is to use

4:27

some of the minds that he has working

4:30

for him at Tesla to

4:32

create ventilators at hospitals

4:34

can use because there is a high

4:36

likelihood that as this virus progresses

4:39

that there will be a need for ventilators

4:42

throughout the country. He has

4:44

also been buying machines from other

4:46

places where he can. He's been buying

4:48

a less intrusive type ventilator known

4:50

as a b pat machine

4:53

and dot dors in New York at Mount

4:55

Sinai have been able to come

4:57

up with a way to turn these in fully

5:00

fledged ventilators. They put out a fifteen

5:02

page instruction manual, and

5:04

now other hospitals can

5:06

use that manual to

5:09

convert these types of machines over

5:11

to full on ventilators

5:13

as well. So all of this um

5:17

problem solving an ingenuity is

5:19

really exciting in a time

5:21

when there's not a lot of excitement to be had.

5:24

So I guess it can be said that Elon

5:27

Musk is not panicking and he's

5:29

doing what he can to try

5:31

to help. Yeah. Absolutely,

5:33

And you know this is something that

5:36

I was interested in because not

5:39

being a doctor, not being a maker

5:41

of ventilators myself, I,

5:44

like many people, was hearing this word thrown

5:46

around on the news, and I didn't

5:48

know what a ventilator was, And

5:51

at first I didn't understand

5:53

other than having a factory, I didn't

5:56

understand what Tesla could be doing to

6:00

create these machines. But then

6:02

once you learn what a ventilator is,

6:05

it makes a little more sense. So

6:07

a ventilator is a machine

6:10

that provides mechanical

6:12

ventilation. It moves breathable

6:14

air in and out

6:16

of human lungs, so it

6:19

essentially it breathes for you

6:21

if you are unable to breathe,

6:24

or if you can't breathe well enough.

6:26

On your own, so instantly we can

6:28

see how this could literally be a

6:30

lifesaving device for people. Now,

6:33

Tesla at this point, as far as we can

6:35

tell, their engineers have just made

6:37

a prototype ventilator. But

6:39

the cool thing, the really impressive thing, is

6:42

that this ventilator mainly

6:44

uses car parts, mainly uses

6:47

things they were already using,

6:49

like the Tesla models infotainment

6:52

system that's what controls the ventilator.

6:54

Uh, the Model three touch screening

6:57

controllers that's also what you

6:59

use as an interface, and the

7:02

oxygen and air mixing you

7:04

know, that's something that cars need to do

7:06

too, So it makes way more

7:08

sense than you might think initially. And there's

7:10

this pretty great YouTube video that

7:13

walks through it that shows L.

7:15

M. Musk and the Tesla engineers talking

7:18

about what they're using and

7:20

how they're assembling these things to

7:23

make working ventilators.

7:25

Again, they don't have, you know, the hundreds

7:27

of thousands of these out now, but the proof

7:29

of concept is impressive.

7:32

I would say, yeah, yeah, definitely,

7:34

and like you and I'm sure many

7:36

out there can relate to this, but

7:38

um, the terms of the days seem to be changing.

7:41

A month or two ago, I had no

7:44

desire to learn what a ventilator

7:46

was, and I didn't know what PPE

7:49

stood for. I

7:51

didn't know what herd immunity was UM.

