Welcome back from the holiday break. The news cycle is restarting and there are a few stories worth catching up on.
Jaguar Land Rover has been actively recruiting software engineers displaced by Elon Musk’s mass layoffs at Twitter. It’s a savvy talent acquisition play — JLR has been investing heavily in software-defined vehicle capabilities and digital services, and former Twitter engineers with expertise in large-scale software systems and machine learning are genuinely relevant to that work. The automaker’s willingness to publicly position itself as a destination for tech talent signals something about where the legacy auto industry is trying to compete for employees.
Tesla’s end-of-year delivery numbers came in below Wall Street expectations, prompting another round of hand-wringing about whether demand is softening or the company simply had supply constraints limiting production. The actual numbers were still significant in absolute terms — Tesla delivered more vehicles in 2022 than any previous year — but the miss relative to projections triggered a stock selloff and a flurry of analysis about whether the EV market’s growth trajectory is changing.
On the technology front, several CES 2023 previews have been released with automotive content. The Consumer Electronics Show has become an increasingly important venue for automotive technology announcements, with manufacturers using it to preview connected car features, autonomous driving updates, and software-defined vehicle capabilities that don’t fit neatly into a traditional auto show format. This year’s previews suggest a continued emphasis on the in-vehicle software experience as a differentiator.
The used car market correction continues. January data will be telling — the year-end period often sees temporary price stabilization as year-end inventory gets cleared, and the January data will give a cleaner signal about whether the downward trend resumes. All signs from wholesale markets suggest retail prices will continue their gradual decline through the first half of the year.