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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
March 19, 2024

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Ford experimenting with its own Uber-like app — and a vehicle to go with it

The Columbian
Published:

WASHINGTON — The rise of Uber does not bode well for carmakers. The ride-hailing service, and other apps like it, have made it increasingly easy to get around major cities without owning a car. They promise the convenience of personal cars without the monthly car payment, the speed of car travel without the hassle of parking when you arrive.

They’ve taken advantage of — and no doubt contributed to — an underlying shift that could deplete an entire generation of city-dwelling car buyers: Younger would-be drivers just aren’t as interested in owning their own cars as their parents were.

So what do you do if your century-old business model relies on making and selling vehicles? Well, this: Ford is trying to develop its own Uber-like “ride-sharing” app with a twist that only an automaker can bring to this rapidly shifting market — Ford is also working on a vehicle to go with it. Not a theoretical autonomous car, as Uber has fantasized (and begun researching with Carnegie Mellon). But a more achievable, legal-today ride-sharing shuttle that could be tested on the streets of London later this year.

“There is a white space for a new product,” says John Abernethy, project lead for the Advanced Product Group at Ford Motor Company based in Britain. “Between a taxi and a bus is a space for something else.”

Ford is still figuring out exactly what that something — a vehicle plus app — looks like. Like Uber, but with bigger vehicles? Like public transit, but without fixed routes? Like the airport Super Shuttle, minus the endless meandering all over town to cram in a dozen more people?

The concept, which Ford is calling a “dynamic social shuttle,” is one of two-dozen experiments the company announced last month, as it tries to pivot away from a focus on solely manufacturing vehicles to thinking more broadly about “mobility.” So this a bit more like R&D than a full-fledged product launch. But, Abernethy says, “this is a really serious proposition.”

The project further blurs the lines between automakers, tech startups, transit agencies, cab companies and everyday drivers. Its ride-sharing service could be faster than the bus, Ford says, but cheaper than UberX. It’s unclear, though, if the automaker would ultimately compete directly with either one, or if it can burrow a truly new niche in between them.

It’s also unclear who the final customer would be. If Ford manages to develop its own ride-sharing app and a vehicle specifically designed for it, it could potentially market both to municipalities or transit agencies looking to offer more nimble alternatives to the bus. Or perhaps private firms that would be more akin to cab companies might franchise a fleet of Ford ride-share shuttles. Or maybe individual consumers will ditch the app and buy these vehicles for use with Uber.

In the company’s vision, passengers would request a ride through the app in much the same way you can with Uber or Lyft. A kind of “premium mini-bus” would then arrive on demand and take you to your destination, collecting and dropping off other passengers along the way with similar routes. The underlying idea is essentially Uber-squared: It requires a sophisticated system to not only match passengers to nearby vehicles, but to match passengers to each other so that an entire chained trip becomes as efficient — and tolerant to passengers — as possible.

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