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Ford has agreed to acquire Journey Holding Corporation, a company that has developed vehicle tracking software and application-based technology designed for transit, with the builder wanting to expand its mobility business.
Journey Holding will be housed under Ford Smart Mobility, a Ford subsidiary that invests and builds the builder's transportation services. The terms of the contract are not disclosed. In another announcement, Ford announced Tuesday it has acquired Quantum Signal, a small robotics and defense contractor, known for mobile robotics and real-time simulation.
The acquisition of Journey is part of a larger vision outlined by CEO Jim Hackett More than a year ago, we created an ecosystem of transportation services that citizens and cities need now and in the future. The acquisition of Journey follows Ford's Autonomic and Transloc purchase in 2018.
Today, these services may include using an app to find a Ford Spin scooter or schedule a bus or shuttle on demand. In the future, this could include finding and hailing an autonomous vehicle.
Finally, Journey will integrate Transloc, a transit technology company bought by Ford in 2018. Transloc develops software that allows cities to manage transit services, including on-demand shuttles.
The name of the merged organization will be announced at a later date, Ford said.
Journey Holding Corporation was founded in 2018 by the merger of two companies, DoubleMap, in Indianapolis, and Ride Systems, in Salt Lake City. Journey provides municipalities, universities and businesses with software to manage their fleet. It has also developed applications that allow users to plan or track commute, bus and other transit trips.
Transloc CEO Doug Kaufman will leave the new company on August 16th. Justin Rees, CEO of Journey Holding, who founded Ride Systems in 2007 with Kelly Rees and Ben Haynie, will lead the new company.
Together, this newly formed company of about 200 people will provide nearly 1,200 cities, universities, business campuses and other businesses with software solutions for fixed route transportation, microtransmission demand transport and from other related fields.
"The combination of these transit technology companies will accelerate our efforts to help cities deliver more seamless, productive and accessible transportation solutions for their citizens and visitors," said Brett Wheatley, vice president of marketing. and growth of Ford Mobility, in a statement. "It will also be essential to connect customers to other mobility solutions in our portfolio, such as Spin e-scooters and our GoRide Health service."
Ultimately, these services should be part of the Transportation Mobility Cloud, an open cloud-based platform that Ford has developed so that cities can orchestrate and manage all the disparate modes of transport that occur at a given time.
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