AC

DEARBORN, Mich. -- Don't get your hopes up for seeing swarms of flying cars in 30 years, cautions Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford Motor and one of the leading visionaries in the auto industry. But he sees developments in the future of ground transportation over the next three decades that will be just as exciting: a world in which cars will run on electricity, hydrogen or other energy alternatives and will be interconnected with smartphones in ways that make getting from one place to another more efficient and safer than ever. "I can't wait. I think it's exciting," says the 55-year-old great-grandson of founder Henry Ford, who revolutionized ground transportation in the 20th century. "It once again is an opportunity to make people's lives better." Bill Ford has a track record of forward-thinking. He was an early auto industry advocate for environmentalism in the 21st century, at a time when automakers were addicted to sales of ever-growing SUVs. As Ford Motor's CEO from...