I’m at the skunkworks, and since the Doug news broke, the mood has shifted pretty noticeably. A lot of us feel like the clock is ticking. Once Farley’s out, we lose our last real advocate for keeping this operation in California, Alan Clarke aside, but Dearborn’s not going to fight for us. I’m expecting a mass exodus, and the wild part is they haven’t even finished the Long Beach construction. We all know what Blue Oval City represents, so nothing feels off the table right now.
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Stop with the EV being main plate.
Ford needs to get their house inline with making vehicles that people want at a lower cost. Stop depending on Goverment hand outs and CEO's political views!!!
Post ID: @m7+1kpkmck7p
Don't people realize that new ideas, new technology, new ways of doing business are not instantaneous in payoff? That's not how real life works. You must be patient. These investments were made on sound business plans. Skunkworks is a prime example. The payoff will come when the products and services are available to our customers.
It's turning into a disaster. Billy and Jimi should be removed!!!
Supervision, LL6, LL5+ .... incompetent old and new.
Such a d-mb company who will never learn with ego's large old and new.
Doggy keep burning the money, from FNV4 to SkunkC..P keeps burning and never stops.
Latitude just picks up the scraps from ADAS and calls it their own work. I honestly don't think they are even capable of delivering a better version of the existing blue cruise feature. It's always just a long list of demands and excuses by their TPMs to hog SO attention
@fx +1 for latitude to F off. Still don’t understand how a LL2 can own his own company and have no conflict of interests
If CE1 is supposed to be the future, then we should have heard other programs using the platform by now. Even FNV4 had several programs lined up to use it at this stage. But we should've heard screaming by now by project managers missing their deadlines.
No mention by KG to the downstream teams to pick up the work done by CE1 and incorporate into our future.
If you are only working on a vehicle for CE1 and not a platform (for future vehicles), then you should be worried.
I'd even venture to say CE1 itself isn't sustainable. But there are too many big reputations on the line to "wordsmith" this one into cancellation. It will be delayed no doubt, which it should, but I cannot see it being cancelled. It would make sense to delay it given the ask that the team running it gets merged with another organization. I don't see how the same schedules can be maintained while expecting Kumar's group to absorb the responsibility. Then again, nothing this management team has done for the last 5 years had made much sense (save for a precious few things) so it really doesn't seem to matter.
@OP this is the beginning of the end, when they decide to pull up stakes in California and move CE1 to Dearborn, maybe they will offer you a transfer. Writing is on the wall, not sustainable at the current trajectory and Doug’s firing should be a wake up call.
This is one of those situations where we really have no direction forward even though the current direction is "plow forward". Of course it is...what are they expected to say? Skunks works primary advocate is now gone and Kumar has to decide what he's going to do with it. What do you think? Look for more trimming of labor which is most certainly going to happen. On the flip side, look for more folding back into Ford process which will repel more skunkworks people since there will be less autonomy and more actual manufacturing rules to follow. Some will see that as a positive and some a negative. If you are going to make it at Ford you cannot care one way or the other. just watch out for the people that see you as a shield to throw under the bus before it runs them over. They'll be a lot of that happening.
Any word on when they'll cut Latitude AI free?
Dude....it's basically over. Give it a rest already. People are starting to stare.
@fa But as Bill said, "He cares, and you can't put a price on that."
Post ID: @f7+1kpkmck7p
What are you talking about?!? Model e remains the most important business unit in Ford as does its products. Skunkworks is a critical team that Ford must have for the creativity and dynamic it brings while being located in the heart of the California tech hub.
If you missed the Town Hall today, I recommend you watch it as soon as you can.
@f7 Farley finally saw the matrix? Farley is the matrix, his bad decisions got us here, thinking Ford - an American truck manufacturer could turn into a Software/EV Tesla company in a few years. I wasn't much of a fan of Hackett either, but damn at least he had some ideas about competitive advantage.... Farley doesn't seem to understand business.
