New Ford Subsidiary to Focus on Emerging Mobility Services

Today, Ford revealed that they would be operating a new subsidiary, Ford Smart Mobility, that would be focused on developing autonomous cars, car connectivity, transportation and maintain an investment in emerging mobility services. This new branch of Ford will be overseen by Ford board member and Former CEO of Steelcase Jim Hackett, with the company working towards the goal of being “both an auto and a mobility company.”

This won’t affect the core function of Ford as a mainstream automobile manufacturer, however, this new subsidiary will allow them to focus their efforts and resources on new opportunities without compromising their core brand. Currently, these opportunities include technologies featuring connectivity, autonomous vehicles, customer experience and data analytics, with Ford Smart Mobility being initially tasked with the advancement of the SYNC infotainment system as well as GoPark and GoDrive parking and car-sharing services and the transportation hub, FordPass.

More crucially, Ford Smart Mobility will be responsible for the development of Ford’s autonomous vehicle development program in the states of Arizona, California, and Michigan. With Ford aiming to have the largest fleet of self-driving cars before the end of the year, this new subsidiary will have its work cut out.

With Fort Smart Mobility having more objectives in mind that just development of self-driving cars, it will be interesting to see what will come out of the subsidiary. With any luck, cars of the future could be a whole lot more exciting for the user than simply self-driving.