OREANDA-NEWS. July 29, 2015. Ford President and CEO Mark Fields spoke of the hard work and dedication from employees across the globe as he discussed the 2015 second-quarter financial results during Tuesday’s global town hall.

In fact, Fields said, the company’s pre-tax profit of \\$2.9 billion is the best quarterly automotive pre-tax results in 15 years and the best quarter ever in North America – something that took a tremendous amount of work from the Ford team.

“It was an outstanding quarter, a strong first half of the year and we expect the second half to be even better so give yourselves a hand,” Fields said during the town hall at Ford World Headquarters that was live-streamed to Ford employees globally.

Fields added that the quarter’s record profits were earned during a period when the all-new Ford F-150 wasn’t at full production, something he said is indicative of potentially stronger results throughout the rest of 2015.

 Fields said the 2Q profit was up 10 percent from a year ago and the company grew its global market share.

“These are absolutely terrific results and we will be at full F-150 production this quarter going forward – just terrific,” he added.

Click here to read the complete 2Q 2015 financials release.

SYNC 3 Security

Fields opened the floor up for a few questions from both employees in the World Headquarters auditorium and from submissions sent in by employees from around the globe.

Submitted by an employee online, Fields and the senior leadership were asked how the company can assure its customers that the in-car connectivity of Ford vehicles cannot be hacked in the way a Chrysler vehicle’s UConnect system was infiltrated earlier this month.

Fields deferred to Raj Nair, group vice president, Global Product Development, for a more in-depth answer.
Nair said Ford has been reviewing the National Highway Safety Administration documents submitted by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and there are several differences between the architecture of Ford’s systems compared to other automakers. 

“The connectivity of your phone into the infotainment system is hardware-separated from any mission-critical system in the car – all the things that control the locks, control running the car, control what gear you’re on – are physically separated,” Nair explained. “There is always a degree of risk but it’s very, very low with our SYNC systems."

Nair explained that the hardware firewalls in-place, coupled with software security measures, make Ford vehicles extremely secure to remote hacks that would affect the driving of a vehicle.

“Now is that saying there’s no risk? There’s always a hacking risk,” Nair said. “But we’re taking a lot of efforts with our own security team, outside vendors looking at our systems and our partners looking at our systems and, at least for this hack that’s been getting all the news this week, we think we have a very low vulnerability to that.”

Ford Smart Mobility

Along with presenting the record quarterly financials, Fields invited Ken Washington, vice president, Research and Advanced Engineering, to the stage to talk about consumer experiences and Ford Smart Mobility. 

 “Everything that we’re going to do in Ford Smart Mobility is designed around our goal to create consumer experiences that are engaging,” Washington said. “We want our customers to love the consumer experience that they have with our Ford products and with how we’re enabling them to move.”

Ford is the leader in offering the most available driver-assistance features in four U.S. vehicle segments, according to Washington, and offers more products with Active Park Assist, Blind Spot Monitoring System and other technologies than any other non-luxury manufacturer.

Driver-assist technologies and semi-autonomous vehicles are just a few of the components of Ford Smart Mobility, Washington said. Flexible ownership and usership, and multi-modal urban solutions are two major focus areas going forward.

Click here to watch Ken Washington’s complete town hall presentation and click here to learn more about the Ford Smart Mobility Plan.