[Music] we're honored to have Mary Bara here as our special guest Mary um has been the CEO of General Motors for 10 years the chairman and and CEO for eight years he's became chairman uh two years after she became uh the CEO and uh she's also she's a native of Michigan her father worked at General Motors I guess for 40 years almost y was 40 years and she uh did her undergraduate work at what was then called The General Motors Institute now called ketering University she then got a scholarship to go to Stanford Business School where she got her MBA she's the chair of the business round table now and even more importantly she's a member of the board of trusties of Duke University uh where her two children uh went to college so Mary thank you very much for coming so uh let's talk about electric vehicles um is that the future of the automobile World in 25 years from now will there be any internal combustion engines floating around that people are going to buy or everything's going to be electric I I believe in 25 years it'll all be electric or hydrogen fuel cells uh but it will be emissions free yes so right now um the largest seller of electric cars electric vehicles United States is Tesla how did Tesla get to be such a big uh uh manufacturer of these kind of cars when it started from scratch and General Motors and Ford and Chrysler were around for such a long time did did did Elon Musk know something that others didn't know or he the big companies just didn't take electric vehicles seriously enough well I think General Motors has always taking electric vehicles very seriously me you know 20 20 plus years ago we had ev1 so in a certain sense I think we were a little ahead of our time from a technology perspective but we never stopped working on EVS we had uh the volt extended range electric vehicle then we had the bolt that came out you know in 2015 so but I do have to give uh Tesla a lot of credit uh because I think they've really they stayed committed and kept you know they they had to work through the years of getting to scale and growing and I um I think they've really helped uh the EV Market I think now there's a lot of uh oems we have you know I think competition to Tesla so I think it's going to change the Dynamics so right now um the biggest manufactur of automobiles in the United States that sold in the United States is that General Motors are you the biggest we sell more Vehicles than anyone else here and so in a given year the total amount of cars bought in the United States how much is that now well total amount uh this year will probably be around 16 million 16 million and you sell how many cars a year 16 to 17% um globally we sell nearly six six million uh and this is our biggest market and so you know we we're on track right now to to to continue to you know be a lead in 16 to 17% hey so when people um buy cars these days when I used to buy cars I haven't bought a car to buy a car yeah about 20 years but uh but I when I used to buy cars they used to have sedans and things like that now nobody seems to buy them everything you're you're the biggest seller of of SUVs in the United States and your second biggest is light trucks so sedans are just not that popular why are they not so popular anymore well I think when people buy sedans you're either buying a performance vehicle uh or you're buying a a luxury vehicle but generally once people sit in a in a crossover or a truck or an SUV you you just got to higher stance it gives you better visibility of the road and people like that it's better command of the road hey so what do you drive uh well one of the best parts of my job is I get to drive a lot of things so um I'm driving a Hummer uh I'm hummer hummer EV um which is a lot of fun you get respect driving a Hummer e um I'm also driving a BL bler um I can't wait shortly I want to get into our we have we'll be launching it next year is an EV Equinox which is great by the way if you didn't catch it the Blazers outside in the front it's a Blazer EV which was Motor Trends uh SUV of the year so please check it out uh but yeah that's one of the benefits I I get to switch in and out of cars and drive a lot now recently there was a movie that had a car I don't know if you make this car I have a picture of a here model it's a it's a Barbie um Corvette um and um do you actually make the pink Corvettes or not so much we don't actually make a pink Corvette we still make Corvettes and by the way I had a Barbie Corvette when I was growing up yeah wow yeah okay not pink it was yellow so uh today are you worried about foring competition more than you are about domestic competition in terms of being a leader in the automobile manufacturing world do you think that uh the Chinese are going to be sending more cars over or because of the um the inflation reduction act it's unlike the Chinese can can ship that many cars over here well you know first of all I take every single competitor seriously whether it's a startup whether it's an incumbent uh I take them all very seriously I think you if you don't you do that at your own Peril uh I think there's a this is always been a competitive industry I think it's becoming more competitive but I mean the it's it also is a fashion industry I mean people you know identify with the car they they buy I mean I I get letters every week from people many of them name their vehicle and uh so it's it's a really exciting business I think you know when you look at broader um you've always got to remain cost competitive no matter where but I think what we need to look