Slate Hires New CEO Peter Faricy. Ex-CEO Chris Barman appointed new role

[E90400K]

I am glad that you brought this up. Bezos is a smart business man with a team of business/legal advisors. I'd like to think that these gifts are in fact investments, i.e., that he's getting something of value in return tangible and intangible, sooner or later. 🙆 Slate has got to be a promising business for him to pour more money in.

I think the dude just likes to spend his money and there is nothing wrong with that. But I think Slate needs a $1.3B boost to take it to full-rate production. $1.3B to a portfolio like Bezos has is not much.

 

[bloo]

Wait, I thought that was the Bronco!

I thought that was Jeep with the ducks.

 

[Mac-Tyson]

Their jobs posting page still shows 107 open positions, so I can believe they are sorely behind on their buildout of the factory and would absolutely push a change at the top.

Edit: A lot of these jobs are less than 30 days old so they're at least still opening more and more positions but a ton of the real early ones are still open.

Slate has been continuously hiring and opening up new positions that's been very clear on linkedin.

 

[E90400K]

She doesn't mention any other reasons in that clip. Just safety and security prefaced by "...as a single female at night in a dimly lit parking lot, I would not feel safe." If you can find other reasons behind her decision, please post them.

Chris Barmin implies that a bladed key would alienate female buyers. Not much different than what I'm saying, just from the other side.

I really harped on this point about the electric lock key fob back in the months it came up as a topic. I agree with you. But my issue with it is more on the side of the manual windows meme. I just find it amusing the Truck will have electric locks, but electric windows are extra-cost and electric mirrors are not available. It's just stupid. I took the whole female safety thing as just spin.

My wife educated me on the topic that women's defense classes teach to use the key blade as a defensive weapon; hold the key between your 2nd and 3rd fingers sticking out so you can stab your attacker in the eye to disable him.

Then kick him in the balls...

 

[Mac-Tyson]

That's been the business plan since day one. Barman has been the Slate CEO since day one. The team under Barman's leadership has been in pursuit of implementing a unique vehicle to meet that plan since day one. That's been the mission since day one. Barman was the face of the franchise.

To make a change at the top position of the company at this critical stage is a tell tale sign things at Slate are not going to plan.

To make it sound like Faricy is coming in to move Slate into the next phase of executing the business plan/mission statement is simply spin.

Maybe the only people who can truly know that are those who work in Slate. The fact is though Chris is still with the company, she is still a high ranking executive, and she is largely doing the same jobs we know she was doing during pre-production up to this point. They still see value in Chris Barman otherwise she would have been hired. She's been demoted in title but seemingly her day to day has been focused and specialized not changed very much. As for timing this is probably the latest that you would make this choice for the reasons state but before Q1 ends and as the company is stilling scaling for the launch it's still not a bad time. No reason to be sounding the alarm imo, I think it's best to give the new ceo a chance and see how things develop.

 

[bloo]

I really harped on this point about the electric lock key fob back in the months it came up as a topic. I agree with you. But my issue with it is more on the side of the manual windows meme. I just find it amusing the Truck will have electric locks, but electric windows are extra-cost and electric mirrors are not available. It's just stupid. I took the whole female safety thing as just spin.

That actually makes the anti-keyblade rationale so much worse.

My wife educated me on the topic that women's defense classes teach to use the key blade as a defensive weapon; hold the key between your 2nd and 3rd fingers sticking out so you can stab your attacker in the eye to disable him.

Did we take the same class?

Then kick him in the balls...

Welcome to foot, ball.

 

[Johnologue]

DIN is a nonprofit standards orginization based in Germany. It's about as open source as you're going to get in the car stereo space. Can you suggest something better and less "bad-faith argument" that is as universal as DIN?

OH. I think I read your argument backwards, because it looked to me as if you were arguing against DIN.

"Automakers don't support DIN because it locks users into their ecosystem"
I read this as "automakers don't support DIN because DIN locks users into DIN's ecosystem"
You probably meant it as "automakers don't support DIN because not supporting DIN locks users into automakers' ecosystem".

As an aside, I really don't understand the long-term argument there's been over key blades and I'm mostly left with the impression that people don't know how the keys will work. I haven't commented on it much because I don't know either.

My car has a bladed key instead of push-start (it was base trim) that has a fob remote on the keychain which can remotely lock/unlock the car and sound the horn. I assumed that Slate would work similarly, since that seemed like the functionality they wanted.
If the digital cryptographic equivalent to the keyblade sacrificed functionality, reliability, serviceability, etc. in any significant way, I figured they'd just fall back to what my car has.

 

[Mac-Tyson]

And I think that is the point (and now the concern). Barman was selected as CEO for Slate because she wasn't a business school grad or legacy auto industry executive predisposed to make executive decisions from the norm, legacy perspective (i.e. she can think "out of the box").

IIRC she is the no. 2 employee hired at Slate. She was selected as CEO because she wasn't previously a CEO somewhere else. She was selected to create new standards to operate from rather than operate from standards pre-existing in the industry.

It looks like Faricy is just a Suit to take Slate through its IPO.

Barman was a Legacy Auto Industry Executive though, she was a Vice President at Chrysler. Where are you getting this information that she was selected as CEO because she wasn't previously a CEO somewhere else, I haven't seen that before? If you have an article or video that you can share I would love to see it.

I will say though from all of Slate's Job Postings it's been very clear they value people with extensive experience who can hit the ground running. While all their early hires was seemingly very focused on finding Automotive Executive Veterans. So if Barman was selected as CEO for that reason, that very much doesn't align with the rest of their hiring practices from what I've seen.

