Ford paid $65M for Chariot to learn mobility — and wound it down in two years

Chariot started in San Francisco in 2014: app-booked 14-seat vans running commuter routes crowdsourced from rider demand — 'microtransit' pitched between the public bus and the ride-hail. Ford Motor Company acquired it in September 2016 for a reported $65 million, its first mobility acquisition, and poured money into expansion.

The expansion multiplied the problem. Chariot grew to ten cities including Seattle, New York, Chicago, London and Detroit, but ridership stayed thin against costs: owning vehicles and employing unionised drivers was expensive, while public transit, ride-hailing and new e-scooters all competed for the same commuter. In October 2017 California regulators briefly suspended the service over unlicensed drivers.

On 10 January 2019 Ford announced Chariot would shut down: public routes ended 1 February 2019, corporate van services by the end of March. More than three million rides and 625 jobs ended with the admission that five years of service 'will not be a sustainable solution going forward.' Ford said the lessons would feed its other mobility bets.