Ford Motor has named former Apple executive Peter Stern as president of a new business unit spearheading the automaker’s customer experience strategy across its software, hardware and online products.
The Dearborn, Mich.-based company said Stern will build and lead a team at the newly formed Ford Integrated Services unit, which will be tasked with bringing together hardware, software and services over three units: the combustion engine-focused Ford Blue, the electric Model E, and Ford Pro, the company’s commercial fleet offering.
Stern’s unit will also lead services marketing at the company, oversee the automaker’s Ford Next venture studio and manage some “out-of-vehicle” customer experiences, the company said. Ford classifies out-of-vehicle experiences as software and services that go beyond operating a vehicle—for instance, using a car’s cameras to recognize a bear while the driver is asleep when camping, a company spokesman said.
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