Ford Set To Launch Fleet Of Robot Taxis And Delivery Vehicles Across Washington

Ford will begin testing self-driving cars in the District early next year and plans to launch commercially in Washington, Miami and other unnamed cities starting in 2021.

‘We’ll be working with local officials in Washington, D.C., to ensure that we test our self-driving vehicles in all eight of the district’s wards — and eventually operate business pilot programs in all eight wards as well — as we work toward deployment of a commercial service in 2021, said Sherif Marakby, president and chief executive of Ford Autonomous Vehicles.

Ford said local politician’s openness to driverless car was key to the decision to launch the first service  there.

‘This technology holds the potential to change our world far beyond our nation’s capital, but D.C. is an ideal place to continue building the foundation for a great service — one that helps free up our roads, ease congestion and improve people’s access to the services they need.’

Current city law requires a backup safety driver in autonomous cars, though officials said they would work, in coordination with Ford, to update those and other rules.

Ford says it will run hundreds of vehicles in some cities, and more than a thousand in others, depending on demand.

Ford only recently set up the autonomous vehicle unit, Ford Autonomous Vehicles, Marakby heads up.

‘Ford has made tremendous progress across the self driving value chain – from technology development to business model innovation to user experience,’ said Jim Hackett, president and CEO, Ford Motor Company.

‘Now is the right time to consolidate our autonomous driving platform into one team to best position the business for the opportunities ahead.’

Ford said local politician’s openness to driverless car was key to the decision to launch the first service there.

The unit is based at Ford’s Corktown campus in Detroit and will hold Ford’s ownership stake in Argo AI – its Pittsburgh-based partner for self-driving system development.

Ford said the $4 billion investment includes the $1 billion it announced in Argo AI last year.

Ford and BMW both plan to deploy self-driving cars in 2021.

Tesla has talked about creating a network of self-driving cars and Uber says it is sticking with a development effort despite an accident in which its self-driving car killed a woman in Arizona.

The No.1 U.S. automaker General Motors Co already has an autonomous vehicle unit, Cruise, which it acquired in 2016.

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