Sure Ford can throw some money at a few labs and occasionally turn something into a product. Spending money on R&D doesn't make you a software company.
I wish them the best.
At least in what I've seen, Ford is one of the few mass-production car makers doing some pretty interesting stuff.
That sort of system, while important, is not particularly complicated or advanced though. The tech been employed in various forms for over a decade, I don't see the software implementation as evidence of competency within ford.
In hindsight on the whole comment, though, I'm probably just pleased with Ford right now because I'm quite impressed with the Focus RS, but that certainly doesn't prove that their leadership is strong.
2. It's a 1k deposit. I just purchased a car last year, otherwise I probably would have put down 1k on the chance I do decide to buy a Tesla.
A deposit isn't needed. It's a silly comparison anyway as the Tesla is an entirely new thing, vs already established.
A better comparison would be if 5 years from Tesla announced a new major revision of the model 3 (similar to what ford did with the F-150 this last year) and got 200k orders immediately.
now all this being said, if Ford announced a brand new electric vehicle tomorrow with similar specs/price as the Tesla I really doubt they could get preorders like this.
All I'm saying is there seems to be a pretty big difference in whats easily and cheaply possible and what the status quo auto industry execs have been doing. A good example is every single car at this point should come with a touch screen head unit and a not-invented-here operating system on it. Traditionally all these execs believe that such a thing should cost thousands of dollars in upgrades either by model class or just the configuration itself. Few seem to realize they can easily generate 10x the revenue with software features and upgrades than they can with the hardware feature upgrade itself. The cost difference is pretty negligible... but the status quo gives them far less potential.
It's far worse than that. The top phone manufacturers before Apple were Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, and Blackberry.
These transitions are wrecking entire fields of players. It's not enough to avoid becoming the next Nokia, you have to sprint like hell and pray to Jesus, Allah, and Vishnu that you can become the next Samsung.
And unless you have a major government behind you, odds are you're not the next Samsung.
Chrysler and GM both went bankrupt during the financial crisis. Ford didn't. It's by far the best run car company in North America.
I'd say that it's the new necessity for any large-scale operation. Software (and tech overall) is integrated into everything, and relegating it to an expense column is increasingly a mistake in any enterprise.
I do this for a living (teach Fortune 500 to make software like SV). The culture change is immensely hard and most organizations flat out cannot make the change. They will see more nimble competitors emerge, margins will shrink, then they'll consolidate, and continue to seek regulatory protection via lobbyists.
Unfortunately software is also fastest moving and most labor intensive of all components, it is also permeated across business. So you have to build a culture for it. So a company moving earlier will have key advantage over a company trying to acquire software and its culture at last moment.
We have seen it happen earlier in industries, and it will keep on happening. Will Ford be able to pull it up a question, but there is no other road to take.
Something else to consider. Tesla sold about 50k model S last year. Ford sold that many F-150s, in a month.
I mentioned maybe a Subaru? A few weeks went by, and through an email she said she wanted a new F-150. She, is I belive in her 70's. She always lied about her age, so I don't know her exact age.
I just thought it was a strange pick. Ford is doing someting right with that truck. I asked her why, and she said she liked the aluminum body. I think it has more to do with just the ride height? She's small in stature.
I've always liked the f-150, but went away from Ford when I realized I can put 250,000 on a Toyota.