Were Ford sales down recently?
I've heard Tesla is a battery company or energy company that happens to make cars. Their Giga battery facility will be making huge bucks I believe people believe.
Self driving cars are coming fast into main stream production I've heard.
I'm wondering with self driving cars, will you still need to own a car or pay someone for the few times a day that you actually need transportation? It is terribly inefficient to pay for a vehicle that sits around almost all the time. Car sales could plunge if millions of less cars are needed. In that case, Ford and possibly even Tesla might be overpriced unless Tesla makes up for lost sales by selling lots of batteries for home use and to other automobile suppliers.
I wouldn't be surprised especially with ME's not caring to own cars as much as older generations that millions of Americans would be fine with using apps to get a ride instead of having to pay for a car that sits around most of the time. Problem is we aren't there yet or I could sell my car. It depreciates roughly 2000 a year when newer so you could factor in another $2000 a year in gas and then maintenance costs and time, maybe add another $400 a year and then I have a yearly $4500 per year expense. If I can replace a $4500 a year car expense with a $3000 ride sharing service, I would save $1500 a year, just saying I see it coming. Problem is getting service when I want it at late night and long distance.
Older cars cost a lot less and don't depreciate as much as well. I still pay maybe $640 per year insurance, $2.29 per gallon and my car still depreciates a few hundred to a thousand a year, plus I still pay maintenance. If you have more than one vehicle, costs multiply. Many people think of vehicles as an asset instead of a yearly expense. If that mindset changes and self driving cars run round the clock efficiently across the entire nation, I can imagine car sales plunging. Ford and GM might have massive layoffs. Traffic could plummet if half the traveling public shares rides.
On the other hand I was wondering if older vehicles could become self driving cars and I could make money using them to give rides for a fee putting them to use all day or even part of the night making money instead of being an expense. However if I could do that, so could everyone else and the number of vehicles needed would plummet. If people share rides or transportation when many travel to similar destinations for work etc or companies willingly stagger start and stop times to allow better traffic in major cities, then our whole traffic situation could be vastly improved saving billions I bet. Car manufacturers might lose billions in sales by becoming so much more efficient. I think it's coming though. Not sure about companies working together to improve traffic.
When I can live in a small town and easily get a ride at 3 am or even 4 or 5 am or 5 pm in a major city and get a ride to travel down the road or 140 miles away in a short amount of time, I won't need to own a car anymore. When we approach this level of service with a less than 10 minute wait time for the ride to show up, then car sales should plummet.
People will still pay for convenience. Don't like waiting for a ride? Don't like extra stops? Don't like extra passengers? A private car or paying extra not to share the ride might be options. I expect ride sharing with other passengers to reduce the cost of my ride even more. I'm not sure if ride pick up and share services such as lift or uber are doing such things.
I think car sales are safe for a while. Doing some quick calculations ride sharing services would have to be less than 12.50 a day to save me money and I doubt I can get multiple different rides around town for less than 12 bucks through some other service. That average stays the same for long trips out of town. We are a long way from that.
Juice,Ford was never really about growth,it is about they're dividend.Bought a block of 500 shares at $10.25 and another block at $10.79.When you see Apple buy 55 million shares its time to pull the trigger.
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