Ford Motor Co. has intensified its rivalry with Uber. While both companies are competitors in the autonomous vehicle segment, Ford has heightened this rivalry with its acquisition of ride-sharing startup Chariot.
The company has launched a bus and bike sharing under its Ford Smart Mobility unit. Ford plans to expand the program to five more cities in the coming months.
Ford is collaborating with bike sharing company Motivate to expand the reach its service in San Francisco. The company has named its initiative Ford GoBike. According to Forbes, the company is also looking to modify its FordPass app to accommodate bike sharers. The changes are likely to take place by 2017. The app was initially designed for Ford car owners.
Ford expects to have 7,000 bikes on the road by 2018 and is working with city officials and Motivate to reach this goal. Motivate currently has 700 bikes available under its Bay Area Bike Share program.
Ford has also acquired Chariot, which offers shuttle service to users in in San Francisco. The startup uses Ford Transit vans for its operations. Chariot offers a ride-sharing service similar to Lyft and Uber, but it charges as low as $3 per one-way ride. The company has preset routes but adjusts its timings and pickup points according to demands.
TechCrunch reported that Ford is looking to expand its presence in both the auto segment as well as in the mobility segment.