Ford is laying out a timeline for its self-driving future, saying that the public won’t be able to purchase self-driving cars from the automaker until 2026.
But you won’t need to wait that long to get a ride in a self-driving vehicle from the blue oval brand, as Ford is developing a Level 4 self-driving vehicle that doesn’t have a steering wheel, gas or brake pedals, that will be available to the public as part of a ride-sharing service that will open in 2021.
Ford’s vice president of research and advanced engineering, Ken Washington, told that sales to individual customers won’t happen until at least five years after hitting car-sharing fleets, although he said it could take up to 10 years, bringing us to 2031.
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Washington is expecting gradual adoption rates for self-driving cars, though he did admit that it can be hard to predict the pace that technology will catch on.
Ford recently agreed to drop $1 billion into a technology startup called Argo Ai that is working on fully autonomous vehicles. Ford is also working with a number of other companies like Velodyne for its LiDar and Civil Maps for 3D mapping technology.
[Source: Automotive News]
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