Ford Shuts Down Its Chariot Shuttle Service

On Thursday, five years after launching and two and half years after being acquired by Ford for a reported $65 million, the app-based shuttle service announced it is rolling to a permanent stop. Transportation technology companies have never been sexier than in the past decade, but this stumble is a potent reminder that creating a profitable transportation business can be far harder than it seems. When Chariot launched in 2014, it joined a wave of Uber-inspired "microtransit" tech companies hoping to disrupt transportation services by providing faster, more efficient options for riders sick of--and underserved by--traditional public transit. Less than half a decade on, most have gone the way of the Hawaiian tree snail. San Francisco-based, elitist-wooing Leap Transit closed up shop just three months after its March 2015 launch, amid a regulatory fight with California.