7:54

But now as we become more immersed

7:56

in this world of a

7:59

pandemic, we are

8:01

becoming more familiar with these

8:03

types of medical terms and devices,

8:06

And so I sketched out, based on Tesla's

8:09

description of what their ventilator is kind

8:11

of how it The air flows down the

8:13

line. So you have oxygen that comes in

8:15

through a hospital air supply that

8:17

goes into a mixing chamber, which is

8:20

a car part that Tesla has on hand,

8:23

and then the air flows into a valve body

8:25

that controls the air pressure

8:28

and then um, then it flows through some sensors

8:30

to I guess, um determine the mixture

8:32

and the pressure of the air. Then

8:34

it goes through a filter before it goes into

8:36

the patient's long, and then

8:39

when the carbon dioxide

8:41

and air exits the long, it goes through some

8:44

more sensors and then to an exhale

8:46

valve that throttles the pressure on the

8:48

patients slung. Now,

8:50

all this got me wondering

8:53

about Tesla's credentials

8:55

as far as like, can they make these precise

8:58

medical devices. But then I thought

9:00

about how they are a company that shot one of their

9:02

cars into space on a rocket, and they

9:05

routinely returned those rockets back

9:07

to Earth, landing them on a pad

9:10

in the middle of the ocean. So I

9:12

suppose that they could probably

9:14

find their way around the ventilator. That's

9:16

that's a really, really great perspective,

9:19

man. That's what I didn't think about, you know,

9:21

because I I have given l I musk

9:23

is fair share of guff in the past

9:26

and in past episodes of car stuff, because

9:28

there have been times where you know, he's

9:31

been a real, uh, shoot for the

9:33

stars, landing the clouds kind of guy with

9:35

his approach to things. But he's definitely

9:37

a visionary and you're right, they did put a rocket

9:40

into space, so hopefully they can put some air

9:42

into lungs. What also

9:44

interests you and I both about this, and what

9:47

we hope interest you listeners, is

9:49

that this is not the first

9:51

time we have seen the auto industry

9:54

do what's called a pivot.

9:57

Right. Tesla is just one example of some stuff

9:59

will talk about in a few minutes, But

10:02

we have to point out that

10:05

this is not a new strategy.

10:07

It is an extreme strategy. But the

10:10

idea that an enormous auto

10:12

manufacturer might be

10:14

able to change their product

10:17

to help for a greater good

10:20

is a pretty old idea. As

10:22

a matter of fact, if you look back

10:24

to the era of World War

10:27

Two, here are the United States.

10:29

The US manufacturing of automobiles

10:31

virtually halted from

10:34

February two to October

10:36

nineteen. They weren't

10:39

making cars or trucks, or

10:41

semis or auto parts. As

10:43

a matter of fact, they weren't doing

10:45

this on their own initiative. At first. The

10:48

government had put

10:50

in uh freeze

10:53

on this, the Office of Production Management.

10:56

On January one, nineteen forty two,

10:58

they said, every ale of

11:00

every vehicle is going to be frozen,

11:03

and we're going to go on a case

11:05

by case basis for people

11:07

or entities that I can have a contract

11:10

for delivery of a vehicle, uh,

11:12

if they had signed that contract before

11:14

January one, will go case by

11:17

case to see if they can be

11:19

delivered. And this is interesting.

11:21

It ties into something else.

11:24

The Office of Production Management, right that

11:26

was pre existing, but President

11:29

Roosevelt creates something called the War

11:32

Production Board. And for

11:34

anyone who has nightmares of

11:37

big government overreach, this

11:40

is a crazy story. Here's

11:42

what they did. They War Production

11:44

Board regulated all

11:47

industrial production and

11:49

all allocation of resources

11:51

or fuel that could be considered

11:54

war material, so they would

11:56

coordinate heavy manufacturing. They

11:58

would also have a very

12:00

high level of control over things like metal,

12:03

rubber, oil, and they

12:05

even put in wage and price control.

12:08

So when all the manufacturers

12:11

in the US ended their production of automobiles

12:14

there in February two,

12:17

they didn't just you know, mothball

12:19

the factories. They started working

12:22

on other things, and they

12:24

started working on things that I guess the best

12:27

way to say it. In most cases they

12:29

were building things you could not buy your local

12:31

dealership, right right, right,

12:34

And I mean you have to put it in a little bit of perspective

12:36

too. So you have World War One, that

12:39

was the war to end all wars. After

12:41

that, you have the Great Depression. The

12:44

U. S IS military was twelve largest

12:47

behind Brazil shortly before

12:49

World War Two, and had the eighteenth

12:51

largest air force, which the air force was hugely

12:54

important. And this overseas

12:56

battle here and on two different fronts.

12:59

World War two, we had the auto

13:01

industry. They made you know, airplanes,

13:03

bombs, torpedoes, helmets,

13:06

tanks, jeeps, you know that

13:08

sort of thing stuff that's more in their wheelhouse.

13:12

UM and then uh. One of

13:14

the famous examples would be

13:16

Henry Ford's Willow Run plant.

