Ford and Google to accelerate auto innovation and reinvent connected vehicle experience

On February 1, Ford and Google announced a unique strategic partnership to accelerate Ford’s transformation and reinvent the connected vehicle experience. Ford has also named Google Cloud its preferred cloud provider to leverage Google’s world-class expertise in data, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML). As part of this new, six-year partnership - and beginning in 2023 - millions of future Ford and Lincoln vehicles at all price points will be powered by Android, with Google apps and services built-in. To drive ongoing innovation, Ford and Google are establishing a new collaborative group, Team Upshift. Leveraging the talent and assets of both companies, Team Upshift will push the boundaries of Ford’s transformation, unlock personalised consumer experiences, and drive disruptive, data-driven opportunities. This may include projects ranging from developing new retail experiences when buying a vehicle, creating new ownership offers based on data, and more. “As Ford continues the most profound transformation in our history with electrification, connectivity and self-driving, Google and Ford coming together establish an innovation powerhouse truly able to deliver a superior experience for our customers and modernise our business,” said Jim Farley, President and CEO of Ford. “From the first moving assembly line to the latest driver-assist technology, Ford has set the pace of innovation for the automotive industry for nearly 120 years,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet. “We’re proud to partner to apply the best of Google’s AI, data analytics, compute and cloud platforms to help transform Ford’s business and build automotive technologies that keep people safe and connected on the road.” As its preferred cloud provider and starting later this year, Google will help Ford leverage Google Cloud’s AI, ML and data analytics technologies to accelerate the automaker’s digital transformation, modernise operations, and power connected vehicle technologies with Google’s trusted, secure, and reliable cloud. With Google Cloud, Ford plans to further improve customer experiences for customers with differentiated technology and personalised services, accelerate modernisation of product development, manufacturing and supply chain management, including exploration of using vision AI for manufacturing employee training and even more reliable plant equipment performance, and fast track the implementation of data-driven business models resulting in customers receiving real-time notices such as maintenance requests or trade-in alerts.