Aaron Brzozowski
Ford Motor Company Executive Chairman Bill Ford was at the 2016 Detroit North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) last week, where he sat down with Robb Report to discuss the future of human mobility – especially as it applies to those living in dense urban centers.
“We’re already seeing things like Uber and Lyft, and some cities restricting cars in the city centers,” said Mr. Bill Ford. “This whole world of urban mobility – how we move people around – will change, and is changing, but will change even more in the next few years.”
When asked by Robb Report how this is helping to shape the design of cars, Bill Ford responded: “Well, it’s interesting. You see it more on the software side than the hardware side. So, you know, eventually we’ll probably have small little city cars and all that, but already we’re working on things like autonomous driving… self-parking; all these things that make city driving much easier.”
All of the things that Executive Chairman Bill Ford gets around to mentioning are components of Ford Motor Company’s “Smart Mobility” plan already, which aims to expand away from the automaker’s core business and provide mobility services such as pay-per-mile car rentals, ride sharing, and more. Smart Mobility is an industry-leading initiative and, we think, a brilliant foretelling of the inevitable future of transportation. Only recently has General Motors caught on, announcing a $500 million investment into ride share service Lyft earlier this month.
(Video provided by: NBC News)