13:19

It was in Ipsilanti, Michigan. Willow

13:22

Run also developed this nickname will

13:24

It Run in the press because it had some

13:27

issues getting up and running. But it was a It

13:29

was an airplane manufacturing plant that manufactured

13:32

the B twenty four Liberator, the long

13:34

range bomber, and it got

13:36

to the point where it could produce almost

13:38

one per hour. And Henry Ford

13:40

was behind all of that, kind of employed

13:43

his assembly line techniques to plane manufacturing

13:45

and they pre manufactured a lot of parts for

13:47

the plane and they had a crazy timeline.

13:50

Ground was broken in April eighteenth

13:52

of nineteen forty one. UM. The

13:54

building was dedicated in June six, nineteen

13:57

forty one. They started making planes later

13:59

that year. It took them a little while to get

14:01

up the full capacity on this, as

14:03

you can imagine, there's a lot of you

14:06

know, planning and things like that. They were working with

14:08

Consolidated Aircraft. They were the company

14:11

designed the plane. Henry Ford had engineers

14:13

working out in California as well. They

14:16

produced five miles of drawings per

14:18

day, so thirty thousand drawings

14:21

in total, and by the time they made

14:23

it back to Consolidated, ten thousand

14:25

of those drawings are obsolete, and

14:28

apparently Consolidated also had some

14:30

reworks along the way, so they would be

14:32

calling up willow Run from time

14:34

to time redirecting the plant to

14:36

do things a certain way, because also

14:38

with these airplanes came some quality control

14:41

issues. However, the

14:43

mere fact they were able to switch over

14:45

relatively quickly and make these

14:47

gigantic airplanes on the scale

14:49

that they did is very impressive,

14:52

despite some of the issues

14:54

they had with manufacturing along the way.

14:57

It's tough to really convey

15:01

the enormity of the change

15:03

here, both in terms of speed

15:05

and in terms of scale. So

15:08

in April of nineteen two,

15:11

while Willow Run is in action,

15:14

these different representatives from the

15:16

auto industry here in the States form

15:18

something they call the Automotive Counsel

15:20

for War Production. And the idea

15:23

here was that these companies,

15:26

these private manufacturers who

15:28

are usually competing with each other

15:30

year over year, quarter over quarter, they

15:33

need to learn a new

15:35

game. They need to figure out how

15:37

they're going to share things with

15:40

their former rivals. You know, who

15:42

knows how to build this component

15:45

best. It's not something maybe

15:47

we would advertise to the public,

15:49

but we all kind of you know, behind

15:52

the scenes, we all know who makes the best version

15:54

of this part, Who has the best

15:56

ability to mobilize their manpower,

15:59

Who has the best line on

16:01

things like steel and so on? Right?

16:03

Who do we Who can we work with? Who

16:06

can we help? And they

16:08

had to do this. This would not have happened

16:11

without this extraordinary level

16:13

of cooperation. I mean just think

16:15

about it. Almost like within days,

16:18

maybe a week or so, after production

16:22

of all automobiles officially

16:24

ceases, these factories are

16:26

retooled at a frenetic

16:28

rate. You know, these gigantic manufacturing

16:31

machines have to be like literally jackhammered

16:34

out of the concrete, and then you have to bring

16:36

in these other equally huge machines

16:38

to replace them. You gotta strip all

16:40

the conveyor belts, you gotta take

16:42

all the electrical wires you had hooked

16:44

up, bundle them together as neatly

16:46

as possible while in a devilish

16:48

hurry. And then they just sort of

16:51

tucked it up in the factory ceilings.

