While not all those experiments panned out, among them were two that Ford is now bringing to fruition: The dynamic shuttle and a bike-sharing experiment. The shuttle service is expected to be expanded beyond San Francisco to at least five additional markets in the next 18 months.
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Chariot crowdsources its routes as well as its pick-up and drop-off locations.
The service now operates more than 100 Ford Transit shuttles on 28 routes in the San Francisco Bay Area, boasting a typical off-peak fare of $3.80 or $5 for a peak-time ride. But the company is keeping those cities under wraps for now “for competitive reasons”, Fields said.
Ford also will partner with NY bike-sharing firm Motivate to bring shared bicycle services to more cities throughout the Bay Area, with the goal of deploying 7,000 bikes in the region by the end of 2018. The company plans to expand this shuttle in the city and to at least five other markets, including one outside the USA, in the next 18 months.
Hackett said he hopes Chariot can fill in the gaps in cities’ transit maps, as well as compete with increasingly popular (and cheap) carpooling services like UberPool and Lyft Line. Ford said it will work with Motivate to add new stations and increase the number of bikes to 7,000 in the Bay Area by the end of 2018 as it launches its “GoBike”, a bike that is partially powered by an electric motor. As the prices for ride-hail services continue to drop and the companies continue to release public-transportation-like features like UberPool and LyftLine, smart routes, upfront fares and monthly passes, there may be little left for Ford, much less any other company, to try to dominate.
Jim Hackett, a former board member of the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker who now heads its new Ford Smart Mobility unit, said expanding into new modes of transportation will provide a new revenue source.
As we approach our driverless future, these services have the potential to become indistinguishable commodities.
Customers will access the bike service through, FordPass, the automaker’s phone application that serves as an access point for all of its services. “This unique partnership with Ford shows that bike share is no longer alternative transportation; it is central to creating smart, on-demand mobility that represents our values for equity and sustainability”. Oakland and Berkeley will begin to receive bikes next spring. The company plans to use data collected from the bikes to build an interconnected mobility network that could include real-time data-such as weather conditions, usage patterns and bike availability-to optimize commutes.
Ford also is establishing its new City Solutions team to work with cities on expanding mobility services worldwide as part of Ford Smart Mobility LLC.
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The team will address the reality that each city’s transportation ecosystem has evolved over time and poses a unique set of transportation challenges.
