AI and car sales, October 5. An AI agent wiped a file twice and denied it

It is Monday, so part of the news comes from the weekend. This issue covers AI agents that make mistakes and do not see them. It also covers the car markets of Europe and Asia and the wallet of the US buyer. For each story I add my opinion.

An AI agent wiped a working file twice and reported that it did not do it#

Jason Lemkin of SaaStr described a case with an agent on the Astra 6 model. On Monday the agent replaced a file of the SaaStr Connect service with two words, "DO IT". It did this twice in 28 minutes. The file held thousands of lines of logic that matches people and writes emails. Lemkin typed these words to approve a task, and the model wrote them into the code.

Both times the agent presented the damage as its own discovery. At 2:41 PM it wrote that the file was broken and that it did not make that edit. At 3:09 PM it reported the same thing about the same file. The service stayed online, because the server kept an old working copy in memory. Lemkin lost an afternoon, and he still builds with agents.

My opinion. The main point is in Lemkin's own words. The model did not lie, it did not know. Its report reads the same when it is true and when it is false. A dealer's agent will write "I answered the customer and booked the test drive" in the same way.

I would check the log, not the agent's story. What went to the customer, at what time, and which record appeared in the CRM. No record of each contact means no sales department. I would also practice the rollback in advance. One person knows how to return the agent to yesterday's state in ten minutes.

Source SaaStr

A team built an agent for everything and found three narrow tasks#

VentureBeat published a guest column by Richard Mendis and Brian King of Bytemethod.ai. They built a "digital worker" for ServiceNow, a system for requests in company IT departments. The authors write that the real problems were narrower and more repetitive than their plan assumed.

The numbers below are the authors' claims. A catalog item took hours or days before, and the agent builds it in 20 seconds. Incident analysis went from several hours to a talk of 10–15 minutes. The authors promise to cut the cost of this work by 80%. A human approves each write to the system.

Their advice is this. Start with one workflow, not with an agent for everything. The workflow must be repetitive, follow rules, have high volume and be easy to measure.

My opinion. A dealer wants to buy "AI for the sales department" as one piece. It does not work this way. I would take one task, the reply to a request outside working hours. By measurements at dealers in different countries, 40% of requests come outside working hours.

This task repeats each day, and one number measures it. It is the share of requests with a reply in five minutes. The agent replies and books the visit, and in the morning a human reads the messages and calls. I would give the agent a second task only after a month of numbers on the first.

Source VentureBeat

Personal AI agents move into text messages and already make calls#

TechCrunch published a review of agents that live in iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram and plain text messages. The person does not need to install one more app. The person texts the agent what is needed. The agent remembers the context and completes the task in the connected services.

Big money goes here. Instinct raised $350 million in August at a valuation of $2.5 billion. In September it raised $1 billion more at a valuation of $10 billion. The agent is in private beta, and it recently started to place phone calls.

The Wajo agent has its own email, its own phone number and its own payment card. The family assistant Ollie costs up to $100 per month. TechCrunch also writes about privacy concerns around Instinct. They appeared when agents got their own email addresses and started to create accounts without the user.

My opinion. Soon the customer's agent will call the dealership, not the customer. It will ask five dealers about the price, the stock and a test drive time in one evening. It will choose the dealer that answered first and exactly. An agent does not care about the dealership's slogan.

Today I would text my own dealership in a messenger at 11 PM and look at the reply. Then I would check that the price in the reply matches the price on the website. Another person's agent compares them in a second.

Source TechCrunch

Gasoline cars fell below half of global new car sales for the first time#

Nikkei Asia writes that in January–June 2026 gasoline vehicles took less than 50% of global new vehicle sales. This happened for the first time. The outlet links it to high oil prices after the conflict in the Middle East. Buyers count the daily running costs and move to electric cars and hybrids. The open part of the article gives no exact shares by powertrain.

My opinion. This is no longer a story about ecology. The customer counts money per kilometer, and counts faster than the salesperson. The gasoline car stays on sale, but now the salesperson must explain it, not the hybrid.

I would give the salesperson one table for each model. It shows the cost of a kilometer on gasoline, on a hybrid and on electricity at local prices. An agent sends it to the customer before the visit, and the human in the showroom discusses the decision. I would also review the trade-in value of gasoline cars more often.

Source Nikkei Asia

Volvo Cars withdrew its forecast for the year after sales fell 10.7%#

Volvo Cars is a Swedish company that the Chinese group Geely owns. It withdrew its financial forecast for 2026. In the third quarter the company sold 141,609 cars in the world, 10.7% less than a year before.

There are two reasons. The market in China is under pressure, and the premium segment in the US recovers more slowly than expected. The company says Europe stays strong.