16:53

And they were trying to be optimistic, like okay,

16:56

alright, Greg, You're in charge. You're the

16:58

guy rolled up the wire or is you gotta roll them

17:00

back down and put them in the right place when

17:03

this is over, And Greg's

17:05

like, man, I should have took better notes. And

17:17

then even if they had parts that were

17:19

not all the way finished that we're still in the

17:21

stage of fabrication, they would

17:23

be stopped of course, that fabrication

17:26

process or that assembly process, and

17:28

these parts would be shipped off the steel

17:31

mills, and the steel mills

17:33

would re melt the parts. And

17:36

the thing that really got me is, you

17:38

know, one of the biggest components

17:40

of manufacturing is going to

17:42

be the the die

17:45

that you use to fabricate auto

17:47

parts. At some point they decided

17:49

that they would even take the die they had

17:52

used and they would send those to salvage

17:54

to help with the war effort, which means

17:57

that they were adding so much

17:59

extra time him onto

18:01

whatever their process would be to become

18:03

car manufacturers. Again, they

18:05

went all in. It was

18:08

nuts. Oh. By the way, around this

18:10

time, the government sets a national

18:12

speed limit of thirty five miles per

18:14

hour boom ah,

18:16

yes, the Victory speed limit. So

18:19

the government instituted this between

18:21

May of nineteen forty two and August

18:23

of nineteen forty five to reduce gasoline

18:26

and rubber consumption. And they

18:28

were also only selling cars out of

18:30

the stockpile of pre forty

18:32

two production two essential

18:34

drivers during that time as well, from forty

18:36

two to five. So

18:39

it's just it's interesting to think about how the country

18:41

completely shifted during

18:44

that time. Even if you weren't

18:46

in the military at war, you're

18:49

at home, the landscape basically

18:51

changed, you know, giant factories were

18:53

being converted or even constructed, and

18:56

all this on the heels of the Great Depression.

18:59

People at home begin to see

19:01

things start moving again and progressing

19:04

forward in a way that they hadn't seen in

19:06

years and maybe for

19:08

a life, for their lifetime. Like you

19:10

said, machines being ripped out of the floor,

19:12

new machines being placed in the factories

19:15

that used to build cars, and now they're building airplanes,

19:17

which, um, you would think you would

19:19

need a whole new building to go from cars to

19:21

airplanes, Like in many cases, I believe

19:23

that's exactly what they did. You

19:25

need all that, you need a lot of space to roll a plane down

19:27

an assembly line, oh, one might imagine.

19:30

Right. It's interesting because

19:33

we have a lot of historical

19:36

sources that focus on

19:38

the Big Three during World War

19:40

Two. But we have to remember

19:43

there are like nine other

19:46

auto makers in play, right,

19:48

Yeah, like Nash and Student

19:50

Baker. Yeah. Yeah, so we've got Um

19:53

Bantam, Packard, Student

19:55

Baker, uh, Willie's,

19:57

Overland, Grand Pay,

20:00

h Hudson, Nash, Kelvinator

20:02

Crossley. I mean they What

20:04

we're saying is that everybody made their

20:06

contributions. Now, of course the

20:09

luminary himself, Henry

20:11

Ford, played a massive role

20:14

here. But what's surprising you about

20:16

this? I'd like to kick some numbers for everybody

20:18

in the audience here. When

20:20

it was all said and done, the US

20:22

auto industry alone, just

20:25

the car makers of this country created

20:29

of the total US output

20:32

of manufacturing to fight

20:34

in World War two, twenty and

20:38

the total value, we

20:40

would say of the of the things they

20:42

made is like

20:45

well over twenty nine billion dollars.

20:47

It's crazy. I guess that would be what they

20:50

call the military industrial complex,

20:52

or what became known as the military industrial

20:55

complex, this notion that

20:58

conflict can fuel industry.

21:01

Yeah, Eisenhower is the one who

21:03

said. He called it the military industrial

21:05

congressional complex in his

21:07

original speech. Yeah, it's important

21:09

to say, these fellas weren't going broke

21:12

doing this. It's a huge change

21:15

and it's profoundly inspiring

21:17

that everybody was able to come together

21:19

and support the country. But it's

21:22

not like they weren't being paid to do so. They

21:24

were getting enormous government contracts.

21:27

And Ford wasn't exactly new to making aircraft.

21:30

They had the Ford tri motor,

21:32

which was, um

21:34

well, not the most successful airplane

21:37

ever, but it

21:39

was. It was no model t Yeah no,

21:41

right, But you

21:43

know it's it's not like they went fully

21:46

in a different direction. It's something they had done before.