at since we're in DC we need to make sure there's a Level Playing Field uh in in in all the countries in which people want to sell in this country so you're in Washington DC I'm part because I'm business round table which you're the chair of uh the business Round Table is a group of CEOs that are I think are lobbying for various things they might want what is the biggest thing on the agenda into the business Round Table these days well I think uh you know gener the the business Round Table is is working to have economic growth in the US to to provide B uh opportunities for uh the workforce here in America so you know I think I'm really proud of a lot of the uh things you know whe whether it's the chips act whether it was the infrastructure bill there's a lot of things that are going to be good for the country uh and and good for business as well but one of the things I think I'm most proud of what brt is doing is what they're doing the member companies are doing around Workforce development uh across uh many different elements to to again to really encourage the Workforce Development in the United States so that's probably what I'm most proud of well speaking about workers uh you and your um co- CEOs of automobile companies agreed to a union um agreement that I think for the next next number of years said by some outside commentators to add $1 billion or so in labor cost I'm not sure that's the right number uh you can tell me what the right number is but uh is is that going to fuel inflation or is it just uh something that you expected to pay it just took a little while for a strike to kind of get you to pay it I I never wanted a strike um I always want to work constructively with our Union Partners to get to the right answer but you know when I for General Motors specifically we have stated that the the agreement is going to be between uh $500 to $575 more a vehicle but we plan on offsetting that as we looked at the labor environment and you know when you looked at whether it was John Deere or caterpillar or UPS you know you saw what um you know what the trends were with what was happening in labor agreements but let's step back and think about you know our agreements with the UAW this current one is 4.75 years the past was four think about what happened over the past four years covid semiconductor shortages our manufacturing represented workers and our manufacturing team in general did a phenomenal job they were back to work uh when most people were still figuring out what covid stood for and you know without them we wouldn't have built Vehicles we wouldn't exist so we wanted to recognize our Workforce then they went into the ups and downs of semiconductor shortages Supply chains so our manufacturing team has done a phenomenal job and we wanted to reward them right so many uh foreign automobile manufacturers have built facilities in this country in right to work states and they they tend not to be unionized you have a unionized Workforce how do you compete on a cost basis with cars that are produced at a non-unionized uh Factory how do you do that well I think we drive efficiency and I'm really again proud of our manufacturing team for the last two years we've had the highest uh quality we have high Customer Loyalty you know we work to drive efficiency so we offset the cost differential and we'll continue to do that and I think if you look a lot of the non-represented um uh oems are now uh raising raising their rates to match what we did so since you've been the CEO the U earnings of the company have more than doubled I believe so you you're earning this year roughly $10 billion a year or something like that or you're I haven't we haven't put that out there but we're going to have a we're going to have a good year okay so all right so it's a very profitable and when you inherited you you kind of came after a period of time when GM had been in bankruptcy um today your biggest challenge is what is it foreign competition US government regulation workers interviewers what is your biggest challenge no I mean I would say I I'm super excited about the business I think next year we had some uh manufacturing challenges this year uh that caused us to not get as many EVS on the road as we want but I think you know next year when I look at the strength of our portfolio uh we've had a very successful year with both our internal combustion engine vehicles and and EV vehicles um consumers want to buy them I mean we we have weight list we've been able to keep our incentives low so you know I I feel really good about the product portfolio we have going forward so for me what I'm focused on is execution when people want to buy a car today do they typically do it over the Internet or they actually go into dealers so uh you know right now at General Motors you can do the whole transaction online and a dealer will you know in many cases most cases uh deliver the vehicle to you generally people do most of their research on online and then they but most people still want to go to the dealer kick the tires see the vehicle uh ex drive it if they want but it has changed and you know 10 years ago people would go to three to four dealers now they're going to maybe one because they go in and they know what they're looking for and generally from the internet they know that vehicle's there so um in the old days used to negotiate price and the the salesman said let me go talk to my manager see whether I can give you a discount so forth and I don't know what they did in the back room but um so today everybody knows the