March 29, 2024

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Ford technology chief Ken Washington leaving for Amazon

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. Chief Know-how Officer Ken Washington, who created the automaker’s upcoming-generation electrical architecture and other advanced systems, is leaving for a career with tech big Amazon.

Washington, who has 3 nuclear engineering levels and joined Ford in 2014 from the Lockheed Martin place program, will move down July sixteen to grow to be Amazon’s vice president of software package engineering in Sunnyvale, Calif., Ford explained in a memo to personnel this week.

Jim Buczkowski, Ford’s director of electrical and electronics programs investigate and innovation, will oversee the automaker’s investigate and advanced engineering staff right up until a alternative is named.

Washington, 60, was dependable for Ford’s upcoming-generation motor vehicle electrical architectures sensing and computing stacks energy, propulsion and sustainability advanced products and producing and controls and automated programs, in accordance to a firm biography.

He and his staff created a lot more advanced tech stacks for completely networked motor vehicles, such as the most up-to-date version launched in the Mustang Mach-E and the 2021 F-one hundred fifty and its forthcoming successor, Ford explained in the memo.

“An significant aspect of Ford+ is willingness and success in partnering with other individuals for skills, and Ken’s been on the major edge of that in the firm,” Hau Thai-Tang, chief merchandise platform and functions officer, explained in the memo.  “He’s had a tremendous impact in building out our capabilities and understanding from other individuals in means that are producing Ford a leader in related motor vehicles.”

Washington, who was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2020, also led Ford’s STEM and college investigate applications. He was vice president of investigate and advanced engineering right before becoming named chief technology officer in 2017. The Detroit Totally free Press claimed Washington’s prepared departure Thursday morning.

Ford started ramping up its info method with synthetic intelligence and other technology quite a few decades ago, Washington explained to Automotive News final year. At the time, Washington explained his extended-term options at Ford included a more powerful concentrate on the energy of computing and the worth of electronic networks.

He had been operating toward harnessing info from Ford’s related motor vehicles for future motor vehicle development.

“I’ve generally liked autos,” Washington, whose very first motor vehicle was a Mustang, explained in a 2015 job interview. “I am a quite regular geek. I am not your regular ‘car guy,’ so I am not like a gearhead, but I generally liked autos. I generally considered they were fantastic emotive items.”