Ford Moves to Next Level on Robotic Car Development

Ford Motor Co. says it is moving from research on self-driving vehicles to advanced engineering, the final step before commercializing the necessary technologies.

The process will be coordinated by a new autonomous-vehicle team headed by Rand Visintainer, a 29-year Ford veteran. The effort includes Ford's Research and Innovation Center in Palo Alto, Calif.

Over the next five years Ford expects to begin introducing driver-assist technologies a precursor to fully self-driving capabilities across its product lineup. The company, which already offers pre-collision assist and pedestrian detection systems in Europe, says it will introduce those options in the U.S. in a single Ford-brand model in 2016.