Ford Plans To Build Autonomous Vehicles For Ride-Sharing By 2021

Ford Motor Company recently announced that they plan to introduce an autonomous vehicle specifically designed for use in a ride-hailing or ride-sharing service by 2021. The automaker says that the vehicle would be "specifically designed for commercial mobility services" and be built in high volumes. Ford CEO Mark Fields said that when this groundbreaking new vehicle hits the streets in five years, it will, in essence, make human drivers obsolete.

"Ford is going to be mass-producing vehicles with full autonomy in five years," Fields said at an event in Silicon Valley. "There’s going to be no steering wheel, there’s not going to be a gas pedal, there’s not going to be a brake pedal and of course a driver is not going to be required."

Five years doesn't really give Ford a whole lot of time to accomplish this lofty goal, so they're investing in people and industry experts to help them get there quicker.

Ford, along with Chinese search engine giant Baidu, Inc., will each be investing $75 million in Velodyne, a company that manufacturers the lidar sensors that autonomous cars use to detect objects around the vehicle. The automaker will also invest in Civil Maps, a company that has developed a more efficient 3-D mapping technology.

The manufacturer has also acquired the Israeli company SAIPS, which helps autonomous vehicles learn to adapt to their surroundings and has reached an exclusive agreement with a "machine vision" company called Nirenberg Neuroscience.

Ford will also be increasing the work force at their Silicon Valley plant to 260, double the current number on staff today. They will also be expanding their work space from one 30,000-square-foot building to three buildings that total 180,000-square-feet.

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