Bill Ford's thoughts on the future of mobility may be a surprise to many as he told the delegates to the ITS World Congress in Detroit about his concerns over what he called "Global Gridlock". "You can't just keep sending more vehicles into the urban environment, it isn't going to work."
Ford's executive chairman said the current model of urban mobility was under threat and believes it is imperative that in the future all transportation modes are interconnected as that is the only way to cope with a growing population in an increasingly urbanized world. He noted that, "Cities are struggling with transportation today and will do so even more in the future and often the money isn't there to fix the infrastructure - even if they knew how to fix it. We need to redefine mobility for the coming century ... but there is no one silver bullet. Individual building blocks have been developed but they must be seamlessly integrated."
When it comes to connected vehicle technology he highlighted major challenges that remain with privacy and bringing the often less tech-savvy older generation on board. "We can't afford to leave anybody behind."