CES 2018 Day 1: Ford Keynote Recap
The Automaker Unveils Its Grand Plan for the Future of Mobility
CES officially opens its show floors today as attendees from over 150 countries fill up the two event venues, pushing past each other to see the latest innovations in consumer technology. To kick off the day, a keynote session featuring Ford’s newly appointed CEO Jim Hackett was held at the Venetian Palazzo Ballroom, and the Lab joined many to hear what Ford has to say about the future of driving and mobility.
CTA president Gary Shapiro opened the keynote session by offering some feel-good stats and insights on how new consumer technologies like AR and 5G will impact our lives. Then he introduced Ford CEO Jim Hackett to the stage to elaborate on how Ford is preparing for the impending turning point that the auto industry faces.
Hackett started by looking back at how the mass adoption of automobiles transformed the lifestyle of U.S. consumers and impacted urban planning of cities around the world, drawing a parallel between the first wave of household car ownership and the resulting car-centric urban design and the emerging transition towards car-sharing and smart city design. He stressed that now is the time that we bring our streets into the sharing economy and start the conversation on how to build a smart city that works for the cars of tomorrow.
In order to do that, Ford is rightfully looking beyond the car itself and turning its attention to building a holistic mobility platform that it hopes will transform the company into the self-driving OS for the future of transportation. The company is making good of its recent investment in autonomous car startup to create what it calls the Transportation Mobility Cloud, an open-sourced platform for companies and cities to join.
To make that happen, the auto giant is teaming up with Postmates, in addition to its existing partners Lyft and Domino’s, to deploy autonomous vehicles in a flexible way that blends ride-sharing with commercial use such as delivery. This vision is somewhat identical to the “e-Palette” autonomous vehicle system that Toyota announced yesterday with Uber, Pizza Hut, and Amazon as partners, save for the difference that Toyota’s system will be limited to its own autonomous driving pods whereas Ford welcomes everyone, especially medium- and small-sized businesses, to build on its mobility platform and leverage autonomous vehicles to find new logistic solutions.
Besides, Ford also announced it is working with Qualcomm to double down on developing its own autonomous vehicles, which the company will start testing in an unspecified new city later this year. One key thing this partnership with Qualcomm entails is a “vehicle-to-everything” (V2X) cellular technology that will be installed in all Ford models to enable data transfer and communication between vehicles, traffic lights, and even cyclists.
Overall, Ford made it clear that it is making a strong push to catch up in the self-driving car race, and it has a pretty ambitious vision for the future of mobility and some strategic partners to match. But the race to figure out what the future of transportation and city planning has only just begun, and Ford does acknowledge that the implementation of its grand vision requires support and coronation from municipal and regulatory bodies.
