from the car’s embedded modem to the cloud without the need for additional third-party hardware, Jelenic says. Fleets can access information such as GPS location, fuel use data, mileage, service alerts, driver behavior, and more. Ford has service agreements with Verizon Connect, Geotab, and Spireon, so fleet operators have a choice in telematics service providers, he adds.
“There’s no longer the need to worry about plug-in devices for Ford vehicles, which can be hard to update and easy to uninstall,” Jelenic explains. “It takes away a lot of the headache and cost for our partners and gives them access to [automaker]-grade data.”
The second new product from Ford Commercial Solutions is for fleets owned by law enforcement agencies, Jelenic says—a market that Ford dominates. The company is proud of its long history servicing police forces, which Jelenic describes as an example of where Ford “really gets it right. We realized we can take new connective capabilities and build something specific for them.”
Ford’s new law enforcement fleet tool uses information directly collected from vehicles and distills it into insights specific to law enforcement that Jelenic says can help improve efficiency and safety.
“It can monitor the health of fleets in real time and track emissions and wasted fuel,” he says. “It can also help to coach drivers on safety when they’re not in pursuit.”
Jelenic says Ford believes fully autonomous vehicles will first hit the market as part of commercial fleets. Its Transportation Mobility Cloud is being built by Autonomic, which Ford acquired in January, but it will be available to other automakers, engineers, and software developers, he notes. The open-source cloud will manage information flow and basic transactions among a variety of entities in the transportation ecosystem—service providers, vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, mass transit systems, and city infrastructure—so that “everyone will speak the same language and communicate.”
By offering an interoperable data platform to other automakers, Ford seems to hope to corner the market early. This desire to collaborate openly is still new to the traditionally hyper-competitive car industry, but Jelenic sees it from a rising-tide-lifts-all-boats perspective.
“Our products can help their customers get more out of their businesses,” he says. “All are looking to rapidly innovate and change.”
