Ford Motor Co. (FN) ended a plan to develop a next-generation electrical architecture, the brains of modern vehicles, that Ford executives had called critical to competing with electric vehicle pioneers such as Tesla Inc., three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Ford invested heavily in the system, known internally as FNV4 (Fully Connected Vehicle), to simplify vehicle software functions. The goal was to cut costs, improve quality and add profitable features to electric and gasoline-powered cars. The project was abandoned because of ballooning costs and delays, the sources said. A Ford spokesman said the company will apply lessons learned from developing FNV4 to existing software systems and will continue to focus on delivering advanced electrical architectures with its "skunkworks" team.