Ford is introducing some very innovative solutions at the end of 2015 and Q1 of next year, they call it “Ford Smart Mobility”.
Ford’s president Mark Fields explained during Ford’s annual “Further with Ford in Palo Alto” conference: “We’ve learned a lot during the last 6 months and we are ready for action. Our objective is to improve the people’s lives by making mobility easier throughout the day”.
So what is ford bringing to the table? You may ask. Well, it’s all about sharing and one of the services is literally called peer 2 peer car sharing.
This is a pilot program for selected users in six US and London cities. Around 26,000 users will be able to take advantage of a service that will let them “loan” their ford-financed vehicle to someone else for a short time during the day making a small profit that will lower the net cost of owning a vehicle per month.
Another nice update given by ford is called GoDrive which is another pilot program for car-sharing but with a twist. GoDrive provides its users with a fleet of vehicles for some specific routes in London. It currently has 50 vehicles dispersed around 20 locations with guaranteed parking space at any point, pay per minute as well as a choice of Electric Ford Focus cars with zero emissions for that extra green touch.
We think that sharing is a great way to reduce our overall carbon footprint, but what about the downsides? Some people are raising the question of illnesses being transported more easily through a shared vehicle rather than a privately owned one. That’s an easy one since buses already carry way more people and there is no pandemic going on anywhere.
One could postulate the argument of a forever-rented car not being as sexy as an owned one but, who cares? These are not cars for people to go on dates with. These are vehicles for the daily commuter who doesn’t feel like buying a car or cannot afford it; or for anybody who wants to save a few dollars in car maintenance long-term.
But, tell us what you think!