21:48

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, So they did

21:51

have some more expertise, and it was very smart

21:53

of them to partner with an

21:55

aircraft desire, right. And

21:58

it was strange because you know, when you think

22:00

about it, it makes it

22:02

it's logical to say,

22:04

all right, let's have a auto

22:06

manufacturer build trucks, build

22:09

armor cars, build jeeps, you know,

22:11

even tanks. But I really appreciate

22:13

that you're pointing out how

22:16

brand new a lot of this manufacturing

22:18

was, if not for Ford, for other players

22:21

in the game, because General Motors

22:24

also built planes for the com

22:26

for this conflict, right, And

22:29

in addition to that, they weren't

22:31

just assembling planes. They were also producing

22:34

aircraft components, which again,

22:36

outside of Ford they had never

22:39

really done. You can look

22:41

at some of the stuff they've they've

22:43

created at the Virginia

22:46

Museum of Military Vehicles over

22:48

there in Oakesville, Virginia. You can

22:50

see some of the tanks, Like Buick

22:53

built a tank that still blows my mind.

22:56

Buick built the M A ten Hellcat

22:58

in Flint, Michigan. And it looks

23:01

like a take it. I mean, it doesn't look like a Buick

23:03

to me, but it's a Buick. Well,

23:05

a lot of people referred to Buicks as tanks

23:07

even long after the war, right,

23:11

yes, I mean that's a good point. And the

23:13

thing about this we have to remember

23:16

is that regardless like historians

23:19

love to argue the what IF's

23:21

about the great conflict of World War

23:23

Two, right like what if what if

23:25

um event a happened

23:28

a little earlier, a little later. You

23:30

know, we know how close we were uh

23:34

to a very different outcome at times.

23:37

But regardless of what

23:39

kind of questions you want to bandy about

23:42

with your fellow history buffs, the

23:44

fact of the matter is that the

23:47

US owes a great

23:49

deal of its success in World War

23:51

Two to the automotive

23:54

industry. And it's a story

23:56

that Kurt, I think you and

23:58

Scott and I wish was was told

24:00

more often, um and

24:03

so all at all, just to get a sense

24:05

of this scale here of how complete

24:07

the switch was. I want to

24:09

point out that in nineteen forty one

24:13

more than three million cars were

24:15

produced in the US alone. During

24:18

the entirety of World War

24:20

Two, they only made

24:23

the entire industry only made a hundred

24:25

and thirty nine more. Instead, it

24:27

was all focused on this war effort,

24:30

and that war effort, you

24:32

know, UM, as inspiring and

24:34

as amazing as it is, it makes

24:36

us wonder, you know, what

24:38

what happened after the war? What happened over

24:41

there at Willow. You know, Willow

24:44

run itself. The plant

24:46

was run by Henry Ford's operation,

24:49

um, but the government actually owned the building. So

24:52

after the war, Ford decided

24:55

not to buy the plant. I guess he figured

24:57

he didn't need a millions of square foot

24:59

facilit city that was tooled

25:02

for making airplanes. So eventually a General

25:04

Motors actually ended up with it, and they closed

25:06

it in the two thousand's. But

25:08

like the building is torn down,

25:12

you know, and you would think that there would be a museum or

25:14

something at least part of it. I think part of it is a museum

25:17

called the Yankee Air Museum

25:20

up there in Nippsilany, Michigan. But

25:22

I mean more of a museum dedicated to

25:26

what it once was, or the

25:28

manufacturing feats that

25:30

happened during that time period or

25:32

something like that. But um,

25:34

that is a lot of real estate to dedicate to a museum.

25:37

I just get a little bit down when stuff gets

25:39

lost to time. Yeah,

25:41

agreed, I'm I'm

25:44

sad that we've missed the chance.

25:46

But luckily we know

25:48

that historians and car

25:50

fans have not forgotten this

25:53

amazing story.

