So the much ballyhooed Ford GoRide patient transportation system was developed, expanded to five cities, then shut down six months later. How many $millions would you guess were wasted on this?
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GoRide is now DOA
https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2019/12/06/ford-goride-medical-service/2601670001/
Let the layoffs begin at Mobility
I agree that innovation and success require some failure. As the saying goes... people who say they’ve never failed likely haven’t done very much. But, at some point you have to realize that a venture isn’t going well, learn from your mistakes and either adjust course or abandon the effort. It appears that mobility continues to move forward without significant successes but isn’t learning and adjusting. It certainly isn’t going well enough to claim Ford is a mobility company.
Tonto say;
If shareholder don't like direction of car company A why not invest as shareholder of car company Z.
Shareholders don’t need to “start a car company” to have a horse in this race.
"How many $millions would you guess were wasted on this?"
Maybe you could start a car company and make these decisions rather than criticizing everything that does not turn out well.
Not really sure how they spun this service as innovative or thought it could generate revenue. Anyone with a car and uber can do this.
I agree that it usually takes some failures to achieve success. I’ve not seen anything close to success out of Ford X or SmartMobility. And yes, they copied the X from Musk. They are just wasting over a billion dollars per year.
I would say failures are ok if there are successes. Elon Musk had failures.
The problem I see is lack of successes, FordX needs one soon! Otherwise it will be the butt of many jokes. Did they name if FordX because of Musk's SpaceX?
Ford remains dependant on its one big success, the F-150. They need new winners to protect the future.