price of everything so a dealer you have a suggested retail price typically and the discount that a customer who's reasonably informed should be able to get is at a 5% discount or 2% or what kind of discount off the retail price are they supposed to get or typically get I think dealers at least I'll talk about GM dealers I think they get a bad rep because our dealers are great they work hard to to you know get the customer in educate them about the vehicles you know find the right deal congratulations to one of our dealers right here uh you know so I think our dealers do a great job of helping the customer navigate you know this it's a big purchase for most people um getting the right vehicle is is and understanding what options you want so I think they do a great job and you know a lot now uh is is defined uh and and again the dealer helps uh the customer navigate through that but everybody feels when you buy a car you should negotiate a little bit people not negotiate so much anymore they know what the prices are online or they say give me a standard discount or something it depends on what's Happening um across the the broader industry because again our dealers do have the right to set the final price that's you know dealer franchise loss across the C across the country but I would say the bulk of our dealers uh follow uh the manufacturer manufacturer suggested retail price along with uh incentives if there are any are on the vehicle in the old days I when used to buy cars uh and you need to go back I need to buy another one now but um used to like you go and you say I want this color and I want this option and that option and they say We'll manufacture it for you it'll take you a month or two now everything is already made pretty much is that right or well I think we're seeing a shift right now because through co uh when uh you know were short and for the last couple years there's been we haven't been able to supply as many vehicles as the consumer wants but I think we've learned to be much more efficient so instead of a dealer having you know hundreds of cars on their showroom uh for our EVS for example we're going to have Regional areas where and we're also uh you know really using data analytics to understand what does the customer really want that they can get it quickly a lot of people still go to the dealership and drive drive off but I think we're we're changing that to be more efficient um for for the business for the dealer uh and the customer still gets what they want in a matter of days so when people come to buy a c are they mostly financing these cars or people today just lunking down cash most people Finance most people yeah and are you provide financing these days we do we have a a a finance company called GM Financial uh that uh does a very nice job taking care of the customer hey so the theory behind electric vehicles is that they're more environmentally friendly and when the automobile industry first started all cars were Electric in the very beginning of the industry um then they when internal combustion engine came along the electric cars were called women's cars because they were sought to be slow and so people love the faster internal combustion engine but the the point I wanted to ask you about is are electric vehicles really that environmentally friendly because you have to get precious metals out of the ground that takes some you know pollution or so forth is there is there a measurement that says EVS are much better for the environment by x% than internal combustion engines there's no way to measure how much better they are I think there's been studies where people attempt to but I think it's all the individual I mean are are we mining sustainably are we building the vehicles uh sustainably I mean GM has set carbon neutral goals for 2040 uh already we operate um almost all of our facilities around the globe with zero waste and so there's so much of renewable energy we have goals set for all of that and then you know working to make sure the supply chain follows that as well so it's a journey that we're on and I think you know we will be to a better place from a climate perspective as all these initiatives take place he so a number of years ago and when Co happened there was a big concern about the supply chain and so forth and it was said that the semiconductor manufacturing often in Taiwan or elsewhere was backed up um that problem is now going away right you have the semiconductors you need for cars mostly yes and most of the cars um that you produce have enormous amount of semiconductors I can't remember is it a th000 or 500 or something but all of your cars electric and non-electric all have enormous amount of semiconductors is that standard that's true and you know I think the semiconductor was eye opening for a lot of oems because mostly um our our suppliers were the ones who purchased and they came as part of you know a part or a subassembly what what General Motors has done is we've adopted three families of semiconductors that will then direct and we this will start um in vehicles you know 20 in the 26 time frame so we'll have much more control much more commonality that's scale should give us price advantages as well okay so when people go to buy a car today um are they what's the most popular color white white like get dirty doesn't it but they don't care about that people love white cars this and this is true for the US it's true for China as well white is the number one color for vehicles um I always thought that you can when you went in you