How the failed deal with Waymo left Ford in the lurch
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Re: How the failed deal with Waymo left Ford in the lurch
#2Interesting this website is "not secure". I remember that chrome was going to start doing this, but the first time I actually saw it happen.
Re: How the failed deal with Waymo left Ford in the lurch
#3Interesting this website is "not secure". I remember that chrome was going to start doing this, but the first time I actually saw it happen.
We had this issue on our sites for a short time; all in all, it was very effective at forcing a much higher business priority for the fix.
Re: How the failed deal with Waymo left Ford in the lurch
#4What is revealing is that a former office furniture CEO from sleepy West Michigan is apparently much more hip on Silicon Valley technology than the whole of Ford.
This is how entire industries get disintermediated.
Re: How the failed deal with Waymo left Ford in the lurch
#5What is revealing is that a former office furniture CEO from sleepy West Michigan is apparently much more hip on Silicon Valley technology than the whole of Ford. This is how entire industries get disintermediated.
Could have been understanding the culture as much as the tech. Cuts both ways though. Google isn't great at selling into non-tech Fortune 500 companies.
Re: How the failed deal with Waymo left Ford in the lurch
#6Disclaimer: I work for a Ford competitor, but have no first-hand knowledge of this deal.
I'm thinking about the concept of 'frenemies' and jumping to some unsupported conclusions.
In tech you may have a turnaround of weeks or months for some products. In automotive, you may plan a new vehicle for 5 years and then in some cases produce it for up to 10 years after that, and then continue to support that vehicle for 10 more years.
Also, automotive customers do not support the idea of moving quickly and breaking things (excepting some Tesla customers).
This leads to relationships like 'frenemies' not making much sense in auto manufacturing. If you can't trust the other party to be there for years, you don't start a relationship.
Now the mostly baseless speculation: It seems that Mark Fields felt that Ford brought a lot of value to a potential Ford-Google partnership. I assume Fields though Google would understand and value that as well, and it seems that Google did not value that, leading to misunderstanding and frustration.
Re: How the failed deal with Waymo left Ford in the lurch
#7Disclaimer: I work for a Ford competitor, but have no first-hand knowledge of this deal. I'm thinking about the concept of 'frenemies' and jumping to some unsupported conclusions. In tech you may have a turnaround of weeks or months for some products. In automotive, you may plan a new vehicle for 5 years and then in some cases produce it for up to 10 years after that, and then continue to support that vehicle for 10…
I don't know any serious business that embraces 'breaking things' when a bit more effort and time ensures that nothing gets broken.
Re: How the failed deal with Waymo left Ford in the lurch
#8Disclaimer: I work for a Ford competitor, but have no first-hand knowledge of this deal. I'm thinking about the concept of 'frenemies' and jumping to some unsupported conclusions. In tech you may have a turnaround of weeks or months for some products. In automotive, you may plan a new vehicle for 5 years and then in some cases produce it for up to 10 years after that, and then continue to support that vehicle for 10…
I don't know any serious business that embraces 'breaking things' when a bit more effort and time ensures that nothing gets broken.
It goes along with CEOs who wear T-shirts to work.
Re: How the failed deal with Waymo left Ford in the lurch
#9Disclaimer: I work for a Ford competitor, but have no first-hand knowledge of this deal. I'm thinking about the concept of 'frenemies' and jumping to some unsupported conclusions. In tech you may have a turnaround of weeks or months for some products. In automotive, you may plan a new vehicle for 5 years and then in some cases produce it for up to 10 years after that, and then continue to support that vehicle for 10…
I don't know any serious business that embraces 'breaking things' when a bit more effort and time ensures that nothing gets broken.
"move fast and break things" is not suppose to be taken literally, it's tongue in cheek. It means, "while you move fast, you can make mistakes, break things, learn from those mistakes, correct and deliver faster."
This is more understandable in software which is more disposable, but the same concept can still apply in other industries. It applies more in the research phase before development of the actual product.
Re: How the failed deal with Waymo left Ford in the lurch
#10What is revealing is that a former office furniture CEO from sleepy West Michigan is apparently much more hip on Silicon Valley technology than the whole of Ford. This is how entire industries get disintermediated.
The auto companies everywhere except Tesla are so far behind.
Lived in Detroit most of my life. When discussed, the big 3's problems get brushed away irrationally.
But it's worse than the future catching up with the auto companies. I feel like the execs don't even know how to market to their customers.
Comparing Mary Barbra's unveiling of the Bolt to Elon's Model 3 was night and day. Elon had a teleprompter but he spoke like a normal guy about things he and I am interested in.
On the other hand Mary's speech was stiff and read word for word. They used early 90's cutting edge graphics in the background at one point. They talked about the history of GM which no one cares about. It felt like it was directed at share holders not customers.
A lot of ideas about how to run a car company will change. I'm not sure the big 3 will make it.