Ford announced that it is working with Lyft to bring self-driving cars to market.
Sherif Marakby, Ford Vice President, Autonomous Vehicles and Electrification, wrote about the endeavor on Medium. He notes that businesses, government and the public will habe to work together.
While Ford is developing self-driving technology — through it’s self-driving vehicle and Argo AI’s virtual driver system —the company is simultaneously building out the infrastructure and systems necessary to make it easy for people to use the service.
Ford and Lyft have fleet management and big data experience they will be answer these questions:
- How a technology platform could effectively dispatch a self-driving vehicle?
- Which cities will work to deliver self-driving vehicle services?
- What kind of infrastructure will be necessary to service and maintain a fleet of self-driving vehicles to ensure they are available whenever a consumer needs one?
Their efforts are building a service based around actual people’s needs and wants. The partners placing a high priority on safety and dependability so customers will trust the experience that their self-driving technology will one day enable.
While they are working together they don’t plan to put customers in autonomusly driven rides until they are certain tht the technology delivers a positive, reassuring experience with meaningful feedback.
The goal is to acclerate efforts for profitable self-driving vehicle business.