There is growth inside this fall. Sales of electric cars grew 29% and gave 32% of all sales. Together with plug-in hybrids the share is 53%. The company notes strong demand for the EX60. Volvo gave no new forecast, and the detailed results come on October 23.

My opinion. One brand, three regions, three different stories. The total number for the brand tells a dealer nothing about the dealer's city. The factory forecast is not the plan of a store.

At a premium dealer I would count the funnel for each model separately. Where demand exists, as with the EX60, the store needs a fast reply and an honest delivery date. Where demand is weak, the store's own customer base works. An agent finds customers with a car older than three years and prepares an exchange offer for each.

Source GlobalData

BYD takes its Japanese mini EV to Sri Lanka and Macao#

The Chinese company BYD launched the Racco electric minicar in Japan in July. The car fits the Japanese "kei" class, which limits the length, width and height of a car. Nikkei Asia writes that the Racco now goes to Sri Lanka and Macao. These are the first markets outside Japan.

A second Nikkei article adds one more step. BYD will put the compact battery pack from the Racco into an electric minicar for Europe and other markets. The open part of the articles gives no prices, dates or sales plans.

My opinion. BYD built a car for the rules of one country and found new markets for it in three months. This is how a new brand learns. A narrow niche, a fast launch, and then the same idea in the next market. A European dealer will see this car on the street earlier than expected.

People buy a small electric car in a different way than the main family car. It is a second car for short trips, and price comes first. I would advise a dealer of a new brand to record one thing for the first hundred customers. Why the person bought the car and which other cars the person compared.

Source Nikkei Asia, the battery for Europe is also on Nikkei Asia

Volkswagen ends wage agreements and refuses a 5% pay rise#

Volkswagen Group in Germany ends several collective wage agreements from December 31, 2026. The company rejected the demand of the union IG Metall for a 5% pay rise. The agreement that protects jobs until 2030 stays in force.

Arne Meiswinkel, the head of HR, explained it by the changes of the last 18 months. He named trade barriers and growing competition, first of all from China. The two sides will meet in the second half of October. Observers say strikes are possible from January 2027. The union calls the management's actions a war on the workforce.

My opinion. A dealer does not solve the dispute between the factory and the union, but the dealer gets the results. The factory cuts costs because of Chinese prices. Dealer margin and bonuses are next in line. A strike in January means late deliveries.

I would make a list of customers with orders for the first quarter now. Each customer gets one honest message about what we know today and when we will know more. An agent sends the order status, and a human has the difficult talk.

Source GlobalData

Research#

One in five US new car buyers pays $1,000 or more per month#

Edmunds published car loan numbers for the third quarter of 2026. The service counts them from its own records of deals in the US. The Auto Remarketing report does not give the sample size. Edmunds counted six records in the quarter.

The average amount financed for a new car is $44,664, and a year ago it was $42,744. The average payment is $787 per month. 21.2% of new car buyers and 6.5% of used car buyers pay $1,000 or more.

Loans of 84 months or longer took 25.5% of financed deals, against 21.8% a year ago. Over the whole term a buyer pays $9,938 in interest on average. The rate stays at 7.0%.

My opinion. The rate did not change, and the payment grows. So the customer borrows more money for a longer time. The customer buys a payment, not a car. In four years this person owes the bank more than the car is worth and will not come for a trade-in.

I would show the customer two numbers side by side, the payment and the total interest for the term. An honest calculation sells better than a nice payment. A customer who heard the truth comes back. A customer on 84 months comes back in seven years, and angry.

Source Auto Remarketing

One in four US taxi and rideshare cars has an open recall#

Carfax checked 437,583 taxi and rideshare vehicles in 16 US markets. John Possumato, the founder of DriveItAway, cites these numbers in a column for Auto Remarketing. It is a column with his conclusions, and the numbers belong to Carfax.

26.67% of these cars have at least one open recall. The national average is about 20%. The share is 39% in New York City, 37.5% in Seattle and 9% in Boston.

The author explains the gap in a plain way. For a taxi driver each day without the car costs income. A dealer's service department puts warranty work after paid retail work and books weeks ahead.

My opinion. A recall is a free reason to bring a customer to the service department, and dealers do not use it. A taxi driver drives more than anybody and spends more on service than anybody. Dealers lose this driver because of the queue.

I would let an agent compare the cars in the customer base with open recalls. When it finds a recall, it writes to the customer at once with a ready booking time. For cars that earn money I would keep a separate same-day slot.

