Ford: straight to fully autonomous driving by 2021

[voyager]

No semi self-driving as a halfway stage.

A report by Bloomberg says Ford is going to skip a step and go straight to fully autonomous driving. The article says that is because engineers who are testing the company's self-driving vehicles are falling asleep at the wheel because there is so little for them to do.

In January, at CES in Las Vegas, Ford's Ken Washington told us that the company would have a fully autonomous car on the road by 2021: "The vehicles we are going to put in our 2021 fully autonomous ride service will not have a steering wheel, they won't have a brake pedal," he explained. "So this means there's no issue with drivers having to take over control because the vehicle will know how to handle all scenarios."

Driverless cars - no halfway house? - BBC News

 

[Sully's8]

No semi self-driving as a halfway stage.

A report by Bloomberg says Ford is going to skip a step and go straight to fully autonomous driving. The article says that is because engineers who are testing the company's self-driving vehicles are falling asleep at the wheel because there is so little for them to do.

In January, at CES in Las Vegas, Ford's Ken Washington told us that the company would have a fully autonomous car on the road by 2021: "The vehicles we are going to put in our 2021 fully autonomous ride service will not have a steering wheel, they won't have a brake pedal," he explained. "So this means there's no issue with drivers having to take over control because the vehicle will know how to handle all scenarios."

Driverless cars - no halfway house? - BBC News

Isn't Mobileye engaged with Ford now? Last I saw the motherboard and circuitry Ford was using took up the entire trunk. That's a lot of progress in 4 years.

Guess Kennedy said we'd get to the moon and we did. Maybe Ford has as many smart people as NASA. . . Lots of people in Dearborn making like Apollo 1 crew above I bet. . .

 

[gavine]

I hope the cars are light enough for a few adults to lift so they can move it out of the way when it gets stuck in a situation. There are too many edge cases (in my opinion) to forego the steering wheel and brakes altogether. At least have a steering wheel in the trunk that can be snapped-on in case manual override is needed.

 

[Bangor Bob]

I hope the cars are light enough for a few adults to lift so they can move it out of the way when it gets stuck in a situation. There are too many edge cases (in my opinion) to forego the steering wheel and brakes altogether. At least have a steering wheel in the trunk that can be snapped-on in case manual override is needed.

The military has drone operators. Why can't Ford? If the car gets "stuck" a human in a control center can tell it what to do. That could be nearly invisible to the passengers. (Assuming decent cellular coverage, etc...)

 

[ecarfan]

In January, at CES in Las Vegas, Ford's Ken Washington told us that the company would have a fully autonomous car on the road by 2021: "The vehicles we are going to put in our 2021 fully autonomous ride service will not have a steering wheel, they won't have a brake pedal," he explained. "So this means there's no issue with drivers having to take over control because the vehicle will know how to handle all scenarios."

Even by 2021 cars with no controls for humans may not be legal. It will be interesting to see how the future unfolds...

 

[Sully's8]

No semi self-driving as a halfway stage.

A report by Bloomberg says Ford is going to skip a step and go straight to fully autonomous driving. The article says that is because engineers who are testing the company's self-driving vehicles are falling asleep at the wheel because there is so little for them to do.

In January, at CES in Las Vegas, Ford's Ken Washington told us that the company would have a fully autonomous car on the road by 2021: "The vehicles we are going to put in our 2021 fully autonomous ride service will not have a steering wheel, they won't have a brake pedal," he explained. "So this means there's no issue with drivers having to take over control because the vehicle will know how to handle all scenarios."

Driverless cars - no halfway house? - BBC News

Big question though. . . EV or ICE?????? Hmmmmmm....different infrastructures required. . .

 

[Matias]

"Volvo has pledged it will accept responsibility for any crashes by its self-driving vehicles. Samuelsson said Level 3 could create confusion over who is legally liable for a crash.

“It should be black and white,” Samuelsson said. “With responsibility, you cannot tell anybody you are a bit responsible. Either you are responsible or you are not.”

I thinkt that will sell a lot of cars

 

[voyager]

I hope the cars are light enough for a few adults to lift so they can move it out of the way when it gets stuck in a situation.

They ought to be. They'd better be. They can be.
If the self-driving cars are clever and fast enough, they can avoid, evade situations that would get them in trouble. That means that they can be made lightweight, since they don't need the built-in safety measures normal cars feature. Since 99% of all car trips are done alone, the self-driver can be tiny too. Need more space (for family trips and alike), a multi-seat self-driver will pick you and your loved ones up.

 

[YBT]

Our system is SO GREAT that our engineers are falling asleep waiting for it to make a mistake! We've got this thing so figured out we're gonna skip right ahead to level 5. We're leading the game!

Oh, by the way - we won't have anything to release for AT LEAST 4 years, but we promise it's basically already amazing.

Yeah, sure

How long has Bloomberg been in the business of paid advertorials guised as reporting?

 

[igotzzoom]

In terms of having the technology of having a control-less, fully autonomous car on the road by 2021, sure it's possible. I don't think that means that all of Ford's '21 models will have no pedals or wheel. Also, as others have stated, I doubt Level 4 or 5 autonomous cars will be fully street-legal in all 50 states by then.

 

[voyager]

In any case... I don't see buses or so, or even big SUVs like the Faraday Future FF91 auto-pilot fluidly through city traffic. Size will matter. The FF91 is even three times larger than the first Smart car.