Ford Finally gets Autonomous

Ford announces testing of autonomous vehicles

Plans to begin in 2018

Photo from Fordmedia.com

Up until now, Ford has stayed quiet about its efforts in developing autonomous vehicles.

While Google's Waymo keeps its program seemingly front and center and Tesla isn't shy about its plans, Ford has been as silent as a Detroit winter when it comes to its autonomous vehicle platform.

Even GM has made it seem like Ford is invisible in the race for vehicle autonomy. But never late than never, and maybe it is part of a well thought out strategy, but Ford finally announced today, it will begin testing its autonomous platform in 2018.

And with the rollout of the announcement, Ford also expressed an early vision for its autonomous vehicle platform.Which is? Are you ready? Pizza delivery! It has partnered with Domino's for testing to possibly make pizza delivery an entry point for Ford vehicles in the autonomous vehicle market.

Perhaps that was the reason for the lack of publicity. Ford wanted to corner the pizza delivery market and get the jump on everyone else. The amount of pizza we consume, we may look back at it as the most obvious choice in utilizing driverless vehicles - just not sure how the pies are going to get from the car into customer's hands. Drones maybe? It's all so exciting.

But Ford is serious about its autonomous driving program. It plans on investing a billion over the next five years in driving tech start-up Argos and have something ready for the market by 2021. Google has Waymo, Tesla seems to be doing it on its own, and GM has Cruise automotive.

Experts have been impressed by GM's ability to close the gap with Google and Tesla over the past year. It is uncertain exactly where Ford is at with their program. Piling up the miles delivering the pies might just catch it up quicker than we think. From CNBC 

Google's Waymo begins testing in winter conditions in Detroit of all places

After millions of miles of testing in warm weather and occasional rain, Waymo is looking northward to introduce its system to the wild and wooly experience of winter driving.

It will do so right under the nose of some of its competitors in Detroit. But Waymo does have an autonomous center in Detroit and works with Chrysler.

With GM right there with them on the icy roads of Michigan testing in the upcoming winter, and Ford doing so as well, it will be interesting to see which of these will have the fewest problems with the snow and ice. From CNBC