Ford is not the only automobile manufacturing company across the world to launch its self-driving car. Still, the best thing about this upcoming concept is that the vehicles will have no steering wheels or pedals. This is one of the latest innovations that the company is working on and will be a surprising element for most of us.
Chief Executive and President of Ford Mark Fields is also said to be hiking investments in Silicon Valley technology firms, tripling their investment in semi-autonomous systems.
World-famous automobile manufacturers planned to offer fully automated driverless vehicles for their commercial ride-sharing in 2021. According to the company, they will build this unique design in order to take the lead in the global platform.
This will be for the first time when the company will be manufacturing the world’s first high-volume driverless vehicle. It is also said that the company will use this vehicle for ride-hailing services, and they might team with Uber to offer this great concept.
At their Palo Alto research and development lab, the official also said that “We are not in a race to be first, and we are also not bothered about our competitor General Motors which had already made their high-stakes play in riding services along with their $500 million investment in Lyft in the month of January.
Another declaration from the company’s CEO suggested that Ford is yet to finalize whether they will partner with Lyft, Uber, or any other agencies. As of now, all the options are on the table and open too.
Fields also said that “Our Company may also choose not to partner with any of the agencies and will roll own the upcoming unique services on its own.”
On this, Ford’s Chief Technical Officer Raj Nair stated that “Ford is not looking forward to offering an identical driverless car until 2025 as all the other companies are offering.” The official also added that “releasing self-driving cars first for ride-sharing would be the best way to touch the mass automobile market.”
Along with China’s biggest internet corporation, Baidu Inc., the company has jointly invested $150 million in Velodyne. The latter company has their expertise in making laser-based sensors, one of the major building blocks of self-driving cars. In this venture, Ford alone has invested $75 million.
According to one latest update, Ford is expecting to launch 30 self-driving fusion hybrid models in this current year and 90 in next year loaded with modern amenities like 4×4 wheels, excellent powertrain and fuel efficiency.
Conclusion
Ford has the full proof plan to manufacture driverless cars as they have the acquisition of SAIPS, which offers tools to design self-drive vehicles. Buyers have to wait as the company is yet to declare a lot in this context. So far, there is no final confirmation on the pricing model type, but it is sure that the model will surprise potential buyers and create great hype in the automotive industry across the world.