Ford Acquires On-Demand Shuttle Service Chariot

Ford has agreed to acquire Chariot, an on-demand shuttle service based in San Francisco. This morning, the automaker said it would expand Chariot's shuttle service beyond San Francisco to at least five more markets in the next 18 months. At the moment, Chariot operates 100 Ford Transit shuttles along 28 routes in the Bay Area. It chooses routes by collecting votes from potential riders, but Ford also said it will move to a more complex algorithm in the future. The goal of a service like this is to fill the gap between taxi and bus services, which are often woefully inadequate for point-to-point transportation in some cities.