Fords

Transportation

Talent from Rivian, Tesla, and Apple Flourishes in Ford’s Mysterious Low-Cost EV Initiative

There has been a lot of recent chaos in the world of electric vehicles, and Ford has capitalized on it to build out its secretive low-cost EV team. It also hired around 10 employees from Lucid Motors, and a handful from Apple’s recently disbanded EV team known as Project Titan. The company declined to respond to specific questions about how it’s building out the team, which is known internally as Ford Advanced EV. It also noted that some of the work being done by Ford Advanced EV could be applied to other efforts across the company, not necessarily just to the low-cost EV project. “The Ford Advanced EV team is part of a global effort to build focused technology and product development teams local to the best talent centers.

Ava Patel
June 12, 2024

Enterprise, Startups, Transportation

“Examining the Resurgence of Cruise Robotaxis and the Controversy Surrounding Ford’s BlueCruise on TechCrunch Mobility”

TechCrunch Mobility: Cruise robotaxis return and Ford’s BlueCruise comes under scrutiny Plus, a Faraday Future whistleblower case and humanoid robots in car factoriesWelcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. It was another wild week in the world of transportation, particularly in the EV startup and automated driving industries. Exoes, a French-based startup that developed battery cooling technology for EVs, raised €35 million ($37.5 million) from BpiFrance and Meridiam Green Impact Growth Fund. Both former employees have filed lawsuits claiming the troubled EV company has been lying about some of the few sales it has announced to date.

Max Chen
April 14, 2024
1 Comment

Uncategorized

Texas Crash Fatality Occurred While Ford’s BlueCruise System Was Engaged

The driver of a Mustang Mach-E who crashed into a stationary car in Texas in February was using Ford’s hands-free driver assistance system, BlueCruise, according to data obtained by the National Transportation Safety Board. It’s the first known fatality resulting from a crash involving the use of BlueCruise, which Ford first announced in 2021. The NTSB’s announcement that BlueCruise was active during the Texas crash comes just one day after the safety board announced it’s probing a second fatal crash near Philadelphia where Ford’s driver assistance system may have been active. The NTSB released on Thursday what’s known as a preliminary report, and is still investigating the crash. NHTSA is also probing the Texas crash, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Dylan Williams
April 11, 2024

Transportation

“Embarking on an Electric Expedition: Ford and Tesla Superchargers Unite”

Less than a year ago, every automaker and EV charging company operating in the United States used the Combined Charging System (CCS). Six months later, Ford announced a deal to that would give owners of Ford EVs access to Tesla Superchargers. Within nine months every major automaker selling vehicles in the United States has agreed to the Tesla charging standard, with many committing to integrate the technology within their next-generation vehicles. Tesla owners have long enjoyed sole access to the network and newcomers may put pressure on an already popular charging network. Ford executives were quick to note in a briefing with reporters that not every Tesla Supercharger will be accessible to Ford owners.