Ferrari will never let robots drive its Ferraris

This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a pedal-to-the-metal race through Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. Sign up here.Today’s Agenda Oh Lord won’t y [Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a pedal-to-the-metal race through Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - Oh Lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz [Ferrari SF90 Stradale](. - The Bank of Japan is enjoying its [splendid isolation](. - The world can’t rely on the US continuing to be [the oil barrel of last resort](. - [Buyin’ when they’re cryin’]( is a great way to make money. Baby, You Can Drive My Car (So Long as You’re Not an Algorithm) The auto industry is set to be transformed by the shift to electric vehicles from internal combustion engines and the introduction (any day now, trust me on this one) of fully self-driving automation that will turn drivers into passengers. Ferrari NV is reluctantly (and slowly) participating in the former, but it’s resolutely against letting artificial intelligence get behind the wheels of its sports cars. “The AI guys had a ride with our test driver,” Ferrari Chief Executive Officer Benedetto Vigna said this week. “When they got out from a Ferrari they told me, ‘OK, Benedetto, our presentation is useless. No customer is going to spend money for the computer in the car to enjoy the drive.’” While Ferrari’s numbers — and not just its top speeds — look impressive, [the Italian thoroughbred can’t afford to stand still](, argues Chris Bryant. It needs to maintain the exclusivity that saw it sell barely 11,000 vehicles last year, retaining the mystique that lets the stock market treat it as a luxury brand with a market capitalization of 30 billion euros ($32 billion), rather than a metal-bashing production line. It needs to handle the launch of its SUV with care, given the ugliness of the sheds-on-wheels that Bentley and Lamborghini, among others, have brought to market. And it needs to continue avoiding becoming an old person’s brand. But it’s the shift to electrification that could put the brakes on Ferrari’s profitability. Its first fully electric model won’t arrive until 2025, and even by 2030 the company expects hybrid and fully fossil-fueled vehicles to represent 60% of its model lineup. “There’s a risk that faster-moving rivals redefine what a luxury electric car looks and sounds like,” Chris warns. With the European Union demanding zero tailpipe emissions for all cars sold after 2035, Ferrari will need to rely on the tech expertise of its CEO to avoid falling behind. “I’m confident that with tech expert Vigna at the helm, Ferrari will eventually craft electric vehicles that are every bit as enviable as its gas-guzzlers,” Chris concludes. The Bank of Japan Is Marching to Its Own Beat This week has seen official interest rates increased by the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the Swiss National Bank and other guardians of monetary stability. More — and more aggressive — moves are anticipated in several jurisdictions as policy makers belatedly attempt to tame the inflation beast that’s roaring through the global economy. But Japan? Not so much. Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda is doubling down on his strategy of maintaining an ultra-loose monetary policy stance, even as the yen slumped to a 24-year low this week. With traders betting that the currency will weaken further and that the authorities will be forced to relent on their insistence that 10-year yields remain capped within a 25 basis-point range around zero, [Kuroda is “set on a path]( that will only further isolate the country from its peers and almost guarantee further erosion in the value of the yen,” argue Daniel Moss and Gearoid Reidy. They suggest two paths out of the policy bind for Kuroda: engaging in bureaucratic warfare by announcing a review, albeit with a foregone conclusion that everything is fine, or adopting Mario Draghi’s 2012 “whatever it takes” playbook in an effort to talk financial markets into believing that the status quo is here to stay.  “The question is whether, given his track record of surprises, that will be enough,” Daniel and Gearoid ask. Bonus Central Bank Reading: [The Federal Reserve is still struggling]( to get its story straight. — Clive Crook Yet More Central Bank Reading: The ECB is playing [fast and loose with the law]( in its anti-fragmentation bond plan. — Richard Cookson When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around The US is depleting its Strategic Petroleum Reserve [at an alarming rate](, says Javier Blas. What matters for the future of energy prices and, by extension, global inflation is the composition of the oil cache. The US is running out of the medium-sour flavor of crude favored by domestic refiners, hence recent auctions from the stockpile have leaned toward the light-sweet variety. So next month’s trip by President Joe Biden to Saudi Arabia makes total sense. “The Saudis, and their neighbors in the United Arab Emirates, pump medium-sour crude,” writes Javier. “That’s all you need to know.” Telltale Charts On Oct. 1, 2008. Lehman Brothers had been bust for a fortnight and the S&P 500 index had dropped by 25%. If you’d taken the plunge and bought, you’d have suffered five terrifying months and lost 40%. But by the end of 2009, you’d have been flat. And even after the current market rout, [you’d have quadrupled your money](, calculates John Authers. Further Reading [Australia’s electricity grid]( gets cornered by its own generators. — David Fickling Turns out that [Hong Kong was never a British colony]( (well, according to a set of new textbooks). — Matthew Brooker The US should brace for [more mudslinging and contrariness]( from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. — Bobby Ghosh Trump and his allies would be willing to repeat [the Jan. 6 attack on democracy](. — Timothy O’Brien ICYMI [Hell is a cruise ship]( in South American seas as Covid ripped through passengers and crew at the start of the pandemic. Airline staff shortages are threatening to [ruin millions of summer holidays](. Oil producers are planning [the world’s biggest floating wind farm]( to power their fossil-fuel activities. Kickers “I’m trying to move away from this, like, quote unquote scammer persona,” says Anna Sorokin, who’s currently in custody at the Orange County Correctional Facility in upstate New York after serving about four years in prison for defrauding banks and hotels out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by falsely claiming to be a German heiress with a $60 million fortune — and is [launching a collection of non-fungible tokens](, of course she is. (h/t Lionel Laurent) The BBC may host the [2023 Eurovision Song Contest](, as this year’s winner, Ukraine, would struggle to hold the competition Because War. Elon Musk slapped with [a $258 billion lawsuit]( (not a typo) for allegedly being “engaged in a crypto pyramid scheme” involving Dogecoin. Meet the self-professed [Dullest Man in Britain](, publisher of Roundabouts of Redditch and founder (and sole member) of the Car Park Appreciation Society. (h/t Paul J. Davies) The UK plans to kill off [irritating cookie pop-ups]( as part of a post-Brexit bonfire of European Union regulations. Programming Note: There will be no Bloomberg Opinion Today email on Monday, June 20. Notes: Please send (edible) cookies and complaints to Mark Gilbert at magilbert@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Instagram](, [TikTok](, [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Opinion Today newsletter. 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