Ford Strengthens Chinese Mobility Presence

Greg Hyde

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15th August 2018

Ford smart mobility subsidiary Autonomic Partners is planning a move into cloud computing for connected vehicles in China.

It has announced a deal with Alibaba Cloud, the Chinese technology giant’s cloud computing arm, to bring the Transportation Mobility Cloud (TMC) to the country. Autonomic Partners founder and CEO Gavin Sherry and Alibaba Cloud automobile division director Liu Fei signed the deal in Shanghai.

The companies claim that “the TMC will serve as an open, cloud-based platform that provides standardized data and infrastructure for developers to quickly build value-added software programs for interacting with connected vehicles. This new software could help deliver a better in-vehicle connectivity and mobility experience for Chinese consumers”.

Alibaba Cloud president Simon Hu also said he hoped the deal would allow both companies “to empower the transportation ecosystem and ultimately benefit the end users”. Signalling its intent to expand further into the Chinese market, Autonomic Partners has opened an office in Shanghai in addition to hiring a new team there for development of the TMC.

The move appears to mark the latest stage in Ford’s nascent business relationship with Alibaba following on from a December agreement the two companies signed to collaborate in areas like artificial intelligence, connectivity and cloud computing.