
The new Ford, a Silicon Valley software company - chermanowicz
http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/7/11333288/ford-ceo-mark-fields-interview-electric-self-driving-car-software
======
ryanmarsh
"We want to become a tech company" is the new management fad. Culture change
is incredibly hard and requires really great leadership. Capital One wanted to
become a software company just like Ford says, the difference, Capital One
already had great leaders. Is Ford full of great leaders?

Sure Ford can throw some money at a few labs and occasionally turn something
into a product. Spending money on R&D doesn't make you a software company.

I wish them the best.

~~~
mkhpalm
I wonder if its a fad so much as recognizing the threat from 200k+ people
reserving a car before they've ever seen it with their own eyeballs. I know if
I ran a car company I would be deathly afraid of becoming another nokia in an
iPhone world. They are extremely far behind on these fronts.

~~~
serge2k
1\. The Tesla is a status symbol for people.

2\. It's a 1k deposit. I just purchased a car last year, otherwise I probably
would have put down 1k on the chance I do decide to buy a Tesla.

~~~
lsiunsuex
Point #2 - exactly. If the car was available now - in production - I think a
lot more people would of put the 1k down. I myself, my lease runs out March
2017 - I can't not have a car waiting on the Model 3 to come out. I'll have to
wait for the next round.

~~~
erikpukinskis
You can't extend your lease?

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noname123
In the same vein of startup-like enclave within a large institutions but in
the Boston area, Shell has a startup/incubator space in Cambridge that do
innovation on drilling and exploration.

[http://www.shell.com/energy-and-innovation/innovating-
togeth...](http://www.shell.com/energy-and-innovation/innovating-
together/shell-techworks.html)

Also lots of major hospitals also have "innovation centers" that try to
innovate on in-patient and out-patient care and IoT in a clinical setting
setting.

[http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-
information-...](http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-
technology/25-hospitals-with-innovation-centers.html)

Also finally, also very curious if GE's move to Boston will be just for tax
breaks or if they are planning to open up an tech incubator of their own in
the area:

[http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/techflash/2016/03/ge-...](http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/techflash/2016/03/ge-
execs-planning-announcement-about.html)

------
sandover
Total spin. No basis in reality.

I know the person who got permission from Ford leadership to open and lead
their Silicon Valley lab in 2012. They gave him funding to select a building,
and select furniture, but somehow neglected to authorize any meaningful hiring
for over a year, except a few interns. He sat in a virtually empty office.

When he finally left this situation behind, Ford didn't hire a new lab head
for nearly a year after that.

Press coverage for Ford's new presence in Silicon Valley continued unabated
during this entire period. When you read these articles, you should picture
very expensive office space in Palo Alto, sitting empty.

------
jzwinck
Some of what the guy says is generic business speak. But then he says this:

 _" We’re a brand that’s recognized around the world consistently. We don’t
have different brands in different parts of the world."_

Well, you have Lincoln (and for much of history, Mercury) in the US. They sell
your cars under different names, but don't really exist much outside of North
America. Then you have Mazda, your activities with which I cannot summarize
better than to quote Wikipedia:

 _" The Mazda B-Series and Ford Ranger models sold in North America were
developed by Ford, whereas models sold elsewhere under the same badge were
engineered by Mazda."_

So no. You aren't a single brand everywhere. It's hard to see how you could
claim this with a straight face.

~~~
kirrent
The article is certainly generic business speak I think he's probably
referring to the practice of using different brands in different countries. In
Australia general motors is known as Holden. Ford is Ford.