buy a car for certain price but the salesman or saleswoman would say we have these options you could get this you get this you get this or any more options available or everything is now with all the options no I mean we still one of the things we've done though is try to not have so many different options and trim levels that the consumer gets confused so we've standardized helps with inventory management helps across the board but I mean people still do like again this is an important purchase think about it for most people this is the most important or the second most important purchase they make and so they want it to meet their needs they want to customize it we like when they customize it and so um you know it's it's something that they personalize who when when a couple a man and a woman let's say come in to buy a car who is the decision maker really if you generally it's the generally it's the woman woman and so if the if a man comes in and says I want to buy this car and I'm going to negotiate to buy it do the sales people say well bring your partner your spouse back because that's the decision maker or they they'll negotiate with the man I think they try to respect the consumer who's there and and negotiate with that individual okay so the average average price of a car today I I don't know but of the average car price that let's say a general motor sells is it 50,000 60,000 40,000 what's the average price well because we sell so many trucks our average transaction prices are probably I think right now I haven't checked recently in the in the high 40s but we also have very affordable vehicles um you know we have a Chevy tracks that starts under $20,000 okay and there used to be a a thing that I used to buy when I didn't know much about car buying um called rust proofing have you ever heard of that that was they always said at the end you got to rust proof the bottom of the car it'll rust I said why why is it going to rust I mean but I always bought it and never rusted but do they have that anymore they don't well generally the way we build the vehicles right now they you know there there's under there's treatments um there may be some things that the deal sells for certain regions of the company but it's probably good that you bought it at the time again I just please go to buy a dealer to a dealership and bu so when I was I was actually driving home home last night uh and an old car that I have and um the gas light was kind of blinking on and off like it was going to run out of gas and I didn't have time to go get another more gas but how much extra gas do you have because I don't know when it gets to like blinking blinking do you still have 10 miles 20 miles I never know well how long has it been blinking is the question just blinking about 10 minutes I got nervous probably problematic all right but it depends on the model but you generally I I would say you have you know probably 30 40 miles when it's starting to say you know say we don't want you to be stranded right so um I always my father didn't have a lot of money and so when we got gasoline for the car it was always the least expensive it was regular whatever his regular is and so I've been trained to get regular is there an advantage to getting non-regular for cars that you make or I well you really in all seriousness you really need to look at what the engine is rated for um and you need to follow that because that's going if you put lower uh lower level of gas in an engine that performs better it it's not it's not going to perform better it's not good for the engine so you should usually when you open the field door there's a little um sticker there that tells you what what level you should put all right okay so uh what about the you have a POS uh ability to keep people from driving who are drunk other words I think some cars I don't know if you have them where if the person is breathing like alcohol the car won't start is that a standard thing anymore that that isn't but actually this has just been in the news this week we've been working with Regulators um uh on that that what can we do to to sense so we have technology to do that obviously uh you know and we've actually piloted uh with some fleets so I think that's technology that's coming that I think is going to be good for everyone I think that's probably a good if you can get it in but I think the bigger problem today is which I'm thought is is trying to drive while you're texting at the same time that's you shouldn't do that how do you how do you can prevent people from texting while they're driving it's a you know well I mean I think it frankly when you look at um distracted driving and the number of accidents that distractions it's really hard to measure because you're kind of relying on somebody to say hey I was on my phone and I got into an accident which generally people don't want to do but uh you know one of the things we're trying to do is to allow people to use voice so instead of looking down at your phone uh leveraging the systems in the vehicle that are connected to your phone to be able to call to have a a email or a text read to you so we are really working to improve the safety uh to keep people with their eyes on the road so recently you have reorganized if that's the right word your um autonomous driving division so how much longer is it before autonomous driving is a reality is that really 10 years away not two or three years away I don't think it's 10 years away I think uh you know with some of the challenges we just fac I think it was more