Leading motor company Ford Motor took another step towards innovation by announcing driverless cars to be delivered on the roads within five years. Ford intends to have cars without steering wheels and pedals, thus creating a new age of transformation. Initially, the cars will be used only for commercial purposes like ride-sharing services. Personal ownership of cars will come later. Earlier companies like Mercedes-Benz, BMW AG have also planned to add the semi-autonomous facility to the cars. Ford says with semi-autonomous cars it might be dangerous as the driver may not be able to get when to take over the control of the car.
But Ford’s approach to completely remove the driver to achieve full autonomy will also face challenges. Riders may take a long time to trust the driverless facility. Ford’s chief technical Raj Nair said that Ford will continue evolving systems that support the drivers. For this new leap, Ford Motor is hiking investments in Silicon Valley technology firms and more. It is planning to triple the size of its self-driving test fleet this year. The automaker is also doubling the size of its Silicon Valley research team in Palo Alto to more than 300. Ford and Baidu, China’s largest internet company jointly invested $150 million in Velodyne, which is known for making laser-based sensors. Ford’s another investment in Civil Maps is also a major building block in autonomous cars as the firm is developing advanced mapping for the cars. Further investments are also to be made to help speed development of self-driving cars.
Ford CEO Mark Fields calls this a major leap in the transformational industry. He also said that Ford is currently focusing on the development of technologies such as computer vision, robotics and machine learning.
Well after this announcement the world is eagerly waiting for this launch to see a major change in the automobile industry.
