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[Music]
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[Applause]
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by birth and by choice I've been
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involved with the Auto industry my
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entire life and for the past 30 years
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I've worked at Ford Motor Company and
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for most of those years I worried about
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how am I going to sell more cars and
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trucks but today I worry about what if
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all we do is sell more cars and trucks
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what happens when the number of vehicles
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on the road doubles triples or even
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quadruples my life is Guided by two
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great passions and the first is
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automobiles I literally grew up with the
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Ford Motor Company I thought it was so
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cool as a little boy when my dad would
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bring home the latest Ford or lincol and
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leave it in the driveway and it I
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decided about that time about age 10
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that it would be really cool if I was a
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test driver so my parents would go to
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dinner they'd sit down I'd sneak out of
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the house I'd jump behind the wheel and
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take the new model around the driveway
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and it was a blast and that went on for
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about 2 years until I think it was about
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12 my dad brought home a Lincoln Mark
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III and it was snowing that day so he
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and mom went to dinner and uh I snuck
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out and thought it'd be really cool to
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do donuts or maybe even some figure
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eight in the snow my dad finished dinner
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early that evening and he was walking
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through the front hall and out the front
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door just about the same time I hit some
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ice and met him at the front door with
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the car uh and almost ended up in the
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front hall so it kind of cooled my test
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driving for a little while but um I
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really began to love cars then and my
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first car was a
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1975 electric green Mustang and even
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though the color was pretty hideous I
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did love the car and it really cemented
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my affair with cars that's continued on
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this day but cars are really more than a
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passion of mine uh they're quite
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literally in my blood my
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great-grandfather was Henry Ford and on
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my mother's side uh my great-grandfather
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was Harvey fir Stone so when I was born
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I guess you could say expectations were
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kind of high for me um but my
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great-grandfather Henry Ford really
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believed that the mission of the Ford
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Motor Company was to make people's lives
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better and make cars affordable so that
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everyone could have them because he
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believed that with Mobility comes
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freedom and progress and that's a belief
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that I
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share my other great passion is the
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environment and as a young boy I used to
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go up to Northern Michigan and fish in
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the rivers that Hemingway fished in and
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then later wrote about and it really uh
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struck me uh as the years went by in in
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a very negative way when I would go to
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some stream that I'd love loved and was
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used to walking through this field that
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was once filled with fireflies and now
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had a strip mall or a bunch of condos on
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it and so even at a young age that
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really resonated with me and and the
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whole notion of environmental
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preservation uh at a very basic level
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sunk in with me as a high schooler I
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started to read authors like thorough
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and Aldo Leopold and Edward ABY uh and I
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really began to develop a deeper
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appreciation of the natural world but it
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never really occur occurred to me that
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my love of cars and and trucks would
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ever be in conflict with nature and that
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was true until I got to college and when
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I got to college you can imagine my
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surprise when I would go to class and a
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number of my professors would say that
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Ford Motor Company and my family was
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kind of everything that was wrong with
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with our country um they thought that uh
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we were more interested as an industry
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in profits rather than progress and that
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we filled the skies with Smog and
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frankly we were the
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enemy I joined Ford uh after college
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after some soul searching whether or not
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this is really the right thing to do but
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I decided I wanted to go and see if I
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could affect change there and as I
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looked back you know over 30 years ago
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it was a little naive to think at that
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age that I could but I wanted to and I
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really discovered that my professors
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weren't completely wrong in fact when I
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got got back to Detroit my environmental
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leanings weren't exactly embraced by
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those in my own company and certainly by
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those in the industry I had some very
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interesting conversations uh as you can
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imagine there were some uh within Ford
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who believed that all this ecological
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nonsense should just disappear and that
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I needed to stop hanging out with quote
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environmental wackos I was considered a
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radical and I'll never forget the day I
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was called in by a member of top
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management and told to stop associating
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with any known or suspected
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environmentalist of course I had no
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intention of of doing that and I kept
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speaking out about the environment and
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it really was the topic that we now
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today call
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sustainability and in time My Views went
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from controversial to more or less
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consensus today I mean I think most
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people in the industry understand that
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we've got to get on with it and the good
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news is today we are tackling the big
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issues uh of cars in the environment not
