Ford Hopes to Launch On-Demand Commuter Bus Service in London

Ford Motor Co. has asked London’s transport agency for permission to introduce its Chariot shuttle service in the city, the Financial Times reports.The shuttles would operate on fixed routes, carrying 12 people at a time who sign up for rides via a smartphone app.

Chariot uses 12-passenger Ford Transit vans to collect people at their homes and transport them to area transit hubs. Rides cost about $4 each. Vehicles are deployed in numbers and locations dictated by shifting demand.

Ford acquired Chariot Transit Inc., a three-year-old startup in San Francisco, last year. The company currently operates in four U.S. cities (Austin, San Francisco, Seattle and New York) and aims to establish operations in eight metro areas worldwide by the end of this year.

Chariot vehicles are piloted by human drivers for now. But the service is likely to switch to self-driving operation when the necessary technology is sufficiently developed.