Ford Mobility Cloud Subsidiary Partners With EV Builder

Calling it the first major tie up its type, Ford Smart Mobility LLC subsidiary Autonomic announced Wednesday “a strategic partnership” with Ayro Inc., a designer and manufacturer of electric light-duty vehicles.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Autonomic created the Transportation Mobility Cloud (TMC), a platform providing connectivity between vehicles and applications, vehicle data and developers and manufacturers. 

Ayro builds compact electric vehicles, including the upcoming Ayro 311x, which has a driving range of up to 85 miles.

The Texas-based company said it plans to use Autonomic’s TMC for four distinct purposes:

 Two-way data and telematic exchanges for Ayro’s fleet customers and individual users.

Geo-location tools for proximity-based communications for business partners, restaurants and shops.

Services to monitor use rates, deployment efficiency, fleet and vehicle performance, advanced maintenance and service levels for fleet operators.

Real-time feedback for range, maintenance, and available services for drivers.

“We’re excited to partner with the Autonomic team to develop custom apps and services that will maximize our fleet owners’ management abilities along with a unique user experience,” said Rod Keller, Ayro, Inc. CEO, in a statement.  

“At Autonomic, we designed our platform to accelerate the progress of connected vehicles and it’s a privilege to work with Ayro, one of the most visionary EV companies on the market,” added Gavin Sherry, co-founder and CEO of Autonomic. “Already, they’re poised for incredible growth and our Transportation Mobility Cloud will accelerate that.”

After making an initial investment in Autonomic, Ford bought the company in 2018 as it seeks to speed its ability to provide mobility services, especially self-driving vehicles.

Creation of the Transportation Mobility Cloud is a direct result of that move. It was given a major boost in April when Ford and Autonomic announced a multi-year global agreement with Amazon Web Services, the world’s top cloud service, to power the TMC. 

This collaboration will significantly expand our opportunity to deliver the very best experiences to Ford vehicle and mobility customers,” said Marcy Klevorn, president of Ford Mobility, at the time of the announcement last April. “I am excited that our future cloud standard for connected vehicle solutions will be powered by AWS in addition to Autonomic’s Transportation Mobility Cloud. Working with AWS and Autonomic, Ford and our mobility partners will have access to the industry-leading mobility platform.”

In May, Autonomic and Fujitsu announced a partnership to deliver the TMC and the Japanese tech company’s systems integration services to Ford, initially, followed by a rollout to other automakers. 

While the partnerships with Fujitsu and Amazon Web Services have greatly expanded and improved delivery and functionality of the Transportation Mobility Cloud, this latest tie up between Autonomic and Ayro marks the first time a cloud service has partnered with a company that exclusively builds electric vehicles. It’s all in the name of speeding the conversion to a world with connected vehicles providing mobility as a service, where control lives somewhere in a cloud.