The company also said on Tuesday that as part of the effort, it planned to expand its Palo Alto centre, doubling the number of employees who work there over the next year, from the current 130.
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The investment comes as competition heats up between automakers and tech companies looking to gain an early lead in the evolving transportation revolution.
The investment, announced early Tuesday by the Silicon Valley tech firm, is meant to speed development of laser-based sensors and broaden its use in advanced driver assistance systems and eventually in self-driving cars.
“Ford is going to be mass-producing vehicles with full autonomy in five years”, said CEO Mark Fields at an event in Silicon Valley seen in a video below. The autonomous driving system steers, brakes, accelerates, monitors the environment, and serves as its own backup system if something goes wrong. It is being specifically designed for commercial mobility services, such as ride sharing and ride hailing, and will be available in high volumes.
The vehicle will qualify for what the Society of Automotive Engineers has defined as “level 4” autonomous functionality, taking complete control of the driving experience and denying the occupant any option to take over steering or to affect speed. Rival General Motors Co. has a partnership with the ride-hailing company Lyft and has also bought a self-driving software company called Cruise Automation.
The technology lets self-driving cars see and avoid what’s around them, even in the dark. There were more than 35,000 traffic fatalities in the United States previous year, and 94% of those accidents were caused by human error, according to federal safety regulators. This month, the components maker Delphi announced that it was working with the government of Singapore to develop a ride service to shuttle people to and from mass transit stations in the country’s business district.
For example, Ford does not have a ride-sharing partner as GM does in Lyft, Krebs said.
The death of a Tesla driver in May who was using the company’s “Autopilot” system but had his hands off the wheel has underscored the confusion over drivers’ responsibilities in a semi-autonomous vehicle.
“We believe in our plan that taking the driver out of the loop is really important”, Fields said. “There are still missing pieces”.
Ford and the Chinese search engine company Baidu will each invest $75 million in Velodyne, a company that makes laser sensors that help guide self-driving cars.
Nair says Ford will continue developing systems that assist the driver, like automatic emergency braking or lane departure warning.
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“We’re not in a race to be first”, Fields said at the company’s Palo Alto research and development lab, adding he was not concerned that rival General Motors had made a high-stakes play in ride services with its Dollars 500 million investment in Lyft in January. Ford didn’t disclose financial details of either deal.