uh not being not working with The Regulators to help them understand the technology and then being transparent as issues happen but the technology had already been evaluated by a third party to say it's already safer than a human driver I think well first of all uh on average uh people think 85% of people think they're above average driver so the math doesn't work but because they think that you know they what you know one of I think the big ahas for me is is you need to be safer than a human driver but frankly for people to be comfortable the technology they've got to be even more safe and so that's uh we'll we'll work to achieve that but I think it's it's not that far away well I'm not in that 85% because when I'm driving I'm people are always honking the horn at me so I get the message that maybe I'm not such a great driver stop texting okay yeah I should stop texting um so why are people so obsessed with autonomous driving because one of the great passages of life is getting your driver's license and learning how to drive but why do people seem so obsessed with having autonomous driving is it really that much demand for that well I think um first of all I love to drive and so I love to drive but there's times I think when all of us if we're in stop and go traffic if we have something we need to do uh uh and the other thing is right now for about 40,000 people people in the US alone lose their lives uh in traffic accidents and over 90% of them are caused by human error so if you can have a system that is better than a human being driving it's it's inherently safer and it gives you back time right do airbags really work and they really I I haven't had an airbag fortunately yet but do they really work and they save lives they absolutely do but I a public safety message seat belt is your primary you should always wear your seat belt that's your primary restraint system an airbag is it's even called supplemental uh restraint so yes they work but it's important to wear your seat belt all the time today in cars U you have um the in you can't you get a buzzer in a car if you don't have your seat belt on but you can still drive the car with the buzzer on so is there some way to keep it so that you don't have your seat belt on the car won't go or that's unrealistic we actually actually on our vehicles right now you there's a setting where the car you can't put it won't let it let you shift into gear without uh having your seat belt on uh it's right now it's customer choice that's other technology again we've done a lot of work with fleets to and it's it's you're just safer so I think that's and I think this is something you know 20 years ago the industry did and it wasn't as good is as it is now that it frustrated people but uh I think that technology works well and I encourage everyone to on your setting now when you're driving a car on weekends you're driving a car that's B but do you ever test your competitor's cars and what do you think of them I I I do uh Drive our competitor competitive vehicles I usually do it on in our uh on our approving ground as opposed to out um on public streets but yes I've done that which which ones would you recommend if somebody said that that they didn't like General Motors uh but uh you wouldn't recommend any of them I would ask them why they don't like General Motors because I'm pretty sure we have a vehicle for them okay so um the your Topline most expensive car is that a Cadillac still or something Cadillac Escalade and and then some of the Corvettes uh is there a big Market still for expensive Cadillacs I don't know we can't make enough Cadillacs uh uh Escalades right now so I think it's a very strong market so in the old days there were many different brands of General Motors and I you've think you've gotten rid of some of them so which ones are not around anymore is like Oldsmobile is that not around oldmobile Pontiac Saturn are they're gone okay what are the the brands now you have so Cadillac is our luxury brand Chevrolet is our volume brand and then we have uh Buick and GMC Buick is primarily crossover premium and GMC is premium trucks okay and you manufacture and sell a lot of cars in China is that right yes we do with our two joint venture part is that your biggest Market or second biggest Market well we sell more vehicles in the US I would say and and this the Chinese market is Shifting right now as it moves to electric and there's a about a hundred domestic EV competitors uh but our our we sell more vehicles in this market and second is China and what you're out of Europe now you sold your Europe we are just getting back into Europe we did sell our operations but we're going back with either uh luxury cars or electric cars oh why why did you get out and then come back well we um had a the opal brand and when we looked we didn't have scale and so we're going in with you know with the future of vehicles you know primarily EES but also some of the uh iconic luxury or luxury vehicles that we have whether it's Cadillacs Corvettes Etc okay and what about Latin America do you sell a lot down you sell we're most Latin American markets were number one or number two in the Middle East uh I don't know I I we do sell a lot of vehicles in the Middle East I I don't know what position we are Market wise but it's a very significant market for us so many years ago General Motors got into many different businesses they bought EDS they were they bought uh I think uh telecommunications companies and so forth but you're basically going to stay in the business of manufacturing Vehicles you're not doing other things yeah you know when we look at our business it's about vehicles and it's software because every vehicle really is a software platform now and and then the you know what what can you do with technology to provide a better customer experience and then the related businesses of uh we have a defense business leveraging the technology whether it's electric electrification communication or uh autonomy or fuel celles so recently the cop 28 meeting occurred in Dubai and um do you think that anything is really going to come out of cop 28 such that we're really going to reduce the climate uh the temperature in this world for the next 100 years or so or is it really unrealistic to think that something significant is going to happen you know I'm I'm a glass 3 quter full person so I'm hopeful I mean I think there was good discussions I know we had our chief sustainability officer there and there's a lot of discussions going on between companies and I I think there's I think we will make advancements hey so let's talk about your background for a moment uh you grew up what city grew up in Waterford Michigan and your father was a lath operator he was a die maker High maker okay and your mother was she at she was a bookkeeper at General Motors or not no she worked for a small company okay and so did you say from the time you were a little girl I want to work at General Motors or no not really but I always like math and science and you know occasionally very rarely my dad would get to bring a new vehicle home and it was you know again it was exciting so you went to a school called General Motors Institute which now kering University said what was that that designed to people to give you a free college education if you went there and then you have to work at General Motors or not well when I started you actually had to you co-oped so you went to school for three months co-oped and you had to find a sponsorship for a co-op within General Motors Midway through they opened it up uh but you it was you could pay your own way with you know because you were working half the year and it was a a four and a half year program all right you went you also have done well you got into the Stanford Business School so after Stanford Business School do you say well I I don't need to go back to General Motors I I can go work anywhere go work at being a venture capitalist or private Equity even something good so um so did you ever consider those important professions or you said no I want to go back to General Motors well first of all General Motors was generous enough to pay my way through business school so I went back and I I love the business I mean it's exciting business uh you know again we get to be an important part of people's lives I love vehicles I mean and I find that with a lot of people if they leave the industry they want to come back because it's it's just exciting and you know now when you look at it we're going to change the way people move it's you know we're gon to make uh better for the environment so uh it's I'm passionate about it okay so so I missed out on private Equity well uh it's not too late um never too late for private Equity so um so let me ask you when you when you weren't back there did people say you know we've never had a woman's CEO but you're going to be the first woman's CEO or do you even think that we're going to have a female CEO now I mean really it was maybe a year year and a half before I was named that it was even something I thought was in the consideration Set uh so I you know I just uh always looked at General Motors and was given great opportunities throughout my career to learn new things have a broadening experience work in different areas so I loved it so do you have a lot of lunches or dinners with other female CEOs of autom mobile companies not a lot not really any um there are there any no there isn't right now no oh okay um but any more there there are that I I would say there are women and other auto companies in very significant roles uh so okay so you've made a Dei a very important part of what you're doing at what have you done to change the let's say employee mix at General Motors are there more women minorities in the in the senior parts or the other parts of the of the company now well you know we very much believe in uh having a diverse Workforce diverse diverse views so we do look at our representation but you know really when I look at our diversity Equity inclusion efforts uh it's about making sure everybody feels welcomed when they come to work that they feel included uh and and that really happens at the local level because you know I can say something but how does your local group and one of the things I ask everyone to do is every day you know you have a choice you can make the people that you're working with feel great or you can make them feel feel not so great you can make them feel not included and that happens at a very personal one-on-one Department by Department area so I encourage everybody like you that's a choice everyone can make uh it doesn't mean you can't have tough tough conversations or disagree about someone but how do you make if you make people feel welcome it's going to be a more inclusive environment I think we're going to get more done I think we're going to succeed so if you're the CEO of General Motors as you are I assume you're a really big deal in the Detroit area so can you go out to lunch or can you go shopping in a department store without people coming up with resumés or or