Hondas that partially drive themselves are on Rock Honda’s showroom floors right now. But how soon will you be able to sit in the back seat while your Honda drives itself? David Latif, General Manager, of Rock Honda in the Los Angeles suburb of Fontana joins Tom Smith to talk Honda’s tech – what’s out now and what’s on the way! ***Transcript*** Recording date – November 18, 2017 David Latif: The driver taking the wheel at any moment is right now. Right now, we can put a Honda Pilot on self-driving and it steers itself and the areas and the corners that it won't be able to control itself, it tells you to hold on to the steering. That technology is right now. In the future, I think you can sit in the back seat. Tom Smith: Welcome to iDriveSoCal, the podcast all about mobility in the automotive capital of the United States, Southern California. I'm your host, Tom Smith, and today I'm joined by David Latif. David is a long time automotive industry professional. He's been the leader behind the massive growth of Rock Honda in the Los Angeles suburb of Fontana. He's now General Manager of Rock Honda, where I'm speaking with him today. David, thank you so much for not only joining me, but for being an iDriveSoCal partner. David Latif: You're welcome thank you for having me. Tom Smith: From the very beginning, how did you get into the automotive business? David Latif: You know, it's a long story, I don't know if I want to really bore you with the whole thing, but I started almost 30 years ago, I was a young guy, one year in college and started selling Mitsubishis and 30 years later I'm sitting here with you. Tom Smith: Did you finish college? David Latif: No. One year and I loved cars and people so I kind of stuck with it. Tom Smith: You've been at Rock Honda for quite awhile. David Latif: I started back in '95, and that's 22 years ago. Obviously, a lot has change in the IE and a lot has changed in the car business. Tom Smith: iDriveSoCal is all about mobility in Southern California, traffic congestion, because we are such a massive hub of importance for all things automotive, not only United States, but the entire world, there's a lot of innovation out here as well. We hear a lot about self-driving cars, autonomous driving. From a perspective of a general manager, you're a very insider of the news out there, what's hype, what's real? Tell me that I'm going to be buying a flying Honda car very soon, because that's really what I want, personally. David Latif: I think we're not too far from it. The autonomous car around the corner. As far as I know they had quite a few of them running up north in New York. But I believe they have to be driven almost a million miles before the DMV approves them to be street legal. And I think they pass all those tests, so we're not too far from it. I think we're going to see in the next few years autonomous cars all around. All makes and models will be on the freeways. Most of the cars that Honda makes now, Honda Pilots, the Accords, the Civic, they all have the semi-self driving, screen control, speed control, and all that stuff. Like I said, we're not too far from it. The next couple of years we should be seeing full autonomous cars on the streets. Tom Smith: So I'm going to be able to go to the McDonald's drive thru, Big Mac, fries, and... David Latif: You'll be in the backseat of the car. Make sure somebody pays for it. Tom Smith: So how do you think the regulations are going to come out? Are we going to... I mean you joke about being in the back seat, are we going to be able to be in the back seat or are we going to need a human ready to take the wheel at any moment? David Latif: No, you're going to be in the back seat.
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