He said Ford would continue to invest in Silicon Valley technology firms after recently buying into Velodyne, which works on object detection around cars, and digital mapping company Civil Maps.
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“The first application of the fully autonomous vehicle will be commercial applications, whether it’s ride-hailing or parcel delivery”, Fields said, according to Recode.
FORD has thrown its hat into the autonomous ring today, announcing that it plans to have high-volume fully autonomous cars in production by 2021.
Ford did not specify if it will form any partnership with ride hailing companies, such as Uber or Lyft for its autonomous cars.
Ford’s latest announcement targets the launch of a vehicle capable of SAE Level 4 autonomy, which implies the fact that a auto will not require driver intervention to handle the tasks of driving. Its rival, General Motors, partnered up with Lyft and invested $500 million in the company.
“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”, he continued.
This year, Ford will triple its autonomous vehicle test fleet to be the largest test fleet of any automaker – bringing the number to about 30 self-driving Fusion Hybrid saloon on the roads in California, Arizona and MI, with plans to triple it again next year.
The driverless vehicle will incorporate laser radar navigation technology, known as LIDAR; 3-D mapping technology through its investment with Berkeley-based Civil Maps; acquired SAIPS machine-learning software; and the carmaker entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Nirenberg Neuroscience for software that experts say mimics human intelligence.
“As you can imagine, the experience inside a vehicle where you don’t have to take control changes everything”, said the company’s president, Mark Fields, at an event in Palo Alto, California.
The autonomous auto industry is growing fast as every vehicle manufacturer is going in that direction.
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He concluded, “Ford, by focusing on doubling its team size in Silicon Valley, is taking the right step by focusing on the software side of development, which is crucial for success with its autonomous roadmap”. Tesla and Mercedes have planned to add self-driving features to their cars, while Google and Apple are also working on their respective projects.
