A little over two years ago, we started Chariot here in San Francisco. Our service on day one consisted of paper punch card passes, a few 15-seater Ford Econoline vans, and the idea that we could solve the commute by creating a new form of transit that was fast, reliable and affordable.

Since then, we’ve grown to 100 Chariots that provide thousands of rides each day, and have built an experience and technology that’s reinvented how people get around the city. Today, we’re excited to share that we’ve joined Ford Smart Mobility as their first acquisition, which will allow us to expand our service offerings, build out our dynamic routing technology, and bring this new form of transit to cities across the world. We couldn’t be more excited to leverage Ford’s leadership in transportation to fulfill our goals worldwide, and look forward to sharing this journey with our amazing community of drivers and riders. You can learn more about Ford Smart Mobility and our plans for moving people in cities together here.

What does this mean for you? The Chariot you know and love will continue to operate without interruption, and our chariots (which are Ford Transit vans, a happy coincidence) will still look the same. Our friendly Chariot drivers, many of whom have been with us since the early days, will remain employees of the company. We will have exciting changes ahead, including continued expansion of the service in the Bay Area, and your friends in other cities will be able to try Chariot even sooner. We’ll be starting service in our next market in the coming weeks!

Thank you for your ridership and support, and we can’t wait to start this next chapter. We’ll also be ramping up our hiring: if you’re passionate about what we’re doing, we’d love to meet you.

Ali

Co-founder & CEO