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only at Ford but really as an industry
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we're pushing fuel efficiency to new
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heights and with new technology we're
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reducing and I believe someday will
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eliminate CO2 emissions we're starting
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to sell electric cars which is great
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we're developing alternative powertrains
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that are going to make uh cars
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affordable in every sense of the word uh
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economically socially and
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environmentally and actually although
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we've got a long way way to go and a lot
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of work to do I can see the day where my
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two great passions cars and the
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environment actually come into harmony
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but
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unfortunately as we're on our way to
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solving one monstrous problem and as I
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said we're not there yet we've got a lot
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of work to do but I can see where we
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will but even as we're in the process of
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doing that another huge problem is
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looming and people aren't noticing uh
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and that is the freedom of Mobility that
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my great-grandfather brought to people
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is now being threatened just as the
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environment is the problem put in its
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simplest terms is one of mathematics
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today there are approximately 6.8
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billion people in the world and within
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our lifetime that number is going to
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grow to about 9 billion and at that
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population level our planet will be
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dealing with the limits of growth and
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with that growth comes some severe
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practical problems one of which is our
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transportation system simp won't be able
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to deal with it when we look at the
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population growth in terms of cars it
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becomes even clearer today there are
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about 800 million cars on the road
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worldwide and but with more people and
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greater Prosperity around the world that
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number is going to grow to between two
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and four billion cars by mid-century and
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this is going to create the kind of
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global gridlock that the world has never
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seen before now think about the impact
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that this is going to have on our daily
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lives today the average American
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spends about a week a year stuck in
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traffic jams and that's a huge waste of
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time and resources but that's nothing
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compared to what's going on in the
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Nations that are growing the fastest
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today the average driver in Beijing has
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a 5H hour
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commute and last summer many of you
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probably saw this there was a 100 mile
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traffic jam that took 11 days to clear
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in China in the decades to come 75 % of
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the world's population will live in
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cities and 50 of those cities will be of
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10 million people or more so you can see
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the size of the issue that we're facing
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when you factor in population growth
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it's clear that the mobility model that
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we have today simply will not work
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tomorrow frankly 4 billion clean cars on
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the road are still 4 billion cars and a
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traffic jam with no emissions is still a
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traffic
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jam so
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if we make no changes today what does
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tomorrow look like well I think you
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probably already have the picture
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traffic jams are just a symptom of this
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Challenge and they're really very very
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inconvenient but that's kind of all they
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are but the bigger issue is the global
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gridlock is going to stifle economic
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growth and our ability to deliver food
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and Health Care particularly to people
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that live in City centers and our
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quality of life is going to be severely
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compromised
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so what's going to solve this well the
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answer isn't going to be more of the
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same my great-grandfather once said
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before he invented the Model T if I had
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asked people then what they wanted they
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would have answered we want Faster
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Horses so the answer to more cars is
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simply not to have more roads when
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America began moving West we didn't add
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more wagon trains we built
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railroads and to connect our country
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after world War II we didn't build more
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two-lane highways we built the
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interstate highway system today we need
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that same leap in thinking for us to
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create a viable future we are going to
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build smart cars but we also need to
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build smart roads smart parking smart
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public transportation systems and more
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we don't want to waste our time sitting
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in traffic sitting at toll boost or
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looking for parking spots we need an
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integrated system that uses realtime
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data to optimize personal Mobility on a
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massive scale without hassle or
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compromises for travelers and frankly
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that's the kind of system that's going
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to make the future of personal Mobility
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sustainable now the good news is some of
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this work is already begun in different
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parts of the world the city of mazdar in
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Abu Dhabi uses driverless electric
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vehicles that can communicate with one
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another and they go underneath the city
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streets and up above you've got a series
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of pedestrian and walkways on New York
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City's 34th Street gridlock will soon be
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replaced with a connected system of
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vehicle specific corridors pedestrian
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zones and dedicated traffic lanes are
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going to be created and all of this will
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will cut down the average rush hour
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commute to get across town in New York
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from about an hour today at rush hour to
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about 20 minutes now if you look at Hong
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Kong they have a very interesting system
