Ford CTO Ken Washington joined Yahoo Finance's Dan Howley to break down the recent push for electric vehicles and when consumers can expect fully autonomous vehicles to be more common.
Video Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
DAN HOWLEY: We're here with Ford Chief Technology Officer Ken Washington. Ken, thank you so much for joining us. And we want to kind of talk first about, obviously, the big ongoing issue is the coronavirus pandemic and how that's impacting Ford and Ford purchasing-- or consumer purchasing decisions around Ford products. And I just kind of want to get your idea of how consumers are reacting and the kinds of vehicles they're looking at as the pandemic continues.
KEN WASHINGTON: Well, first of all, it's great to be with you, Dan. Thanks for having me. Well, we're seeing consumers shift their behaviors to online, just like in every other business we're seeing-- that's seeing the same trend, of course. And so we've-- we've done a very successful pivot to online sales of our vehicles and giving a digital experience to our customers that want to see and experience the vehicle before they actually go and then purchase it. But we continue to provide a dealership experience as well, so we're seeing a bit of a hybrid.
But the other thing I should point out is that the pandemic has really resurfaced the importance of personal car ownership. And we're seeing really great-- a great continued market pull for buying personally owned vehicles, both retail and commercial. And then last thing I should mention is, it's no surprise, I'm sure, to you or your listeners, that-- that the shift to online purchasing and shopping has really led to a real growth in delivery vehicles. And we're definitely prepared to service that market as it continues to expand and grow.
DAN HOWLEY: You know, I want to talk about electric cars, as well, because, you know, we've seen, obviously, the huge growth that Tesla has seen as far as its market cap through the last year, delivering, obviously, hundreds of thousands of vehicles now. And Ford is really pushing into this space now with the Mustang Mach-E. And I kind of want to get your take on when we'll start to see consumers really dive into that section of autos, because it's still, you know, conventional gas-powered cars that are making up the bulk of sales. So I guess, when do you see people really leaning further into EVs or plug-in hybrids?
KEN WASHINGTON: I think this is the pivotal year. We've already seen some signals that indicate that-- that we're going to start to see a real acceleration of consumer adoption and pull for electric vehicles. I have a Mustang Mach-E in my garage. I can tell you it's a fantastic vehicle. I love it.
And what we've said is absolutely true. Once you drive one of these electric vehicles, you're not going to want to go back to an internal combustion engine vehicle. We think customers are going to love this experience. The Mustang Mach-E just won SUV of the year, and so we're excited about that. Congratulations to the Ford team for that accomplishment.
And I think what we're going to see is-- is the cost will continue to come down. And as governments make changes to policies, we can see-- I think that'll lead to an acceleration of the adoption. That's already happening in Europe, where we're seeing as many as 1 in 10 vehicles being an all-electric vehicle. We think the acceleration is going to really begin just this year.
DAN HOWLEY: I got to say I have an older Mustang, a 2007, and-- I'm sorry-- 2007? 2007, yeah-- and it's not, obviously, a Mach-E, but I still love that it's got a V8 in it. So maybe I'll have to make the transition at some point. I guess one of the bigger conversations around CES usually is on autonomous vehicles.
And every year, there's predictions as to when we'll start to see fully autonomous vehicles. We have kind of these high-end driver-assist technologies that are on the road now. But when do you expect us to finally get the robot car that everybody's been talking about for years where, you know, you can sit there and watch Netflix or, as I would love to do, just pass out while I'm driven to work?
KEN WASHINGTON: Well, you know, we've always said this is a really difficult, challenging problem to solve. And we brought a top team to the cause with-- with the investment in Argo.AI, who's built a team of first-class roboticists to tackle this challenge. And they're making fantastic progress.
And that progress is based on developing the solution in very complex environments, solving the hardest parts of the problem so that we can go to market with the confidence that we'll deliver full autonomy in the appropriate, safe, and robust manner. We're moving toward the 2022 timeline, which is not very different than what we originally said, because we've always known it was going to be difficult. And so we're staying true to that message.
So within-- within a year or so, you're going to see the first-- first markets-- we'll enter into the first markets with a fully autonomous ride service and/or package delivery service. But it's important for everyone to understand that the adoption and the scale-up of this technology is going to be relatively modest, because it's got to go market by market. But we're excited about the opportunities, both in the package delivery front and in the people movement front.
DAN HOWLEY: All right, next thing you got to do is find me a robotic flying car. That's the next big one that I'm looking for. Ken Washington, CTO of Ford. Thank you very much for joining us, Ken.
KEN WASHINGTON: It was my pleasure. Thanks for having me.
