Ford CEO named by Newsweek as one of "World's Greatest Auto Disruptors"

[whynot]

If you hate EV and believe that ICE are the way of the future, turn away, close your eyes and put your fingers in your ears ...

For our inaugural awards honoring the World's Greatest Auto Disruptors, Newsweek is honoring individuals and companies that are using technology to drive transformative change in the industry. What all of our winners have in common: They are in the forefront of the movement to bring the cars of today into the digital future, and are doing so in ways that benefit both consumers and their companies' bottom lines.

[snip]

EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR
Jim Farley

President and CEO, Ford Motor Company

Ford president and CEO Jim Farley's grandfather worked on the line that built the Model T more than 100 years ago. Now Farley has been tasked with advancing the Ford family legacy of auto disruption and innovation into the twenty-first century by moving the company to the forefront of the industry's digital future.

The steps taken in 2021 to push Ford forward toward this goal, blending the company's storied history with goals around sustainability and digital innovation, are why Farley is Newsweek's Auto Disruptors Executive of the Year.

Farley has introduced electric vehicles starting with iconic nameplates: Ford Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning and Lincoln Zephyr. Those models can be modified without stops at dealerships. Their connected technologies allow for digital range, suspension and handling upgrades wirelessly.

"This digital transformation has ripped its way through business and, after years of talking about it, it's finally arrived in our industry. I think Tesla deserves a lot of credit for their acknowledgment of the shift more than 10 years ago," Farley tells Newsweek. "We call that 'Always On' at Ford. You're always improving the product, you're always talking to the customer. It's not this episodic thing when you buy a car and if something breaks you go to the dealership—those days are over."

Interconnectedness is key. "For us, 'Always On' means that yes, it's a digital powertrain with electrons but, more importantly, the electrical architecture shifts to an embedded system like the phones," Farley says, holding up his Apple iPhone.

To gain insight into the process, Farley talked to the chief executives of General Electric and Sysco, big companies also going through digital transformations. "They all had the same drumbeat," he says. "During the transition, supply chain becomes really important. And don't ask your team to do too many things. That really resonated with me."

Those conversations led to a fresh way of doing business at Ford, including the launch of two new divisions: Ford Blue and Ford Model e, which work separately to innovate current (Blue) and future (Model e) products. It's part of a push to disrupt the industry quickly.

"Watching my team struggle with this change to digital product," Farley says, "it became very clear to me and the leadership team that the only way to make this go faster, and to catch up to where customers already are, is to create an innovation team."

Rest of the article and the complete list of other disrupters is available on the Newsweek web site.

[Falcon SXR8]

"Interconnectedness is key. "For us, 'Always On' means that yes, it's a digital powertrain with electrons but, more importantly, the electrical architecture shifts to an embedded system like the phones," Farley says, holding up his Apple iPhone."

Wow I can't wait to have more apple inspired crap in my life........

[Bossxr8]

They are going all in, but ultimately it will be the consumer who decides how it will turn out. But you have to be in it to win it, and holding back to see what happens won't end well for the ones who do it. But at least they are realistic with this and have admitted that they need to keep a foot in each camp until the times comes where they may need to choose one.

[xr8territory]

I recently watched a US Automotive Youtube podcast by a father and son - cant recall the name. But they stated the future EV cars from Ford would be sold online only. You could pick them up at a dealer but the transaction was online only. Happening soon apparently.

[xr8territory]

I think they mentioned Ford dividing the company between ICE and EV. Ive had a few glasses of vino so the details escape. apologies

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Falcon SXR8

"Interconnectedness is key. "For us, 'Always On' means that yes, it's a digital powertrain with electrons but, more importantly, the electrical architecture shifts to an embedded system like the phones," Farley says, holding up his Apple iPhone."

Wow I can't wait to have more apple inspired crap in my life........

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

Everyone in here seems to misinterpret the article as adding features rather than updating architecture that the hardware in their computer system use, it's nothing to do with locking you out of your car and having to pay the manufacturer if you buy a second hand car, they could do that already of they wanted.

It's about them using 15 year old architecture that the manufacturers are reluctant to provide manufacturing capability towards, because the only people requesting it are the car manufacturers.

Maybe that running all the systems in a car have such low processing power requirements that they don't need to move to updated silicone? Could there be improvements in better, faster hardware or once we went to sequential injection and ignition, that was the end of the efficiency improvements for ICE?

Could there be a cost saving if they switched to say the 'system on a chip' design that phone manufacturers use?

There was obviously a change when cars went to OBDII standards and particularly CAN - the amount of 'live data' you can monitor with a diagnostic scanner on a modern car is nuts, and that's with old technology.

https://fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=11491642

Feels like we've discussed this in the past on this forum

Apple is an interesting case, they've started doing their own silicone in house.

[Crazy Dazz]

"Interconnectedness is key. "For us, 'Always On' means that yes, it's a digital powertrain with electrons but, more importantly, the electrical architecture shifts to an embedded system like the phones," Farley says, holding up his Apple iPhone."

WTF has that got to do with the price of Vegemite?

[simon varley]

Originally Posted by xr8territory

I think they mentioned Ford dividing the company between ICE and EV. Ive had a few glasses of vino so the details escape. apologies

this is True. Ford Blue and Ford Model e

[simon varley]

from the inside, Farley is pretty good. Maybe not so much as Mullaly, but a million times better than that ex furniture salesman