other things or how do you deal with that big sunglasses or hats what do what do you do to hide from everybody wants something from you you know I would say I uh you know in only in in the local area but not you know not not everybody even recog a lot of people don't pay attention to business but the people do I find them to be very respectful so it comes with the territory okay so when you meet when you're the chair of the business Round Table uh do you ever meet these other CEOs and say how did they become CEOs or you never you never I'm generally quite impressed with all you are you're impressed okay so have you uh as the has head of the business Round Table assume you've had to deal with presidents of the United States I assume you haven't said that about how they became president but um so um do you have to do you have dealt with President Trump or President Biden very much or yeah I I um you know when I first got this role I interacted with President Obama then president Trump then then now President Biden I think it's important for a company you know a highly regulated company so I think it's important to have a a good relationship and you know from a bipartisan perspective we're going to work with every administration of those three who was the smartest I don't know David you'd probably be better judging that than me I'm not going to answer that question but uh so um do you spend a lot of time meeting with members of Congress as well I do I do I mean again it's important for them to understand our issues we have operations in so many states across this company that we have dealers in every state we have a lot of retirees and so it's important for many members to know our business all right if one of the presid whoever is president of the United States in any given time said Mary you've done a great job at General Motors 10 years now you should be a cabinet secretary uh your response would be I love what I do now so you don't want to come in yeah I again my passion as General Motors were in the middle of the one of the a generational transformation suppose somebody said you'd be a great candidate to be a senator or Governor from Michigan any interest in that less than zero zero wow okay okay so you're not not a candidate that's not that's not in my okay so what do you do for relaxation or when you can't be the CEO of General Motors every hour you must do you go on walks or do you drive your competitor's cars or you a golfer tennis player what do you do uh you know I I try to get exercise in I I love to walk walk um I'm I'm a horrible golfer trying to get a little better don't have enough time to really do that so and it's spending time Family have two grown children I love to spend time with them so that's that and then I I do believe in retail therapy okay and uh particularly in the car area right um I'm wide open okay so today um are you uh convinced that General Motors is now firmly back on the path to being a very strong company for the future it's had its problems years ago we know about bankruptcy and so forth but now uh you would say that financially it's in pretty good shape uh absolutely you know we have uh again I think we have a a very sound strategy to lead in the future across autonomy electric vehicles uh we also have uh an investment grade balance sheet and we have a great team so I'm very I I'm very excited about what the future holds and I do believe that General Motors is strong and is going to be in a leadership position for years now everybody's talking about artificial intelligence these days and I assume you must have a lot of artificial intelligence being uh used used in various parts of General Motors so how is it changing your business or how do you think it will change it it it already is I mean you know across design engineering manufacturing how we sell um Motorsports there's artificial intelligence across all of these areas and you know we have teams dedicated because I think it makes the business more efficient I think we can uh you know make sure we're reaching the customer where they are so across the board I think it's going to drive efficiencies and make us better okay so let's suppose I looking 10 years down the road 10 years from today what how will a car be different than it is today if electric or internal combustion if they're still around 10 years what will be in a car that would be even more exciting than whatever is in a car today I think one of the greatest opportunities within 10 years is the vehicle having the opportunity to be a to be a personal autonomous vehicle so yes you love to drive but if you know if you're you've gone to dinner with a friend and you've had you know a couple glasses of wine the vehicle can drive you home and and you know there are no autonomous vehicles on the road today that really meet the standard of what I would call level four there's you know ride share applications that we you know we have and will have running again but there's no you know no uh personal owned vehicle that is fully autonomous I think that's a game changer from a safety perspective also think about people who can't drive today for for whatever reason uh that have uh uh disabilities uh you know so I think it's that's a huge technology that's going to open it up for people who don't have the to drive today people can drive longer and or you know get to where they want and because if you go back a 100 years what made the vehic auto business so special and you kind of said it people couldn't wait it's Freedom having the freedom to go where