Ford Motor Co. (F) has poached former Apple (AAPL) Services business boss Peter Stern to ramp up its own customer experience as it doubles down on electric car production, self-driving technology and new customer value initiatives.

What's Does Ford Expect To Get From This Hire?

Stern will lead the newly formed Integrated Services unit to create and market software-enabled customer experiences across 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Ford Blue, Model e and Ford Pro.

He began work at the Dearborn, Michigan-based company on Monday and is tasked with building out the business tied to Ford’s BlueCruise hands-free highway driving system and delivering new high-value services.

The company has more than 550,000 paid software and services subscribers, with Ford Pro commercial customers accounting for over 80%. Services include solutions for fleet management, telematics and EV charging.

Stern headed marketing for all Apple services, including the Apple Store, Apple Pay, Apple Music and Apple Maps until January this year. Before joining Apple in 2016, he was Time Warner Cable’s executive vice president and chief product, people and strategy officer. He began his career at McKinsey & Co.

Can Stern Help Ford Navigate Its EV Challenge?

While Tesla (TSLA) remains the leading EV maker in the U.S. by far, Ford, which sold a few more than 14,800 EVs in the second quarter, has begun to lag behind rival General Motors. General Motors (GM) sold more than 15,600 EVs in the same period.

Stern is join🍬ing the company as the auto industry transforms from gas engines to electric vehicles (EVs) and from human to autonomous driving. However,🗹 the company is not only looking to step up production of the actual vehicles but it is also thinking ahead by trying to build robust services around them.

“This is transformational because the cornerstone of our Ford+ plan is creating incredible customer services and experiences enabled by great hardware and software,” said Ford President and CEO Jim Farley, adding that Stern is crucial to creating a "strategically vital part of our business."