Ford is planning to mass produce driverless cars and introduce them in commercial operation in a ride-hailing service by 2021.
To help speed up development of self-driving cars, Ford is investing in or collaborating with four startups on autonomous vehicle development.
The automaker is also doubling Silicon Valley team and more than doubling its headcount at Palo Alto campus.
According to Ford, its SAE level 4 vehicles would be devoid of brakes, gas pedals and steering wheel. This vehicle is being specifically designed for commercial mobility services including ride sharing and ride hailing.
Ford claims that it has been the first automaker to have publicly tested its vehicles at Mcity, a simulated urban environment on University of Michigan’s campus. The self-driving vehicles were operated in snow and in complete darkness to test LiDAR sensor development.
It has plans to deploy about 30 Fusion Hybrid self-driving vehicles, which would be three times more vehicles in its present autonomous vehicle test fleet. These will be tested on the roads of California, Arizona and Michigan.
Ford Global Product Development executive vice president and chief technical officer Raj Nair said: “Ford has been developing and testing autonomous vehicles for more than 10 years.
“We have a strategic advantage because of our ability to combine the software and sensing technology with the sophisticated engineering necessary to manufacture high-quality vehicles. That is what it takes to make autonomous vehicles a reality for millions of people around the world.”
Ford along with Chinese search engine, Baidu, are making a combined investment of $150m in Velodyne, a company working on light detection and ranging sensors (LiDAR).
The automaker used the Velodyne’s LiDAR system for high-resolution mapping and autonomous driving some 10 years ago.
Ford has acquired the Israel-based computer vision and machine learning company SAIPS to further strengthen its expertise in artificial intelligence and improve computer vision.
The automaker has also invested in Berkeley, California-based Civil Maps to further develop high-resolution 3D mapping capabilities.
Ford has entered into licensing agreement with Nirenberg Neuroscience, machine vision company founded by Dr. Sheila Nirenberg who worked on the neural code on the ways through which eyes transmit information to the brain. This led to some improvements in computer vision.
Ford vice president, Research and Advanced Engineering Ken Washington said: “Our presence in Silicon Valley has been integral to accelerating our learning and deliverables driving Ford Smart Mobility.
“Our goal was to become a member of the community. Today, we are actively working with more than 40 startups, and have developed a strong collaboration with many incubators, allowing us to accelerate development of technologies and services.”
