Ford to look at tech field for Smart Mobility CEO
Novi — The automotive and technology worlds are increasingly colliding to form new partnerships and alliances as both industries evolve.
The latest examples: Ford Motor Co. will soon tap an outsider, likely from the tech space, to lead its new subsidiary that’s in charge of all future connected, autonomous and mobility areas.
And officials with Amazon and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV seemed open to a tie-up, but would not confirm a report of the two companies discussing an official partnership.
Collaboration and partnerships were a key theme of the first day of the TU-Automotive conference in Novi, where hundreds of leaders in the auto, technology and mobility services areas discussed the future.
Don Butler, executive director of connected vehicles and services at Ford, said in an interview the company needs “to have that broader context” by looking outside the Dearborn automaker to fill the top spot at Ford Smart Mobility LLC.
“The key leaders we see as being external,” Buler said. “For this business to be what it needs to be, you want that outside perspective. You don’t want to become so insular with a Dearborn or Michigan or automotive context.”
Butler said the external hires will help Ford with future potental partnerships.
“We want to have ... those folks that have had those external contacts and those types of relationships,” he said.
Jim Hackett, former Steelcase vice chairman and CEO and UM athletic director, who was hired as chairman of the Smart Mobility subsidiary, has been working since his March hire to understand where Ford will make its mark in terms of partnerships and acquisitions, Butler said.
“We need to understand fundamentally where we can play and win and what partnerships make sense for us,” he said.
At a panel discussion at the conference, Mark Menard, Fiat Chrysler director ICT service and parts and global connected vehicle, said: “We basically talk to a lot of the cloud providers that are out there. I don’t know if I can really say if there’s a partnership there.
“We look at Amazon, Microsoft, IBM. We work with potentially a lot of suppliers in this space.”
Menard’s comments follow Bloomberg News reporting earlier in the day that Fiat Chrysler has had initial contacts with Amazon.com Inc. on self-driving vehicles for the web retailer’s deliveries. The news organization, citing unnamed sources, also reported the automaker has started discussions on a partnership with Uber Technologies Inc.
A spokesman for FCA US declined to comment on the report.
CJ Frost, Amazon Principal Solutions Architect — Alexa Voice Service, who was on the panel with Menard, said the company would like to team up with as many companies as possible for its Siri-esque voice recognition and command software.
“The power of Alexa is the openness of it,” he said. “We’re open to Alexa enabling devices, cars, speakers, refrigerators, whatever it is, and the more of those devices that respond in that consistent way, the better it is for the consumer.”
Among other examples of potential collaborations:
■Techstars Mobility, a startup incubator that on Wednesday announced its 2016 class, said it’s received a 27 percent spike in applications this year because the industry is starting to define what it wants and acquire certain software or app-developing startups.
■The president of Zipcar, a car-sharing service with operations in Ann Arbor and other Michigan cities, said the company plans to eventually use current partnerships with automakers to offer autonomous vehicles to its ride sharing users.
■Volvo, which is developing its own autonomous cars, called for a nonprofit alliance of automakers to work together to develop the technology.
Earlier, Ford said it would invest $182.2 million in software developer Pivotal. In January, it said it would work with Amazon to develop a link between Ford vehicles and Amazon’s Echo home voice recognition platform. Butler said Wednesday the two sides are still developing the technology, and plan to introduce it on an unspecified model by year’s end.
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