Ford and Google Strike Six-Year Partnership

On Tuesday, Ford and Google announced a six-year partnership worth hundreds of millions.

Starting in 2023, most Ford infotainment systems will run on Android, Google Assistant, Google Maps, and Play Store. As a part of the deal, Ford will tap Google’s cloud for computing power and other services.

• Customers will still be able to use Apple CarPlay or Alexa.
• Lincolns will also run Google software. Matthew McConaughey couldn’t be reached for comment.

Ford realized it could buy a better in-car experience vs. building one from scratch. Its employees will join Google engineers in a group with the unfortunate name of Team Upshift. This venture will develop new personalization features using Google’s software smarts and Ford’s data and real-world experience.

Zoom out: Google Cloud lost $1.2 billion on $3.8 billion in Q4 revenues, but it’s growing 47% year over year. Ford is a big new customer for Google, which trails AWS and Azure in cloudshare.