Ford’s 'iTunes for cars' on the way

The Fordpass smartphone app announced at the Detroit auto show last month  is on the agenda for local introduction. And in the language of the internet, Ford Australia says it wants to be a “fast follower”.

The Blue Oval says the ‘mobility platform’ aims to do for car owners what iTunes did for music lovers. It launches in the USA in April, quickly followed by Europe, China and Brazil.

Freely available to Ford car owners and non-owners alike, services will include operator assistance (FordGuides), car parking and car sharing services. Car servicing will also be able to be booked through Fordpass and payment made via the ‘FordPay’ virtual wallet.

“I reckon we can be an enabler in that space,” Ford Australia president Graeme Whickman told motoring.com.au.

“I think the technology is there to support it, so I would like to be a fast follower.

“But there is nothing to announce as yet.”

Other aspects of Fordpass include partnerships with McDonald’s and 7-Eleven to provide member rewards and Fordhub ‘mini-dealerships’ that will open progressively in New York, London, Shanghai and San Francisco.

The Fordhubs are designed to showcase the company’s latest innovations and were cited by a Whickman as suitable for Australia’s heavily urbanised centres such as Sydney.

“Most people don’t realise Australia is such a heavily urbanised country,” he said.

“They think of Australia in a different context.

“We actually could be a very strong recipient of some of the things that are being talked about and launched.

“There are a lot of value streams that consumers can get and we can be part of as well.”

In the USA Fordpass members will have access to mobility services including ParkWhiz and Parkopedia that help people find and pay for parking, and FlightCar, which enables people to borrow and share vehicles when they travel.

Future services will include ride sharing, car sharing and multimodal transport.

Whickman rejected the suggestion that taking on Fordpass would be an unnecessary additional responsibility for the local division of the company, which is fighting the worst sales slump in its modern history and will close its local factories and kill the Falcon nameplate this October.

“Yeah, we have a lot on our plate, but at the same time I’d like us as a team to push ourselves as much as we can into areas of innovation.

“If we think about innovation, we traditionally talk to you guys about proving grounds, the number of engineers, the level of dollar investment. But that shouldn’t stop us from innovating in other areas; we are trying to innovate in customer experience. We have already told you about that and this is a natural extension.”

Whickman received the full brief on Fordpass and Fordhub while in the USA for the Detroit auto show.

The big ticket item at the show, Fordpass was the subject of ongoing media workshops over the next two days. The product  was presented by global president Mark Fields as another step in the company’s “transformation” from a car company into an auto and mobility company.

In the past, Ford has announced similar new-tech ventures at Detroit. As far back as 2000 it announced a venture with Yahoo!

Whickman has first hand experience of this area, having been involved in internet and data base development when he was customer relationship manager at Ford of Great Britain in the early 2000s.

“I think it’s the right time for the company, I think it’s the right time for the consumer and I think it’s the right time for the technology,” he said.

“I have seen in lots of industries where people have tried some things and the company wasn’t at the right time or the technology didn’t enable it or the consumer wasn’t interested.

“I truly believe right now consumers are very interested around how do you make their life a little bit more efficient or easier,” he stated.