25:59

M hm. And

26:02

now more than ever we

26:04

see parallels with the current

26:07

day. It turns out that

26:09

as the world confronts

26:12

the COVID nineteen pandemic, like you were saying,

26:15

the auto manufacturers

26:17

of the planet are also taking

26:20

a page from the US auto manufacturers

26:23

of World War Two, and we're

26:26

we're seeing carmakers pivot

26:29

from making their typical you know, in

26:31

their sedans or what have you, and

26:33

trying to supply materials,

26:36

expertise, logistics two

26:38

countries that need to end

26:40

hospitals. Of course, that need to combat

26:43

this infection. We

26:45

mentioned Tesla because you know, Tesla

26:48

grabs headlines pretty easily,

26:51

but there are a lot of other players

26:53

in the game, and so we thought we would talk a

26:55

little bit about different companies

26:58

that are making heavy modifications

27:01

to their own supply chain, heavy modifications

27:03

through many factoring process and their factories

27:05

to help fight this battle

27:08

against this disease. As we

27:10

tape this, it's April ninth, So

27:14

yesterday news dropped that General

27:16

Motors had been given a four hundred

27:18

and eighty nine million dollar contract from

27:21

the federal government as a

27:23

part of the Defense Production Act

27:26

to produce thirty thousand ventilators

27:28

for the federal stockpile by August.

27:31

And according to the contract, six thousand

27:34

of those ventilators are supposed to

27:36

be available by the end of May.

27:39

UM. So that's just one of the things

27:41

that has been happening. I know, Ford and GM

27:44

have also been involved with making personal

27:46

protective equipment for doctors

27:49

and hospitals, like masks and face shields

27:51

and things like that already, um

27:53

just kind of on their own, which is what PPE

27:56

stands for. Correct. Correct is one

27:58

of those acronyms that's very

28:00

of the times you know, a month or two ago,

28:03

I had no idea what PPE stood

28:06

for, and now I do. It's becoming a

28:08

part of everyone's vocabulary these

28:10

days. Yeah, and we know, we

28:12

know that other industries are play here. Of

28:14

course, Ford is assembling more

28:17

than one hundred thousand plastic face

28:19

shields per week as we speak,

28:22

and it's it's leveraging it's

28:25

three D printing capabilities

28:27

to make medical equipment parts that require

28:30

a high level of manufacturing

28:32

precision. They're also collaborating

28:35

with three M on what

28:37

they call a powered air purifying

28:40

respirator. Uh. They

28:42

want to try to use off the shelf

28:45

parts from both companies, essentially

28:47

the stuff they just had laying around to

28:50

assemble these things and make make

28:52

it, uh, make the production

28:54

process as fast as possible

28:57

and uh like, for example,

29:00

they're taking fans from

29:03

the F one fifty cooled seat

29:05

apparatus, and they're taking Heppa

29:08

air filters and then they're combining

29:10

these with portable battery packs

29:12

that three M has already been making for

29:14

a long time. We do have to point

29:16

out, I know some people

29:19

were were probably

29:21

going to ask about this, but the

29:23

Defense Production Act does

29:25

come into play here. GM

29:28

is being paid, but they're also

29:30

being compelled through the Defense

29:32

Production Act to make this. The Defense

29:34

Production Act didn't come from World

29:37

War Two. It dates back to nineteen fifty,

29:39

sort of a response to the beginning of

29:42

the Korean War. And since

29:44

nineteen fifty it's been reauthorized

29:46

a ton of times, like fifty times,

29:49

more than fifty times. And this

29:51

is, um. This is part

29:54

of the government private

29:56

industry team up. You

29:58

know, picture them like different members of

30:00

the Avengers, and they're teaming up to take on their

30:03

big bad Uh. They're they're

30:05

thanos or they're low key

30:07

or whatever. And that is the coronavirus.

30:10

Uh. Really, I don't know. It's

30:12

not my best comparison. I'm working

30:14

live here. UM. But we

30:17

also see, for instance, that Mercedes

30:21

is working to make

30:25

positive airway pressure devices

30:29

and it took him a couple of days to

30:31

figure out how to prototype

30:34

this and how to test it. They

30:36

made a hundred for testing within just a

30:38

few days, and now they are

30:41

all set to produce a thousand

30:43

a day. So one

30:45

thing that's amazing to me, and we've talked about this

30:47

in the past on car stuff, is just

30:50

how powerful scale

30:52

of economy can be when

30:54

you are a large manufacturer,

30:57

you know, like a

30:59

a we we talked about

31:02

this with how how

31:04

the auto industry in some cases

31:06

emerged from people who were

31:08

making bicycles where people

31:10

who are making you know, like who also making

31:12

refrigerators, appliances. It's it's a

31:14

weird relationship and it's it's

31:17

surprising. Like even Lamborghini,

31:19

do you hear about this? Even Lamborghini is getting

31:21

on board. Yeah, Lamborghini.

