Well This Can’t Be Good. FORD FIRES 350 in Software Group

[Scorpio3d]

Some of this is confusing:

Instead, the company claims that job cuts are to “make changes within our Connected Vehicle Software team to ensure we have the right talent and organization to deliver the world’s best next-generation connected vehicles. This will include some separations,” Ford said in a statement to Automotive News.

Maybe they’re getting rid of the SAAS model???

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[WaterboyNorCal]

I think you may be right.

It’s shame these @$&! $@?!! who talk a big game about more manufacturing in the country can’t see past the forrest for the trees and support the country’s EV manufacturing instead of doing all they can to kill it.

I guess that dirty oil money is way more prevalent than clean electrical lobbing money.

Sad .

Exactly this. We will still need gas and diesel trucks for some time but the resistance to moving towards EVs for most new passenger cars and light trucks is a super dumb move for long-term success in the market. Chevy seems to understand this; I am concerned that Ford, who was recently “all-in” on EVs, is losing their way. Sad.

 

[FloridaMan655321]

It's really hard to read this. They may have just over hired and realized a lot of them aren't doing a thing while working from home. Might actually be a good thing. Get actual software designers to design and not worry about social issues.

 

[Kakaratto]

It's really hard to read this. They may have just over hired and realized a lot of them aren't doing a thing while working from home. Might actually be a good thing. Get actual software designers to design and not worry about social issues.

I honestly hope they fired the folks who weren’t doing their jobs. BC 1.4 has been out for months and a lot of us still don’t have it!

 

[Whammy Bar]

OH NO WHEN WILL KARAOKE GET THE NEW JUSTIN BIEBER SONGS??!!?

 

[Firn]

There is zero reason to believe this is EV specific. 350 developers is a HUGE number, that is certainly fleet wide. Sure, it won't make things better for us, but imo in no way does this signal any change towards EVs, ice cars have as much, if not more, software in them.

 

[Newton]

If you read the article you will discover that this team was designing a new “software defined“ platform for future products, i.e. to compete with Tesla and Kia. (Kia isn’t exactly loving their “software defined” ICCU but that is another story). It is not clear if anybody related to the Lightning’s software has been let go, those are more likely support engineers as opposed to software architects. I don’t think this has anything to do with our software, it is unlikely that anything that the new product team was developing would even work on our vehicles.

Software defined hardware is an interesting thing (as Kia is discovering) because software can control the low level electrical behavior of a device. Instead of a relay responding to a change in voltage, you have programmable components such as thyristors that respond to a digital signal. In theory you could create a completely general purpose device that once perfected could used for a wide variety of tasks in an automobile. Rather than replacing thousands of taillight controllers because the engineer designed too small of a resistor, you could simply reprogram the GP device used as a taillight controller.

In reality - software is hard. AI will solve everything of course [/s], now instead of having devices that one old engineer understands, we will have devices that nobody understands.

 

[Kev12345]

I think EV's are about to be put on the back burner and then all these fools are going to be crying when the Chinese dominate the US EV market. I wont buy one but Im sure a lot of other people are going to run at the chance to buy one.

why not buy one if it’s good? Ford losing your business might motivate them to innovate. Blind brand loyalty only makes them more lazy.

 

[BuildBackBadder]

From what I've read, it's just a 5% segment reduction. Essentially nothing.

 

[Timeless Epoch]

In related news, I got this email this morning as a left over from job hunting a few years ago:

Dear Mr. Epoch,

You might be a great fit for the new positions we just posted! We hope you're still interested in finding your dream job at Ford Motor Company. If so, we invite you to see if this might be the one. Learn more here:

Front-end Software Engineer
Software Engineer
Java Full Stack Software Engineer
Software Engineer-Material Logistics
Software Engineer

See all opportunities

Sincerely,
Ford Talent Acquisition Team

 

[Lightning Bronson]

I'll sign up if they have Software — Ideas Guy as a position. I've got heaps of ideas

 

[richguy82]

This made me laugh from p

Just a reflection of Ford's decision to change directions with software development. Lots of news on that. Shocking how much money they spent on what turns out to be abandoned.

https://www.autoblog.com/news/ford-quietly-kills-multi-billion-dollar-software-defined-vehicle-plans

https://www.mediaredesignlb.ford.com/us/en/articles/2025/ford-vehicles-software-vision

Interesting line in that second linked article.

“And Ford is an industry leader in software-powered over-the-air (OTA) updates. These updates continue improving customers’ vehicles long after they leave the dealer lot.”

What mental gymnastics do you have to do to omit Tesla?

 

[Radar]

Maybe cleaning house had to many doing nothing…

 

[keith.springer]

From what I've read, it's just a 5% segment reduction. Essentially nothing.

This is what I was wondering. Firing 350 people seems like a lot but what the story does not say is 350 of how many? 350 of 700 would be a LOT worse than, say, 350 of 7000 or 10,000. Context is important.

 

[MaintGrl]

No karaoke updates for you!

Oh, bestill my heart . .

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