Ford debuts a new model for mobility in smart cities

Looking at a whole city in harmony will optimize travel and decrease congestion, says Marcy Klevorn, president of mobility for Ford.

By Leah Brown | January 18, 2018, 6:00 AM PST

Different modes of transportation in cities—buses, trains, and cars—are optimized for their own journeys. At CES 2018, Ford's president of mobility, Marcy Klevorn, explained the company's new model for smart city mobility.

Nobody's thinking about piecing together the entire transportation journey for the benefit of the human on the journey, Klevorn said. Ford's new model would not only would decrease congestion but also increase the flow of a city.

In big cities, most people have to take multiple modes of transportation to get around, which can vary day-to-day based on a person's route, the weather, or time of day. "By using data...we can make the journey meaningful for you at that point in time," she said.

If a person has other errands, or if it's raining, Ford's new model will make decisions to optimize the best journey for a specific person based on their needs. "By looking at the whole city in harmony, the city wins because it helps the flow of the entire city," Klevorn added.

At CES, Klevorn also explained Ford's new open platform called Transportation Mobility Cloud for smart cities that provides developers with foundational elements allowing them to easily build new apps and services, as well as the company's new delivery service model that uses data that works together.

Also see