The company said it plans to put autonomous vehicles on the road in 2021 through ride-hailing fleets, and it will start selling them to individual drivers in the second half of that decade.
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Ford will this year triple its autonomous vehicle test fleet, which will bring the number to about 30 self-driving Fusion Hybrid sedans, with plans to again triple it next year.
To do so, Ford is investing in four startup groups that specialize in making cars go without the help of a human.
Based out of Dearborn, Michigan, Ford also announced an expansion of Ford’s presence in Silicon Valley, which will include creating a research and innovation campus, doubling the size of the company’s Palo Alto staff, and investing in new partnerships with companies working on self-driving technology.
Laser sensors – called Lidar, which stands for light, detection and ranging – can also be used in conventional vehicles as part of driver assist systems such as automatic emergency braking.
The self-driving technology inside the vehicle will be built by a number of separate companies including Velodyne, which makes LIDAR sensors; SAIPS, an Israeli company that specializes in machine learning and computer vision; Nirenberg Neuroscience and 3D-mapping company Civil Maps. “This is a transformational moment in industry”, Fields said, “and a transformational moment for our company”.
The company entered an exclusive licensing agreement with Nirenberg Neuroscience LLC, who was founded by neuroscientist Dr. Sheila Nirenberg. The auto will be in operation for ride-hailing and ride-sharing services.
Ford says its new vehicle won’t need a steering wheel or gas and brake pedals.
For example, riders may have a hard time fully trusting autonomous cars, but semi-autonomous cars can be unsafe because drivers may not understand what the vehicles can and cannot do, he said.
It expects to have 30 test self-driving Fusion Hybrid cars on the road in California Arizona and MI this year, and 90 next year. It will also expand its research and development facilities in Palo Alto, California.
This isn’t the first time Ford has said it will have self-driving cars on the road in the near future.
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Ford will add two new buildings and lab space to its Silicon Valley research center, which opened early a year ago and boasts 130 researchers, engineers and scientists.
