Ride hailing, electric vehicles, self-driving cars: Ford Canada looks to future
VANCOUVER — Ride hailing, electric vehicles and self-driving cars are transforming the future of Ford Canada, and CEO Mark Buzzell says the company is gearing up for a radical shift toward becoming an “auto and mobility” business.
Buzzell said Tuesday the company sees these trends taking hold and is responding with billions of dollars in new investments. While he wouldn’t speculate on long-term hiring plans in Canada, he said Ford would still need a strong manufacturing workforce.
“At the end of the day, you still have to manufacture autonomous vehicles,” he said in an interview at Vancouver’s auto show. “If anything, it’s going to add jobs because we need software development engineers to help us with the technology.”
Ford has already invested in San Francisco-based Chariot, which allows people to use a mobile app to hail rides on transit vans, as well as bike-sharing service GoBike. Last month, it announced $1 billion for a company called Argo AI, which is led by former Google and Uber executives and aims to develop a new software platform for Ford’s first autonomous vehicle.