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This is why Ford is on a hiring spree for software developers and why they restored the old train station in Detroit to give them a cool place to work. Farley
by rmason 2y ago
This is why Ford is on a hiring spree for software developers and why they restored the old train station in Detroit to give them a cool place to work. Farley believes that it is a strategic advantage for the only other car company writing all their own software and that's Tesla.
- nunez 2y agoSure, but if they pay their devs below market and constrain them to traditional corporate tomfoolery (Macs, but locked down; week-long waits to install software; Gantt chart project management; no engineering-driven career tracks; etc), then I doubt they'll go far. This is what GM did when they absorbed Cruise, and people, correctly, left in droves
- Kon-Peki 2y agoFord has a suite of connected software services for commercial vehicles called Ford Pro. It has been generating billions in profit for years. They know how to develop software.
- nunez 2y agoPerhaps they do for B2B scenarios where competition is thinner and they are fewer options, but their B2C showings (FordPass, myFordMobile before that for EVs, SYNC) is lacking. From this outsider's perspective, part of this is due to having a diverse, international catalog of vehicles; part of this is due to lacking vertical integration; and part of this still is due to software engineering being treated largely as a cost center (though I think this is changing)
- Kon-Peki 2y agoB2C is probably treated as a cost center because it is a cost center. Nobody wants to pay subscription fees for heated seats or navigation or audio or whatever. B2B is pulling in money hand over fist because fleet owners see value in the recurring monthly subscription. Wall Street analysts seem to think that many fleets buy Ford commercial vehicles for their SAAS offerings.