Ford Motor begins experimental 'smart shuttle service' for employees

One of the objective is digitisation of the entire transport eco-system

US-based automobile company Ford Motor has begun an experimental ‘smart shuttle service’ for its employees at the production unit in Chennai.

Similar experiments elsewhere, it says, have succeeded in cutting the usage of personal vehicles by staffersmart Mobility business in the country. Ford Smart Mobility, the term it has given for this, was apparently able to reduce the number of cars by 15-20 in America and 2-25 in Shanghai for every 12-14 seat shuttle vehicle – all managed digitally. 

Three years down the line, said Mahadevan Ramamurthy, country director for the programme at Ford Motor, it could see wider implementation. The company already has agreements with local bodies in Mumbai, Indore and Hyderabad for smart mobility solutions.

"We are trying to create a digital experience for our employees, on for a few weeks now. The response is good so far," he said. The company has about 10,000 employees in India.

In Indore, the company has been talking to transport operators. The city has a bus service, with some full and some empty at the same time, it says. Ford is looking at ways to optimise these, via digital methods. “The effort is to understand the legacy problems and coming up with solutions that are relevant,” said Ramamurthy. 

Similar work is on at Mumbai and Hyderabad. The idea is to arrive at a model which could be replicated elsewhere.

"We have been a mobility company for 115 years, satisfying mobility through cars and vehicles. But, mobility is not only cars and vehicles. Two years back, we have said we are in a mission to look at the mobility business in a broader sense, to liberate the human journey. In some places, you see buses to one way are crowded and people hanging out from the doors, while buses on the other side ply empty. How can we use digital data to help manage this more efficiently? All stakeholders need to come in," he added.

The company has a technology centre in this city, the second largest outside America. Where data scientists and information technology experts work on various models The company provides data and the experts are to come up with solutions for a city, using algorithms. These will help a city to identify the methods to optimise transportation, based on movement of people at peak times.  Where cities do not have the data, the company is working with the authorities to collect this. 

The objective is also digitisation of the entire transport eco-system.  

"At present, every time you plan a journey, you plan for each individual separately. There is an opportunity to plan the whole thing upfront. It need not be public transport. The Indian population is young and people are tech-savvy. We can’t put infrastructure as the answer for all these problems. It has to be an optimisation infrastructure and has to come from technology," said Ramamurthy.

The company has invested in machine learning and artificial intelligence, too, in this regard.