I am unsurprised at the Ford POV as they would inevitably favour a private ownership model, not one which may likely undermine their very existence.
Free at the point of use is an interesting concept but unlikely to be attractive to most - adoption would need to be forced unless frequency was very high. Although private ownership costs are high, most compare costs of public transport with marginal (mostly fuel) cost of a private car.
It would however be interesting to model the resources required to fully provide a medium size town (population say 60k) with a free at the point of use, frequent, comprehensive and regular public transport service.
Technology has moved on in 50 years. 52% of all trips are less than 3 miles, and 80% less than 10 miles. Only 2% are greater than 50 miles. The optimal solution may be small EV autonomous pods summoned by app for all urban journeys of less than (say) 10 miles.
This would provide 90%+ of the functionality of a private car (door to door, on demand etc) with additional capability - no parking issues, children and disabled users. Design of housing, roads, city centres, retail parks could eliminate much currently devoted to parking spaces.
The typical private car sits idle for 23 hours a day - although there would be demand peaks, utilisation of autonomous EVs would be substantially better.