you want to go so giving people who for whatever reason can't drive today that freedom I think is exciting so have you ever been in an autonomous vehicle and sitting there when there's nobody in the driver's seat and do you have a crash helmet on or what no I have many times many times you have and it's you feel safe y just wear my seat belt well not just one seat belt that's all you need I mean I think anymore so just a standard seat belt and do you think General Motors is uh even with the other people are producing autonomous vehicles in other words they're all probably going to come into the market the next 3 four five years or are you ahead or behind the others who try I think we're I think we're in a in a very strong position with just a few a few you know leading com competitors I think we're very much in the top group okay so the future of the automobile industry you think is is pretty good for American companies you're not worried about there used to be people were obsessed with the Japanese the Germans manufacturing all the cars and maybe the Chinese but you think there always will be or at least for foreseeable future american-based manufacturers producing cars in America well I absolutely do and I think it's very important I think a proof point of that was during the pandemic I mean within 30 days we started building ventilators because we know how to make things and so when and also when you think about if there's Not Strong American companies uh doing this the R&D is not there and so much of the technology we do and and the what the vehicle is becoming is really a national security issue you know when you look at the chips sack we we realize through um everything that happened with Co we need to have manufacturing we need to have diverse Supply chains and so I think having a strong us-based where the R&D is done in this country is important for Innovation National Security and jobs so if somebody's watching and says I want to be Mary bar I'm a young woman and I want her as she's a role model what are the things that you would tell a young woman who is interested in going in the automobile industry or any manufacturing industry um that they should have what qualities should they have well one is study math and science because I think too often in Middle School young young girls shy away from math and science so don't shy lean in um and I think that's vitally important and then what we see and this is not just in the Auto industry but it's an industry in general a lot of times women in their early in their career say no you know if they they look at a job opportunity and there's 10 requirements and they say well I've only got uh you know nine out of 10 I can't apply generally a m will say I've got six out of 10 I'm going to go for it and my message to women is go for it you know because even if you don't get that particular job you're going to learn you're going to learn about interviewing you're going to have more experience so I would say and then my my third is have a point of view sometimes I you know I find women will hold back in meetings and they'll you know they'll be thinking and you you you know have a point of view even if you know you're not always going to be right you're not always going to be what the decision is but don't be afraid to have a point of view okay so you have two children either of them want to be in the automobile industry uh unfortunately no no I have a daughter who wants to be in the policy Arena focused on education and my son is a bio biomedical engineer and is works for in predictive health so uh they they have their career paths but of course they're in their 20s so that could change over time so um normally uh in their country the aage average CEO of a publicly traded company is in that position for between three and four years um unless they're the person who built the company um so you've been in it for 10 years so have you any thoughts about how much longer you would like to do this well of course I serve at the pleasure of the board but again this is but you're the chairman of the board so uh but there's but there's 12 other members D okay um but no I um you know I I have a I have a great board but um I'm just this is such an exciting time and this is our you know in the next couple years it's our years to really execute this new strategy so I'm energized so for the foreseeable future you're going to be the CEO and chairman of the board of General Motors and you're very happy with that right again uh as long as I have the opportunity to do that and as we're uh you know advancing where we're at I it's great so the final question if I wanted to go buy a car today uh and let's suppose I want a medium pric car uh what car would you recommend that I buy assume you recommended General Motors car but what would be given my personality and and uh situation what would be a what would be a good car for me well do you want a truck a crossover you want you want speed you want performance do you want to haul things what do you want to do I want everything then I'd get a Hummer a Hummer yeah I don't know if my children would see me in a Hummer but I would probably crash it right away but Mary uh you've been a very good sport you've done a great job thank you for what you've done for the business round table and for Duke University and for the shareholder of General Motors and thank you for being here today and I have a gift thank you second um I have a we'll send this we'll send this to your office it's a historic map of the District of clumber okay
