Without going on a spiel about the realities (often times) of working for startups, I'd say that - if Ford gets/hires the right people, I can't see a major reason not to consider them over many an SV startup. They at the least should have resources.

People can make a difference in a startup if it takes off. They can also make a difference by doing a small part of the work of a huge company which half the people in the world have heard about and from which hundreds of millions of people buy very expensive, important products.

If Ford can convince us that working for them is a path toward making motoring better for a hundred thousand people per vehicle model, wouldn't we be interested? Or are we only up for hacking on prototypes whose main hope of mass production is getting acquired by a major maker?

Different strokes I guess.

My main point was that at a startup I most likely would have the opportunity to shape the engineering culture, hire people, architect, and build a company from the ground up. I wouldn't have to deal with the horrifying corporate culture that comes with any massive company.