They may prove to be more altruistic, in practice, since they do a better job of serving groups of customers, such as millennials, that the big banks have done a lousy job of serving or have overlooked altogether.
Nor do we want pharmacy clerks, sick with the flu, serving hundreds of customers.
"This deal is a leap forward from serving millions of customers to billions," Mr. Armstrong said in an interview.
With the emerging popularity of the internet, many applications are deployed on the internet and have faced the challenge of serving thousands of customers.
It currently works with 15,000 restaurants across 250 cities serving "millions" of customers.
Ford's long-term plans include bringing an autonomous ride-sharing business to market at scale by 2021, with the aim of serving "millions" of customers.
Its cable TV division also serves millions of customers, but faces growing competition from Shaw Communications, its largest rival.
The interruption, which began Friday morning, affected 22,000 circuits across California, each of which potentially serves hundreds of customers, said a Pacific Bell spokesman, John Britton.
The company now works with hundreds of thousands of drivers to serve millions of customers.
The spokeswoman added that McDonald's serves millions of customers a day in Russia, and wanted minimal disruption for them.
