Ford joins forces with Google for its cloud-based tech

Ford and Google have announced that they've signed a new deal for a six-year partnership that will see the tech giant's Android operating system introduced to all Ford vehicles from 2023.

As part of the arrangement, the US car-maker will offer owners built-in apps that include its Google Maps and natural-speak voice control.

Ford will also be able to use Google's latest artificial intelligence tech that is claimed will improve everything from a vehicle's development to the supply chain and actual manufacturing of vehicles in a bid to boost efficiency and cut costs.

If that's not advantageous enough for the Blue Oval, Google's Team Upshift will help it harness the power of its data generated from sales, with Ford set to develop new services and ownership offers.

The owners' data will not be handed over to either Google or its advertisers, Ford stressed to investors in a conference call.

Ford’s Australian-based Asia-Pacific Product Development Centre, which is responsible for developing the Ford Ranger and derivatives and a host of other global vehicles not sold here, said the partnership would directly benefit the local operations.

Melbourne-based Ford engineering director Con Papadomanolakis said: “This new partnership will give our customers digital experiences in their vehicles that they already have on their phones as the platform will continually update products and services wirelessly over time.

“As a customer, your experience up until now is that your vehicle tech gradually become obsolete, but with this partnership, new apps will provide a constantly improving and ever-more-personalised ownership experience.”

Papadomanolakis said the 2500-strong team in Australia is responsible for developing “world-class global vehicles – and connectivity is an ever-growing part of that development”.

“We’ll keep prioritising the growth and development of our Australian team to support and benefit from these exciting new technologies,” he said.

“We expect this partnership to accelerate our Australian team’s abilities so that we can become world leaders in the auto-tech space, and to have that kind of skill in Australia is incredibly valuable not just for Ford but for Australia overall.”

The move to bed Google is seen by the industry as a move by Ford to press 'fast-forward' on introducing software and data services that will provide a future revenue source for the car-maker, while slashing costs.

Senior execs at the Michigan auto-maker also hope that the alliance with Google will help narrow the gap between it and Tesla when it comes to software, the data management needed for connected and pure-electric vehicles.

Teaming up with a tech giant has become a new trend in recent history. Last year Amazon announced a partnership with Toyota while back in 2019 Volkswagen announced it was working with Microsoft to develop cloud computing for an automotive application.