Ford to build self-driving taxi fleet

Ford has announced an ambitious plan to take on Uber and other ride-sharing services by developing a self-driving taxi fleet within the next five years.

The Blue Oval plans to invest millions in a lidar sensor company with the plan of bringing a fully autonomous fleet of vehicles to major cities by 2021.

The car-maker’s global chief executive, Mark Fields, told an event in Silicon Valley this week that the vehicle would be “specifically designed for commercial mobility services” and built in high volumes.

It means Ford’s offering will be fundamentally different to self-driving cars from other mainstream manufacturers, which are predominantly fitted with a steering wheel and pedals.

“Ford is going to be mass-producing vehicles with full autonomy in five years,” Fields said in an online broadcast. “There’s going to be no steering wheel, there’s not going to be a gas pedal, there’s not going to be a brake pedal and of course a driver is not going to be required.”

Central to Ford’s plan is a circa $A100 million investment in Velodyne, a tech company that specialises in lidar sensors, along with investment in 3D mapping specialist Civil Maps.

The car-maker said it would also double its Silicon Valley workforce to bring the plan together, adding another 260 employees by year’s end.

Ford is already heavily invested in autonomous tech. It has begun conducting closed tests with autonomous cars in three US locations.

Just how far Ford plans on taking its concept is not yet known. The car-maker hasn’t ruled out working with ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft, companies that already have arrangements with Toyota and General Motors.

“The next decade will be defined by automation of the automobile, and we see autonomous vehicles as having as significant an impact on society as Ford’s moving assembly line did 100 years ago,” said Fields.

“We’re dedicated to putting on the road an autonomous vehicle that can improve safety and solve social and environmental challenges for millions of people – not just those who can afford luxury vehicles."