Ford is acquiring Chariot’s shuttle service of San Francisco to serve as both an auto and mobility company

As pressure from competition in the transportation space mounts, Ford CEO Mark Fields announced that now they are buying crowd-sourced shuttle company Chariot of San Francisco to turn the company into both “an auto and a mobility company”. They are also partnering with Motivate to expand the bike-sharing program that would bring 7,000 of “GoBikes” of Ford to the city.

Last year, at the Consumer Electronic Show, Field announced a number of experiments called the Ford Smart Mobility Program. And the purchase of Chariot will be the first acquisition for Ford’s Smart Mobility Program. The dynamic shuttle was tested in a number of cities. While the automaker has kept busy with both investment in companies like Velodyne and mapping startup Civil Maps.

It is a clear fact that Ford is trying to dominate as many parts of the transportation ecosystem as possible. Now Chariot only operates on 28 mostly fixed routes with close to 100 Ford Transit shuttles. Chariot’s team will be joining Ford’s Smart Mobility Program based out of San Francisco. To enhance this experience, more routes will be created as needed.

Ford developed an app called FordPass to suggests the best transportation option to get from point A to point B. Field told that Ford is trying to make their services the best option for all so that no-one can ignore them. For example, if it’s going to rain, we can send them a note that says ‘you should take the shuttle, and here’s an incentive to do that’.

2016 S-Class Mercedes: