Autonomous vehicles are becoming more of a recurrent theme in the automotive industry. More and more vehicle manufacturers are announcing release years of their self-driving cars, and Ford just announced its autonomous car for the year 2021. They claim that the new car, which will come to market after rigorous development and testing, will neither have a steering wheel nor pedals.
The first models will be used by ride-sharing services like Uber to introduce the vehicle to the mainstream and get feedback from the general market. Ford has doubled the staff on the independent Silicon Valley team responsible for testing the company’s autonomous car technology in an attempt to speed up the process. According to an article by Time, Ford is also buying companies like the computer startup SAIPS that will complement its autonomous development.
Ford’s autonomous car will be using LiDAR and a series of sensors and cameras to formulate a virtual map of the vehicle’s surroundings. In initial models, the sensors will be located on top of the cars but are expected to be integrated inside the car in later ones. Watch the video below:
Even at present, Ford is testing a variety of autonomous cars and hope to triple their numbers by the end of 2016. The 2021 autonomous vehicle goal seems somewhat ambitious but maybe, with the boost in testing and production and simultaneous investment in novel sensor technologies, Ford can eventually achieve it in the next five years.
Let us know what you think of Ford’s 2021 goal!