Ford Motor Co intends to have a fully driverless vehicle — no steering wheel, no pedals — on the road within five years. The car would initially be used for commercial ride-hailing or ride-sharing services, with sales to consumers coming later.
“This is a transformational moment in our industry and it is a transformational moment for our company,” Ford CEO Mark Fields said on Tuesday as he announced the plan at Ford’s Silicon Valley campus in Palo Alto, California.
Ford’s approach to the autonomous car breaks from many other companies, such as Mercedes-Benz and Tesla Motors Inc, which plan to gradually add self-driving capability to traditional cars.
Instead, Ford is taking the same approach as Alphabet Inc’s Google, which supports moving directly to self-driving cars once the technology is perfected.
“We abandoned the stepping-stone approach of driver-assist technologies and decided we were going to take the full leap,” Ford chief technical officer Raj Nair said.
Nair said Ford would continue developing systems that assist the driver, such as automatic emergency braking or lane departure warning.
However, semi-autonomous systems that can operate the car, but then cede control back to the driver when an obstacle is encountered are actually dangerous in Ford’s view, he said.
Engineers could not figure out how to make sure drivers stay engaged and ready to take over, so Ford decided to remove the driver altogether.
Ford’s vehicle is to be specifically designed for commercial mobility services and is to be available in high volumes.
The company did not say whether it would work with a ride-sharing partner or try to establish services on its own.
General Motors Co has a partnership with the ride-hailing company Lyft Inc and has also bought a self-driving software company called Cruise Automation Inc.
Ford also said it plans to double the staff at its Palo Alto research center by the end of next year to nearly 300 people.
It is to buy two more buildings next to its current building to expand its campus, Fields said.
Ford is also to make several investments and partnerships to speed its development of autonomous vehicles.
Ford and Chinese search engine company Baidu Inc (百度) are each to invest US$75 million in Velodyne Inc, a company that makes laser sensors that help guide self-driving cars.
Velodyne, based in Morgan Hill, California, said it would use the US$150 million investment to expand design and production and reduce the cost of its sensors.
Laser sensors — dubbed LIDAR, which stands for light, detection and ranging — can also be used in conventional vehicles as part of driver-assist systems.
Ford said it has acquired Israel-based computer vision and machine learning company SAIPS for its expertise in “artificial intelligence” and computer vision.
It also invested in Berkeley, California-based Civil Maps for its three-dimensional mapping capabilities.
Ford has also formed a partnership with New York-based Nirenberg Neuroscience LLC, a machine-vision company that has developed devices for restoring sight to patients with degenerative eye diseases.
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