Hi everyone. Welcome to Shift, a podcast about mobility. I'm Pete Bigelow,

your host and reporter at the Automotive News. Fresh off a week in Austin, Texas, where I attended the Move America Mobility Conference.

Ten Second Version, it was the best transportation-related conference I've been to in a long while.

Dozens of interesting startups in a long while.

Dozens of interesting startups,

a good presence of established companies

working on electric and autonomous tech,

a lot of thoughtful panel discussions.

It was hard not to contrast that with the Detroit Auto Show, which had taken place just a week or two before and was a withered shell of its former self.

Talking about how to salvage the Detroit show is where I start today's conversation with my guest

Chris Thomas co-founder and partner at Assembly Ventures.

Chris and I talk about that, Detroit's evolution overall, the city's place in a new mobility economy, and the way

manufacturing and supply chains are changing across the world. We also talk through

his portfolio and investment philosophy. I always learned something

talking with Chris. I hope you do too. So without further ado, here's my

conversation with Assembly Ventures, Chris Thomas. Chris, welcome to the

podcast today. It's great to have you.

Dean, thanks for having me.

You are a Detroit guy through and through.

So I thought we could kick this off by discussing the recently concluded Detroit Auto Show, which was the first in about

three and a half years. And from my perspective, I would say kind of underwhelming, but I want to get your perspective on it and if you if you buy the premise that it was

underwhelming how does how does the city how do the organizers go about kind of

...