The Future Of Ford Is Autonomous Vehicles

Quite the contrary, Ford announced plans to triple its autonomous vehicle development fleet and use a new-generation sensor technology to accelerate its development plan.

Ford now has 10 autonomous driving cars on the road in California, Arizona and MI.

Ford also said it is creating a number of Fusion Hybrid autonomous vehicles and speeding up the development and testing of its virtual driver software in both urban and suburban environments.

Mr. Fields, in responding to whether Ford would need to form a new subsidiary or company to make a strategic investment in ride-sharing, said that “we are open to all possibilities”.

Fields said Ford didn’t include gas-electric hybrid technology in its 2017 GT supercar – which he’s called a showcase for its latest technology – because much of the focus of the GT is on making it lighter, and the battery parts would weigh down the vehicle.

Ford says the vehicles will continued to be tested at the University of Michigan- and on public streets in the state. The newest generation of sensor, which will be fitted to the newly expanded test fleet, has a range of more than 200 meters and is capable of handling multiple driving scenarios. Ford will be using a new lidar sensor from Morgan Hill, Calif.-based Velodyne Acoustics that can be hidden in side-view mirrors.

Separately, Ford said it is developing ways to pair millions of SYNC-equipped vehicles globally with home automation devices or smart home products. Alphabet Inc’s Google has been testing self-driving cars of various kinds, including some of its own design, since 2009.

“We anticipate developments in the shared, autonomous and electric vehicle space to be even more pronounced in 2016”, Mr. Jonas wrote in a report, “with non-traditional/software firms aligning resources and strategies to potentially revolutionize vehicular transport”.

The company said it’s also looking to alternatives to auto ownership, something that sounds similar to a deal announced on Monday between GM and car-hailing app Lyft.

The company’s first-generation autonomous vehicle platform was built upon a F-250 Super Duty chassis for participation in the DARPA challenges a decade ago.

Fields has said that he expects some automaker to have an autonomous vehicle on the road by 2020.

Among announcements of partnerships with Amazon, DJI and Velodyne, Fields did not confirm recent rumours that Ford and Google were holding hands in a possible tie-up between the two global business giants.