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called octopus there it's a system that
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really ties together all the
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Transportation assets into a single
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payment system so parking garages buses
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trains they all operate within the same
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system now shared car services are also
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springing up around the world and these
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efforts I think are great they're
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relieving congestion and they're frankly
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starting to save some fuel these are all
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really good ideas that will move us
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forward but what really inspires me is
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what's going to be possible when our
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cars can begin talking to each other
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very soon the same systems that we use
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today to bring music and and
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entertainment and GPS information into
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our vehicles are going to be used to
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create a smart vehicle Network every
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morning I drive about 30 miles from my
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home in ant Arbor to my office in
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Dearborn Michigan and every night I go
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home my commute is a total crapshoot and
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I often have to leave the freeway and
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look for different ways for me to try
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and make it home but very soon we're
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going to see the days when cars are
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essentially talking to each other so if
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the car ahead of me in I94 hits traffic
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it will immediately alert my car and
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tell my car to rroo itself to get me
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home in the best possible way and these
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systems are being tested right now and
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frankly they're going to be ready for
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prime time pretty
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soon but the potential of a connected
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car network is almost Li Limitless so
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just
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imagine one day very soon you're going
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to be able to plan a trip downtown and
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your car will be connected to a Smart
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parking system so you get in your car
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and as you get in your car your car will
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Reserve you a parking spot before you
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arrive no more driving around looking
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for one which frankly is one of the
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biggest uh users of fuel in today's cars
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in in urban areas is looking for parking
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spots or think about being in New York
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City and tracking down an intelligent
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cab on your smartphone so you don't have
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to wait in the cold to hail one or being
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in a future Ted conference and having
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your car talk to the calendars of
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everybody here and telling you all the
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best route to take home and when you
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should leave so that you can all arrive
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at your next destination on time this is
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the kind of technology that will merge
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millions of individual Vehicles into a
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single system so I think it's clear we
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have the beginnings of a solution to
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this enormous problem but as we found
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out with addressing CO2 issues and also
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fossil fuels there is no one silver
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bullet
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the solution is not going to be more
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cars more roads or a new rail system it
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can only be found I believe in a Global
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Network of interconnected Solutions now
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I know we can develop the technology
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that's going to make this work but we've
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got to be willing to get out there and
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seek out the solutions whether that
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means vehicle sharing or public
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transportation or some other way we
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haven't even thought of yet our overall
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Transportation mix and infrastructure
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must support all the future options we
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need our best and our brightest to start
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entertaining this issue companies
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entrepreneurs Venture capitalists they
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all need to understand this is a huge
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business opportunity as well as an
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enormous social problem and just as
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these groups embrace the green energy
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Challenge and it was it's really been
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amazing to me to watch how much brain
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power how much money uh and how much
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serious thought has over the last really
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three years has poured into the green
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energy field field we need that same
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kind of passion and energy to attack
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Global gridlock and we need people like
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all of you in this room leading thinkers
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I mean frankly I I really need all of
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you to think about how you can help
00:14:42
solve this this huge issue uh and we
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need people from all walks of life not
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just inventors we need policy makers uh
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and government officials to also think
00:14:51
about how they're going to respond to
00:14:53
this challenge this isn't going to be
00:14:54
solved by any one person or one group
00:14:57
it's going to really require a national
00:14:59
energy policy and frankly for each
00:15:02
country because the Solutions in each
00:15:04
country are going to be different based
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upon income levels traffic jams and also
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how integrated the the systems already
00:15:11
are but we need to get going and we need
00:15:14
to get going today and we must have an
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infrastructure that's designed to
00:15:18
support this flexible future you know
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we've come a long way since the Model T
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most people never traveled more than 25
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miles from home in their entire lifetime
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and since then the the automobile has
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allowed us the freedom to choose where
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we live where we work where we play and
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frankly when we just go out and want to
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move around we don't want to regress and
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lose that freedom we're on our way to
00:15:45
solving and as I said earlier I know
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we've got a long way to go the one big
00:15:49
issue that we're all focused on that
00:15:51
threatens it and that's the
00:15:52
environmental issue but I believe we all
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must turn all of our effort and all of
00:15:57
our Ingenuity and to determination to
00:16:00
help now solve this notion of global
00:16:02
gridlock because in doing so we're going
00:16:05
to preserve what we've really come to
00:16:07
take for granted which is the freedom to
00:16:08
move and move very effortlessly around
00:16:11
the world and and it frankly will
00:16:14
enhance our quality of life if we fix
00:16:16
this because if you can Envision as I do
00:16:19
a future of zero emissions and freedom
00:16:22
to move around the country and around
00:16:24
the world like we take for granted today
00:16:27
that's worth the hard work today to
00:16:29
preserve that for tomorrow I believe
00:16:31
we're at our best when we're confronted
00:16:33
with big issues this is a big one and it
00:16:36
won't wait so let's get started now
00:16:39
thank you