Doug’s out. First of many. Restructuring is coming people, exits, forced or not. The Model e experiment is done. Farley finally saw the matrix.
Well now here is an honest take that makes sense.
You stated the primary obstruction to progress right here. What is expected when these are the constraints? You can have an organization be "separate" but still work in the same direction. The apparent lack of structure was taken to the extreme here. Of course move fast and break things. But at least an understanding of Ford processes should have been in order so when people from Dearborn ask questions, there is at least some familiarity. I'd be evaluating your options too. I don't blame you one bit as it's only responsible to do so.
I’ve been part of the Advanced EV team since 2023. The organizational disconnect between our group and Dearborn is significant and well-documented internally. There’s a visible tension around the CE1 program that has made cross-functional collaboration difficult, and in some cases, non-existent.
Leadership communication has been a persistent issue, directives were frequently unclear, inconsistent, or withheld, which made it difficult to operate within standard Ford processes. Onboarding and training were minimal; the expectation was largely to self-navigate from day one.
When I accepted the role, I expected to be integrated into Ford’s broader engineering organization. In practice, the team operates quite separately, with its own cultural dynamics that don’t always reflect the company’s stated values. The internal friction and lack of organizational cohesion have made this a difficult environment to thrive in, and I’m actively evaluating my options.
Skunkworks as a separate entity with NDA has been nothing but disruptive in the worst possible way. An illusion breeding resentment and failure due to lack of communication. All of these fringe and separated activities need shutdown and focus needs to return to Dearborn.
Such activities (with people off working under NDAs) have happened time and again over the years and always, always, always fail to produce.
@cm Incompetence being touted as revolutionary. Yes, I have had to point out that a vehicle needs headlights.
100x this. Being asked to help and then summarily being told that your ways are the old ways makes helping that much harder. Maybe next time the "old help" should be brought in a little earlier so they can educate way before things get hot. Constant scrambling and panic is no way to run an engineering organization. Mistakes get made more often, people don't have time to think about what their doing or fix things that are wrong.
The amount they've been paying you folks, us old timers shouldn't have been having to hold your hands so much. There were times you about doubled my workload.
Ford does this every 5-6 years. I remember when they hired bunch of people in '16-'17 to work on AVs... Outside talent, Top pay, fancy buildings, snacks... All to shut everything down after 3 years and put it under old timers. In Ford if your product isn't going on an F-150 you're pretty disposable.
Well since Farley bet the whole company on you all out there and compared it to the Apollo program.... At some point the excuses will have to stop. But before that someone will have to get a handle on the expectations. You saw it happen with FNV4, someone waits until the very last instant - knowing at least a few cycles before what will happen, but meanwhile engineering organizations are in a panic trying to make sure the wrath doesn't come down on them or if it does they have another group they can re-direct it to as the problem. Amazing how it happens all over again.
@ag you’ve been there 8 months… you’ll be lucky to see one of the products you worked on make it to the market. Based on recent news, outlook is not too promising.
“Once farley’s out” ?
Is this speculation or do you know something for certain?
Appreciate the comment
I’ve been here for about 8 months and against popular opinion, feel this operation is still growing and will flourish in due time. The recent reorg is just a minor speed bump in the grand scheme of things. Morale will continue to improve as the new products roll off the line and the customers give their praise as to the results of all of our hard work.
Here’s looking towards an electrifying future!!
@OP I've worked with a lot of you Skunkworks folk for the past year or so (I'm in Dearborn), wishing you all the best.
CA is junk + high ego
Hate to break it to you in case you haven't been with Ford long. Every so many decades, some Ford or Lincoln exec tries to set themselves up in CA. The story is the same. They spend tons of money making lots of promises. Doug is out because the money tap is being shut off. Alan is there to do the dirty work of drawing down and making cuts with hopes he can last long enough to get into Ford core or find something else. Like in previous times they will cut the majority of people and the ones left will do some vague work.