Ford races for fully self-driving car
- Author:naky
- Source:www.diecastingpartsupplier.com
- Release on:2016-08-22
Ford will build a totally self-driving car by 2021 as it seeks to take the lead in the global race to produce the world’s first high-volume driverless vehicle.The car, which will not have a steering wheel or pedals, will be used in the driverless taxi services with which Ford said it expects to dominate the market in the coming decade.
The company announced a suite of investments in technology groups, including one alongside Chinese search engine Baidu, and a doubling of its operation in Silicon Valley yesterday, to bolster its position in the race to develop the autonomous technology that is expected to revolutionise the motor industry.
“There’s a real business rationale for this,” said chief executive Mark Fields. “Vehicle autonomy could have as big an impact on society as the Ford mass assembly line had over 100 years ago.”He said the cars will be “specifically designed for commercial” services such as ride-booking or ride-sharing.
The move pits Ford directly against Google and Apple as well as rival car manufacturers such as BMW, which has formed a joint partnership with Intel and Mobileye to develop a fully driverless vehicle by 2021.But Ford has announced a number of investments it hopes will give it the edge over its rivals. The company has bought Israeli machine learning group SAIPS, as well as investing $75m in laser-based driverless system company Velodyne Lidar and forming an exclusive deal with vision-processing group Nirenberg Neuroscience. The investment in Velodyne was made alongside Baidu.
Ford previously invested in Californian mapping group Civil Maps.A number of carmakers have entered deals with technology companies.Fiat has done a deal to collaborate with Google to develop autonomous minivans, while Toyota has taken a stake in Uber and Volkswagen has invested in Gett, the taxi-booking service.General Motors earlier this year invested $500m in Lyft, a taxi service.