Ford has signed an agreement to purchase Chariot, a San Francisco-based crowd-sourced shuttle service.

 It has also announced a collaboration with bike-sharing provider Motivate to expand its transportation solutions in city centres.

The firm is setting up a new City Solutions team to work with cities around the world on their transportation requirements.

Ford president and CEO Mark Fields said: “We’re expanding our business to be both an auto and a mobility company, and partnering with cities on current and future transportation needs is the next major step.

"The shuttle service will expand beyond San Francisco to at least five more markets over the next 18 months."

“For more than 100 years, Ford has been part of the community and the trusted source for automotive transportation. Now, we want to work with communities to offer even more transportation choices and solutions for people – for decades to come.”

Currently,  50% of the world’s population lives in cities. This is expected to touch to 60% by 2030.

With population in the cities growing, the challenges of moving people and goods around become tougher.

Ford’s acquisition of Chariot is subject to customary closing conditions.

This deal will serve as the basis for its new global shuttle services business.

The shuttle service will expand beyond San Francisco to at least five more markets over the next 18 months.

Started in 2014, Chariot operates nearly 100 Ford Transit shuttles along 28 routes throughout San Francisco Bay Area. Its  routes are crowd-sourced based on rider demand. In the future, they are expected to operate dynamically by using data algorithms to map efficient routes.

Bikes are an important transportation mode for commuters in the Bay Area. Ford and Motivate, which offers bike share services, will work with city officials to add new stations and increase the number of bikes to 7,000 by the end of 2018.

Ford GoBike service, which will be launched next year, can be accessed by users through the FordPass platform.

Ford intends to develop technologies to use data gathered  from bikes to build an interconnected mobility network. This real-time data could be on weather conditions, usage patterns and bike availability, which will optimise commutes.