Ford plans to build a fully autonomous car, no steering wheel and pedals, by 2021. Announced today at the company’s Research and Innovation Center in Palo Alto, California, Ford said its autonomous car will be built “for commercial mobility services, such as ride sharing and ride hailing.”
In order to get their autonomous car on the road (in a mere five years), Ford has partnered with a number of technology startups: Velodyne, SAIPS, Nirenberg Neuroscience, and Civil Maps. Where Velodyne provides LIDAR sensors (the spinning hardware seen on most autonomous vehicles), SAIPS develops computer vision software, and Civil Maps generates 3D-maps. Not to mention the automaker has pumped millions into autonomous transportation development; earlier today, Ford announced a hefty funding round of $75 million for Velodyne’s LIDAR.
The automaker also plans to double its Palo Alto research team from 130 people to 260 by the end of next year.
Companies such as Tesla already employ limited autonomy in their vehicles and hope to have ride-sharing services by 2018, as stated in Elon Musk’s Master Plan Part Deux. But like Google, Ford has plans for high-automation or SAE Level 4. This calls for scrapping the steering wheel and pedals and not requiring a driver in certain situations (region and route specific). For example, a car could be locked to a certain region and take a specified route to the destination.
During the announcement earlier today, Ford told multiple news outlets that they plan to sell the autonomous cars to ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft. Eventually, when the cost of owning an autonomous car lowers, Ford could make their autonomous vehicle available to consumers. For now, they speculate personal autonomous vehicle ownership will arrive a few years after they introduce a ride-hailing service. Although, Ford didn’t mention who it plans to partner with (or if they’ll make their own).
Ford has plans to increase its fleet of autonomous test cars in California, Michigan, and Arizona to thirty. It hopes to triple the fleet again by 2017.
Via: Recode Source: Ford Image: Ford
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