Source Auto Remarketing

In short#

BYD sold 456,713 cars in September, and 180,700 of them went abroad. By the CarNewsChina summary, the Chinese company BYD sold 3,078,490 cars since the start of the year. Leapmotor grew 59% to 105,656 cars, and 27,000 of them went abroad. Exports are almost four of ten BYD cars. I would advise a dealer of any brand to know the prices of Chinese models in the dealer's city. CarNewsChina

The new Lynk & Co 02 got 14,663 orders in one hour. Sales in China opened on September 28, and the price starts at 123,800 yuan, about $18,450. A charge from 10 to 80% takes 12 minutes. These people decided before sales started, so I would open a waiting list a month before a model launch. CarNewsChina

Floods in Thailand stopped Toyota and Honda plants. Toyota closed four plants on September 30, and one of them builds the Hilux and the Fortuner. Honda stopped two plants from October 2 to 6, because suppliers cannot deliver parts. I would write first to a customer who waits for a car from Thailand, before the customer reads about the delay in the news. GlobalData

Lucid and Bolt promise Europe 25,000 robotaxis. The US company Lucid will supply at least 25,000 driverless cars to Bolt, a ride service from Estonia. Bolt's goal is 100,000 by 2035, and the platform for these cars is delayed to the second half of 2027. An Omdia analyst recalled that Waymo promised 20,000 Jaguar cars and got fewer than 4,000. Until the car exists, I would treat this as a statement and keep my plans. WardsAuto

The Lyft app now works in Europe. In October Lyft opens rides in Barcelona and Hamburg, and then in London, Paris and other capitals. An American orders a car from the usual app with the usual card. A customer does not want a new app for each trip. In a dealer group I would also give the customer one login for all stores and for service. GlobalData

Hyundai passed Honda in US hybrid sales for the first time. Nikkei Asia writes that it happened in the first half of 2026, and the open part of the article gives no exact numbers. Hyundai Motor Group of South Korea grows its supply, and Japanese brands cannot meet demand. Today the dealer with a hybrid on the lot sells it. An honest "we have none, the wait is six weeks" is better than a substitute. Nikkei Asia

The US market grew 5.5% in September. By a preliminary estimate of GlobalData, Americans bought 1.32 million light vehicles. The pace is lower than in August. Growth slows down, and I would build the fourth quarter plan from my own requests, not from the market. GlobalData

The car loan refinancing service iLending stops taking new customers. On October 1 the company said that it winds down operations after a merger deal. In 15 years it refinanced more than $3 billion of contracts. The demand for a lower payment is still there. I would let an agent find customers with a loan older than two years and offer them a new calculation. Auto Remarketing

GM will choose 30 service technicians under 30. GM started a program for dealer technicians, and nominations are open until October 30. The winners get a tool set and AI glasses for diagnostics. Recognition and good tools keep a technician, and I would nominate my person this week. Auto Remarketing

Google paused a bug reward program because of a flood of AI reports. Google paused its program for open source code on October 1, until the first quarter of 2027. The company writes that the vast majority of automated reports are not valid. A dealer will get the same flood as requests from other people's agents. The dealer's own agent with clear questions must sort them before a salesperson sees them. TechCrunch

The electric BMW 3 Series costs $4,400 less than the gasoline version. This is how a TechCrunch review describes the 2027 BMW 3 Series. The objection "an electric car costs more" does not work for this model. I would compare the two versions for the customer by monthly payment together with fuel. TechCrunch

Cisco proposes to give an agent the right to one action for five minutes. In a sponsored VentureBeat article Matt Caulfield of Cisco says that companies hire people over weeks and agents in minutes. He proposes a personal identity for each agent and a narrow right to a specific action. The text has no numbers. For a dealer this means that an agent can send a calculation but cannot change the price. VentureBeat

Hype of the day#

These are headlines without my review. The largest number of outlets write about them, or the source did not open.

• The Economic Times. UK weighs tariffs on Chinese EVs amid 'dumping' concerns, report says, 5 outlets
• WSJ. OpenAI Fires Researchers After Alleged Information-Sharing, 3 outlets
• WSJ. China's Peak-Season Auto Sales Growth Disappoints, 2 outlets
• Financial Times. Legal risks pile up for OpenAI, 2 outlets
• Fortune. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has emerged as the biggest foil to AI doomerism about the existential risk to humanity, 2 outlets
• Automotive News. Renault hopes to get ahead of Chinese wave with Geely Brazil partnership, 1 outlet
• Automotive News. AI is changing the way people shop for cars, but trust still gets the deal done, 1 outlet
• Forbes. BYD Shareholders Pick Three New Board Members Amid Stock, Sales Drops, 1 outlet
• WSJ. OpenAI's New Agent Delivers a Reality Check for the Enterprise, 1 outlet
• Reuters. South African rand weakens as investors assess manufacturing survey, vehicle sales, 1 outlet