Ford’s head of research believes we all may have to wait a while longer than some automakers suggest in order to be chauffeured in true fully autonomous vehicles.
The American automaker is now developing a Level 4 autonomous vehicle, one that doesn’t require a steering wheel or pedals, to be used in a ride-sharing service in the year 2021.
However, Ford VP of research & advanced engineering, Ken Washington, says that individual consumers won’t be getting those cars until five to ten years after their initial ride-sharing fleet debut, as reported by Autonews.
Already this timeline is looking a lot more conservative than the one suggested by CEO Mark Fields, who said that the automaker would come out with autonomous cars by the year 2025.
“It’s really hard to guess and predict the pace of the technology,” stated Washington. “Our current view is the adoption rates will be relatively gradual.”
That being said, Washington thinks fully-autonomous cars will undoubtedly be a reality, despite what’s expected to be a slow adoption rate.
“This is not science fiction,” he went on to say during a keynote address at the SAE WCX World Congress Experience. “This is not a research project. This is something we’re going to make happen, and others will, too.”
Ford has already agreed to pay $1 billion over five years to tech startup Argo AI, and is also working with companies like Velodyne (LiDAR maker), 3D-map maker Civil Maps, Nirenberg Neuroscience and machine learning company SAIPS.
“The revolution in computing is making things possible that was previously unfathomable. We need to be imagining these kinds of futures,” added the Ford exec, who then noted that while Silicon Valley tech companies such as Uber, Lyft, Google and Apple are also in the race to develop autonomous cars, they’re realizing that it’s not as easy as it sounds and that a partnership with an automaker can be very important.
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