Ford Announces Car-Sharing And Electric Bike Projects

We’ve reported about Ford’s experimentations with car-sharing technology in the past, and now Ford CEO Mark Fields has announced the company will be testing a car-share program in a number of cities in the United States.

“We are now moving from experimentation to implementation,” said Fields. “We have learned a lot in the past six months, and now are ready to put insights into action. Our goal is to make people’s lives better by helping them more easily navigate through their day, address societal issues and, over time, change the way the world moves – just as Henry Ford did more than 100 years ago.”

The pilot program is called “Peer-2-Peer Car Sharing” and it will run through November to allow 14,000 people in Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, Portland, Chicago and Washington D.C. to rent out their Ford vehicles to pre-screened drivers. To access the program, cars must be financed through Ford’s financing service, Ford Credit. The rentals will be facilitated by social car-sharing company Getaround, which will allow drivers to list their car’s availability and arrange payment online.

In London, people have already been able to benefit from a Ford car-share pilot program called GoDrive that the company launched in May. The on-demand car-share service originally offered 50 Ford cars to the first 2,000 people to sign up. These cars can either be returned to guaranteed parking spaces or be used for a one-way trip, with pay-as-you-go, per-minute pricing.

Ford explains that the company is shifting to focus on “flexible use and ownership of vehicles.” And Ford isn’t the only automaker who is moving in that direction. GM, for example, has been working with peer-to-peer car-share service RelayRides since 2011, allowing General Motors drivers to rent out their cars when they’re not using them.

“Consumers tell us they are interested in sharing the costs of vehicle ownership, and this program will help us understand how much that extends to customers who are financing a Ford vehicle,” said David McClelland, Ford Credit vice president of marketing. “As most vehicles are parked and out of use much of the time, this can help us gauge our customers’ desires to pick up extra cash and keep their vehicles in use.”

Additionally, the company announced a new electric bike initiative. MoDe:Flex, Ford’s third e-bike iteration, connects to a smartphone app with a smartwatch extension that can advise the user about traffic conditions and navigation. The company also debuted its split-view camera that gives drivers a 180-degree view in front and behind the car to help them avoid accidents.

Ford is certainly on the move these days. In addition to these announcements, the company will be extending the work of its Silicon Valley Research and Innovation Center with a focus on driverless cars. Ford says that it has been partnering with 3D-printing company Carbon3D to create bumper parts and other products from UV curable resins through a process called Continuous Liquid Interface Production.

“My great-grandfather helped put the world on wheels so everyone could enjoy the benefits of mobility,” said Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford in a statement. “Our vision today is to expand that same thinking using advanced technology and new business models, and addressing the mobility challenges people face around the world.”