Hatching the Automobile’s Future in a Cloistered Los Angeles Lab
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In 2021, Doug Field left Apple to lead Ford's electric vehicle and digital design efforts, aiming to help the company compete with rapidly growing Chinese automakers. To achieve this, Field established a secretive "skunk works" lab near Los Angeles, with a satellite office in Silicon Valley. He recruited talent from Tesla, Rivian, Lucid, and other tech companies, promising creative freedom to foster innovation. This independent team was shielded from traditional corporate interference, tasked with redesigning Ford's fleet to meet the challenges posed by the changing automotive landscape and the dominance of Chinese electric vehicle production. The goal is to prevent Ford from becoming obsolete in the face of this global shift.
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AI-Extracted"I knew it would be a completely different challenge than anything I’d done before," he said, “which was to try and change the course of a large organization.”
Chinese companies like BYD and Geely produce 60 percent of all electric vehicles worldwide.
To shield his project from corporate meddling, anyone not on Mr. Field’s select team wasn’t even allowed through the door.
Doug Field left Apple to rejoin Ford with the ambition of designing EVs to compete with Chinese carmakers.
Ford is redesigning its fleet with a Silicon Valley-style team to catch up with Chinese automakers.
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