Ford had to hire back former engineers to fix mistakes made by its automated systems

Ford Motor Company acknowledged that an over-reliance on automated systems degraded vehicle quality, forcing it to rehire veteran engineers to correct the errors, executives said this week [1]. The admission came as the automaker celebrated its first top ranking in J.D. Power's initial quality study in 16 years [1]. Charles Poon, Ford's vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, told reporters the company mistakenly believed that introducing artificial intelligence and adjusting design requirements alone would ensure high quality [1]. "Mistakenly, we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence and adjusting the design requirements that we had, that that would produce a high-quality product," Poon said [1]. The departure of experienced personnel meant institutional knowledge was not fully transferred into Ford's automated systems, requiring the company to bring back former employees to retrain those systems and mentor younger engineers [1]. Poon said Ford hired, promoted, or brought back over 350 experienced engineers to rebuild that expertise [1]. The quality challenges are not unique in the auto industry. Tesla, Inc. has faced hundreds of reports of sudden unintended acceleration, brake failures, and collapsing wheels due to faulty suspension, with critics noting poor build quality linked to rushed testing [3]. Ford currently leads the industry in the number of recalls, and its quality ratings slipped during the difficult launches of the Explorer and Aviator, supply-chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a growing number of vehicle recalls [1]. Kumar Galhotra, Ford's chief operating officer, said the company's approach to quality had become too fragmented, with departments operating in silos and relying on a "find and fix" philosophy [1]. "We're moving from that find-and-fix mentality to preventing issues before they occur," Galhotra said. "We're focused on enablers and early indicators versus outputs. Stop admiring the problem and start solving it" [1]. Ford created a dedicated 40-person software quality assurance team to prevent problems before they occur [1]. The automaker also expanded its automated testing capabilities, adding more than 100,000 new AI-powered tests designed to identify edge cases and stress software systems under a wide range of conditions [1]. Poon said the highly automated testing framework allows rapid revalidation of late software changes to guarantee performance before reaching customers [1].