Ford committed to self-driving cars
LAS VEGAS – Ford Motor Co. on Tuesday announced its Smart Mobility project, a series of 25 experiments and innovation challenges designed to rethink how the company and its customers interact with vehicles.
Ford president and CEO Mark Fields told a capacity crowd at the Consumer Electronics Show that four “mega-trends” are driving the American auto manufacturer’s short- and long-term planning.
Fields highlighted how urbanization, the growth of the global middle class, air quality and changing consumer trends and priorities stand poised to revolutionize the automotive industry.
“These four mega-trends are changing the way we view innovation and mobility at Ford,” Fields said.
On urbanization, Fields said that population projections and existing mobility infrastructure will soon reach an impasse necessitating smarter cars, roads and cities.
And, he said, as the global middle class is projected to double to 4 billion people by 2030, more and more vehicles will continue to tax highways and street systems.
Speaking on consumer trends, Fields specifically mentioned how millennials are turning the convention of marriage, kids, homeownership, etc., on end.
“As consumers, (millennials) behave very differently … particularly when it comes to mobility.”
Enter Ford Smart Mobility.
Raj Nair, Ford’s CTO, said that existing driver assistance technology like rearview cameras and active parking will ultimately lead to fully autonomous vehicles.
“There absolutely will be a Ford autonomous vehicle in the future,” Nair said.
Fields described an ongoing Ford Smart Mobility experiment that’s gathering data collected from employee vehicles equipped with a plug-in that captures approximately 25 gigabytes per hour.
He drew a round of applause describing how Ford is committed to only using data with a customer opt-in and with “full transparency.”
Big data, Fields said, “will play a critical role in determining our future. We believe customers own their data.”
Experiments highlighted include remotely driven golf carts shuttling administrators around the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta; a data-driven insurance program in London; on-demand point-to-point shuttle service and applications that find open parking spaces in urban centers.
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