31:25

Yeah, they're they're converting

31:29

not all of their production plant, but some departments

31:31

of it, uh to make

31:34

make it so they can create surgical

31:37

mask and then protective plexiglass

31:40

shields. And you know, they have like

31:42

a a saddlery that

31:44

just makes the interiors of all these

31:46

Lamborghinis. Even even

31:49

that group has been repurposed

31:51

and instead of making custom interiors,

31:54

they're making one thousand masks a day.

31:56

And then they're also using three

31:59

D printers to make two hundred

32:01

medical shields there in

32:03

the carbon fiber production plant

32:05

at their R and D department, which

32:08

is pretty pretty crazy,

32:10

right, Uh? Ford is

32:12

you know, we were bragging about Tesla or giving

32:15

them their due a little bit in the beginning

32:17

of this episode. We should also point out that Ford

32:19

is increasing production

32:22

of general electric healthcare

32:24

ventilators, so they were already

32:26

making these, so it's a little bit different, but

32:29

they want to make an extra fifty thod

32:31

ventilators in the next one hundred days.

32:34

I gotta say I am pretty

32:37

I am pretty impressed with this, definitely.

32:40

It's also nice to see that in an

32:42

era where manufacturing

32:44

is becoming more and more

32:46

specialized and there are tighter

32:49

and tighter tolerances to

32:52

many manufacturing processes, that

32:54

the term manufacturing is manufacturing

32:57

still holds true in some cases.

32:59

I don't think that car companies

33:01

and other big manufacturers get enough

33:03

credit for just pushing

33:06

out tons of

33:08

product to the public

33:10

on a constant and consistent basis,

33:13

and that loan is a giant feat

33:16

that often goes overlook just the constant

33:19

reproduction of components

33:22

and parts and full on products

33:25

that are just ultra consistent,

33:28

and during times like this when manufacturers

33:31

can just up and change it up, shows

33:33

you that modern manufacturers can pretty

33:35

much make anything with a little bit of retooling

33:38

and some direction or some engineering

33:41

from more specialized companies

33:43

like gm IS teaming up with

33:45

vent Tech Life Systems to make their ventilators.

33:48

So that's kind of the that's the company they've

33:50

brought on to help

33:52

them with the specialized aspect of

33:54

making ventilators, but obviously all the manufacturing

33:56

and things like that. GM has a really good handle

33:59

on that kind of thing, just because they make cars, and

34:01

cars have tons of different systems in

34:03

them. Yeah. I mean, that's a really good point. Even

34:06

a luddite like me knows that

34:08

we're moving increasingly towards

34:10

the era of the connected car

34:13

right the time of this vehicle and stuff, and

34:15

there's so much hardware

34:17

and software that goes into

34:20

that kind of endeavor. It naturally

34:23

can transfer to other

34:26

sophisticated computer systems,

34:28

you know, So it so again the

34:30

thing I don't know about you, man, but the thing that baffles

34:32

me about this is, first off,

34:34

we you and

34:37

I growing up. Uh,

34:40

we've been uh, we've been around

34:42

to see the glory days

34:45

and the tough times for the big three manufacturers.

34:48

And you know, we've seen times

34:50

where people in the media are reporting

34:53

like massive layoffs and you

34:55

know, insert company here is just too

34:57

slow to adapt to the time and to adapt

34:59

to consumer demands. Having

35:03

seen all that news growing up, and

35:05

you know, even in recent years,

35:08

I remain astounded by

35:10

how quickly someone can say,

35:13

let's take this gigantic thing

35:16

and make it do something that

35:18

appears from the outside completely

35:20

different. So if you are

35:22

working with these companies, Uh,

35:25

if you are a member of their family,

35:27

Uh, you know, whether you're Lamborghini,

35:30

whether you're Forward, whether you're GM, whether you're Tesla,

35:32

what have you? Hats off to

35:34

you? Uh, this is a powerful

35:37

thing. Yeah, and it's impressive. Um,

35:40

and I guess you know for now

35:43

that that feels like that feels

35:45

like our show. Huh. I mean I think we've we've

35:47

looked in the World War Two. If you want more information

35:50

on that. By the way, check out some

35:52

of our World War two episodes

35:54

in the Car Stuff Feed. We

35:56

dive into. We dive into a couple of stories

35:59

there in. One other thing that I wanted

36:01

to give a shout out to, as it relates

36:03

to these car manufacturers that

36:05

are jumping in and helping out where

36:07

they can, is their ability to just

36:11

stop on a din and

36:14

assess the situation, see what needs

36:16

to be done, and to rework

36:19

their operations to be able to

36:21

do it. Um, We're gonna

36:23

look back and we're gonna probably see

36:26

some things that could have been done better.

