Ford says it 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 have no steering wheel or pedals,
will be used in the driverless taxi services that Ford said it expects
to dominate the market in the coming decade.
The carmaker said in a later investor call that it
expected to first roll out the driverless vehicles in big cities. The
cars would most-likely be hybrids rather than full electric vehicles or
cars with a conventional internal combustion engine, to ensure range and
minimise downtime needed for recharging.
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 on Tuesday, 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 Ford 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.
When it announced the deal last month, the German carmaker said it wanted to become the “number one in autonomous driving”.
No comments:
Post a Comment