~~~
jzwinck
Even if we restrict the discussion to Australia, Ford is not the only Ford.
Witness the Mazda BT-50, which is actually a Ford Ranger in disguise. In
Southeast Asia, Mazda light trucks are probably the most popular Ford vehicles
on the road.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_BT-50](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_BT-50)

Ford and Mazda vehicles are manufactured in Thailand by a single company:

[https://www.autoalliance.co.th/en/about_product.php](https://www.autoalliance.co.th/en/about_product.php)

~~~
maxerickson
Mazda selling vehicles produced under a joint venture with Ford is not the
same thing as Ford having another brand.

------
yitchelle
As aside, I watched "A faster horse" documentary on Netflix a couple of months
ago. It is a documentary on the evolution and the design of the 2015 Ford
Mustang. The passion of getting a car from concept through to Job1 is
infectious.

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3762974/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3762974/)

------
bound008
does anyone else want to talk about the elephant in the room? the eMate 300
sitting next to a HTC Vive VR Headset?

~~~
wwweston
If you see one of those these days, it's quite likely attached to someone who
thinks pretty carefully about their tools.

If that doesn't make a lot of sense, consider this: it's a general purpose
computing device with a suite of acceptable productivity software (and third
party ecosystem) that gets over 24 hours of battery life off of 4 AAs. Very
useful for head-down writing/thinking.

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r00fus
>Patel: Are you going to want them to design cars? Fields: No

Not sure how they're going to focus on software without integrating that with
car design, maybe it's the whole "FordPay" allusion that was made later but
this just seems not integrated or solution-driven enough to compete with
Telsa, Google, Apple or Uber.

Just seems like Ford wants it's finger in all pies.

------
elbelcho
Honda is doing something somewhat similar:
[https://www.hondasvl.com/](https://www.hondasvl.com/)

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aerovistae
The new Ford: Tesla.

~~~
r00fus
'cept they're not going to design cars.

~~~
aerovistae
Yeah, I meant Tesla is the new Ford.

------
mathattack
It's very hard to believe that Ford will be able to compete for talent with
the hottest startups in Silicon Valley. Would someone really take a position
there over a similar one at Google, Apple or Uber? Or a smaller startup?

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
Absolutely. Working on auto-related stuff would be far more interesting to me
than any of those three you mentioned.

~~~
dagw
_Absolutely. Working on auto-related stuff would be far more interesting to me
than any of those three you mentioned._

Sure, but the question here is would you rather work on auto-related stuff at
Ford or Apple? Admittedly I have no idea what Apple is up to, but I do know
from a couple of acquaintances working in the car industry that they've
recently interviewed a ton of automotive engineers.

~~~
JorgeGT
> Sure, but the question here is would you rather work on auto-related stuff
> at Ford or Apple?

Ford, of course. Where my manager and my manager's manager and so on know
about the technical aspects of automobile development, facilities for
automobile-specific testing (engine test cells, turbocharger test cells, wind
tunnels, anechoic chambers, etc.) are available, experienced technicians can
advise me...

~~~
dagw
_Ford, of course._

Given how many engineers I know of whom have left traditional car companies to
go work for automotive 'startups' it seems that they have a real problem
holding on to talent despite the advantages you mentioned.

~~~
JorgeGT
Well, automotive engineering is a very big field involving lots of disciplines
(mechanics, combustion, modelling, NVH, design, aerodynamics, etc.) so I
assume it heavily depends on what you like to do :)

------
lucio
Sun: "We want to become a software company". It didn't go well

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vernie
I can barely contain my excitement. MyFord Touch is a masterpiece.

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lowglow
If they really wanted to affect change within the company, they'd make bolder
decisions with upper management to change the core of the company from within
and up top.

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altotrees
So, perhaps a silly question...but if Ford is going to be competing for the
best talent Silicon Valley has to offer, will they establish a stronger
presence in the region?

I am not trying to knock Detroit or Dearborn, but it seems like they would
need to do this. Maybe I missed it in the article. I think it would be kind of
hard (even given the cost of living) to get top talent to migrate from, say
Cupertino, to Dearborn en masse.

~~~
nols
They have a presence in Palo Alto, and it's expanding.

~~~
altotrees
Really? I did not even realize this, and I spend time in the region. Do you
know how much expansion they are planning on?

edit: aside from the Innovation Center/Lab.