36:28

However, when it comes to the

36:31

private sector and having

36:33

to make um probably what for

36:35

them, they are very difficult choices. You

36:37

know, they are probably looking into

36:39

the future and trying

36:42

to see things for what they

36:44

are yet what needs to be done right

36:46

now. It probably does not align with

36:48

what they see down the road, but they still do it

36:51

and that I know that that's got to be

36:53

a tough thing to do. Yet

36:55

they probably see it as just

36:57

what needs to be done. It just

37:00

has been a really quick realignment

37:02

for these companies to up

37:04

and start making medical equipment, even

37:07

though they may be equipped to do it and

37:09

be provided the resources to do it.

37:11

Um when it boils down

37:14

to it, it's not exactly

37:16

what they do in the micro

37:18

term. I mean this particular

37:21

challenge right now. It's not exactly

37:23

like a war where there's a strategy

37:26

behind it and you have time to ramp up production

37:28

and you're kind of handed

37:30

this plan of what the

37:33

needs would be. This is something that is

37:35

new in the playbooks being written kind

37:38

of in real time with bad information

37:41

or incomplete information or

37:44

information based on models. Because

37:46

this is the first time something

37:49

like this is happening in

37:52

our or modern era. UM,

37:54

so it's just pretty impressive

37:56

to see everyone jumping on

37:58

board and making it happen. Yeah,

38:02

yeah, agreed. And that brings us to

38:04

our announcement for today. Kurt,

38:07

you and I have been uh, we've

38:09

been rolling with some changes and

38:11

what what people have been describing

38:14

as a new normal. And

38:16

as we pivot and as

38:18

we look at our own

38:20

manufacturing output, UH,

38:23

to to keep the theme consistent, we're

38:26

going to be bringing car Stuff to a

38:29

hiatus just for the

38:31

foreseeable future. Now,

38:33

Scott, Kurt and I are all

38:35

doing well. UH, and there

38:38

you don't need to be concerned about

38:41

us. Uh. We are still

38:44

we are still busy bees. This

38:47

is a learning experience for all of

38:49

us, UH and probably many of us

38:51

listening in the audience today. You have had to

38:54

drastically retool our

38:56

day to day operations. UH.

38:59

We'd like to give a shout out and

39:01

a massive thank you to everybody

39:05

who has tuned in with car Stuff over the years.

39:07

Would also like to in particular,

39:10

UH, in this current time, we'd

39:12

like to give a thank you to all

39:15

of the gear heads out in the audience.

39:17

Like to give it thanks to all of

39:19

the truckers and people working in the

39:21

transportation industry, keeping

39:23

these supply chains around when they are very

39:26

much vital uh in a in a very

39:28

real way. Uh. You are

39:30

on the front lines of this uh

39:32

and we cannot thank you enough. But that's

39:35

my attempt to thank you. Yeah,

39:37

yeah, definitely. UM

39:39

i'd like to echo it been said as

39:42

well, um Ben

39:44

it's been a pleasure working with you and with

39:46

Scott on car Stuff and putting

39:50

the show out to the car Stuff faithful

39:52

out there. And um

39:54

i'd like to say also thanks for you know, sticking

39:57

with us through all the bumps in the road and

39:59

while we're trying to our wits

40:01

about us and everyone, just keep

40:04

on keeping on and we'll

40:06

keep it moving down the road as well, agreed,

40:09

you know, until then, uh,

40:11

you know, keep the keep the rubber side

40:13

on the bottom and then we'll we'll

40:15

see you up the road. Thanks for listening everyone.

40:21

Car Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio. For

40:23

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40:28

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