The company is building a “high-volume, fully autonomous” vehicle ready for 2021, it has said.
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In Ford’s ambitious plan, the company will roll out cars with no steering wheel, gas pedal, or brake pedal, completely eliminating the ability of a human driver to take over.
The US automaker said it was fueling the effort with ramped up investments in technology and by doubling the size of the team at its autonomous-car campus in Silicon Valley.
The announcement was made by Ford’s President and CEO Mark Fields at an event in Palo Alto, California.
Ford announced its plan to have fully autonomous vehicles on the roads by 2021.
It is being specifically designed for commercial mobility services, such as ride sharing and ride hailing, and will be available in high volumes. “We’re dedicated to putting on the road an autonomous vehicle that can improve safety and solve social and environmental challenges for millions of people – not just those who can afford luxury vehicles”.
Ford says that autonomous vehicles in 2021 are part of Ford Smart Mobility, the company’s plan to be a leader in autonomous vehicles, as well as in connectivity, mobility, the customer experience, and data and analytics.
In addition, Ford has acquired an Israel-based company called SAIPS that helps vehicles learn and adapt to their surroundings, and reached an exclusive licensing agreement with a “machine vision” company called Nirenberg Neuroscience.
Nirenberg Neuroscience LLC: The vehicle manufacturer has an exclusive licensing agreement with the machine vision business. Ford has a longstanding relationship with Velodyne, and used the sensors for high-resolution mapping for 10 years. The company will be adding two new buildings and 150,000 square feet of work and lab space which will be adjacent to the current Research and Innovation Center.
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The investment to gear up expansion in autonomous driving comes at a time when Baidu’s traditional search business has been weakened by the tighter controls over internet advertisements, and it is looking at driverless vehicles to become a new engine to spur the company’s growth.