 

[Mac-Tyson]

Yeah, agree. I read his bio on Michigan Ross

"Career Background
Peter Faricy is a seasoned technology and consumer executive with over two decades of leadership experience scaling innovative businesses, driving digital transformation, and delivering customer- centric growth across public and private companies.

He currently serves as a Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company, working with growth-stage and enterprise clients across the technology, energy, and consumer sectors—bringing an operator’s perspective to strategic, scaling, go-to-market, and digital transformation challenges."

I'm not sure where "digital transformation" fits in with Slate's Bring Your Own Device engineering/design ethos. I have to question the fit as well.

For us they have an app that has always been a major part of their final vision of slate for a BYO Device (as you mentioned) infotainment instead of the traditional infotainment we see in other vehicles. Also from Slate's side of things they will have an accessory marketplace, Slate University, and The Slate Customizer. Slate will be direct to sale having a solid online marketplace can make or break Slate. But the biggest part which probably matters the most in regards to the CEO is driving digital transformation can help stream line workflows, reduce costs, and improve efficiency.

Driving digital transformation doesn't necessarily mean in regards to the product, it can also relate to the way a business functions. The fact is it's too late to change what the product is and too much money has already been spent on it you can't fundamentally change the design ethos of the entire product at this point.

 

[Mac-Tyson]

You seem to be missing my point. People aren't installing aftermarket stereos in new cars. As older cars are abandoned, there are that many fewer DIN-compatible vehicles on the road. Eventually, it will no longer be profitable to make DIN stereos because fewer people are buying them because there are fewer vehicles to put them in.

Not an issue Slate has to worry about for the first generation of the truck there are still plenty of used vehicles on the road that support din radios and I know people personally that have installed them. Plus there also people who make more modern radios for classic cars for retrofits that niche business likely won't die any time soon and Slate can always partner with them to make third party radios for the Slate Truck if worst comes to worse.

 

[KevinRS]

While a din isn't included, a din adapter is highly likely. The dash space is the right size to fit up to double din, and it has been mentioned in interviews. It's way too simple of a thing for them not to list at launch. It may actually be made by a 3rd party, there may be multiple versions made by multiple companies, all right there in the maker. Just like when you get an adapter to install an aftermarket radio in cars without din for the past several decades.
The fob: who said there wouldn't be a key at all? There just about has to be, it's in the design. You can see the key slots on the truck. It may be a hidden key blade inside the fob. There being no additional publicly stated reasoning behind the decision to include a fob doesn't mean that reasoning doesn't exist. Many are glad it will have a fob, men and women. I can while walking to my car reach in my pocket and by feel alone press the button to unlock or to open the trunk, without pulling the keys out, fumbling for the right one, and then turning it in the door to unlock.

 

[bloo]

OH. I think I read your argument backwards, because it looked to me as if you were arguing against DIN.

"Automakers don't support DIN because it locks users into their ecosystem"
I read this as "automakers don't support DIN because DIN locks users into DIN's ecosystem"
You probably meant it as "automakers don't support DIN because not supporting DIN locks users into automakers' ecosystem".

As an aside, I really don't understand the long-term argument there's been over key blades and I'm mostly left with the impression that people don't know how the keys will work. I haven't commented on it much because I don't know either.

My car has a bladed key instead of push-start (it was base trim) that has a fob remote on the keychain which can remotely lock/unlock the car and sound the horn. I assumed that Slate would work similarly, since that seemed like the functionality they wanted.

If the digital cryptographic equivalent to the keyblade sacrificed functionality, reliability, serviceability, etc. in any significant way, I figured they'd just fall back to what my car has.

I was rather unclear about DIN, so I fixed it. Thanks for that.

I'm afraid there won't even be a blade key to open the doors if everything goes to hell. I don't want the time or expense of a Repair Pal visit for something as simple as a jump start. It seems pretty clear to me that Barman doesnt like physical keys, so no one else can have them. That's quite an imperial approach incongruant with the ethos Slate's been selling us.

 

[Johnologue]

I'm afraid there won't even be a blade key to open the doors if everything goes to hell. I don't want the time or expense of a Repair Pal visit for something as simple as a jump start. It seems pretty clear to me that Barman doesnt like physical keys, so no one else can have them. That's quite an imperial approach incongruant with the ethos Slate's been selling us.

I haven't watched enough Barman interviews to actually evaluate whether she "doesn't like physical keys", but that's not the impression I've had so far. I thought it was more about not wanting a maximally-retro no-remote-unlock-ever system that can only be opened with a physical key in the slot.

I imagine that anything most RepairPal visits would be capable of would be possible with your own home tools. That's sort of the point. If RepairPal shops can get in, you should be able to as well. If you can't get in at all, RepairPal probably can't either.

If it was that easy to render the truck permanently inaccessible, that would be a serious design flaw and probably cause for a recall and update.

 

[KevinRS]

I was rather unclear about DIN, so I fixed it. Thanks for that.

I'm afraid there won't even be a blade key to open the doors if everything goes to hell. I don't want the time or expense of a Repair Pal visit for something as simple as a jump start. It seems pretty clear to me that Barman doesnt like physical keys, so no one else can have them. That's quite an imperial approach incongruant with the ethos Slate's been selling us.

Look at any photo of the truck or look at it on the maker. This is no tesla. There are key slots on the driver's door and on the tailgate.

 

[SparkYellow]

I think the dude just likes to spend his money and there is nothing wrong with that. But I think Slate needs a $1.3B boost to take it to full-rate production. $1.3B to a portfolio like Bezos has is not much.

I agree and hope he would.

Eva received 50 mil as an award to her foundation. It wasn't an investment.

https://www.glamour.com/story/eva-l...lity-prize-from-jeff-bezos-and-lauren-sanchez