Ford Vows to Launch Driverless Car by 2021

Ford Motor Co. says it expects to put a “fully autonomous” vehicle into commercial operation for ride-hailing or ride-sharing services by 2021.

Ford says the vehicle won’t have a steering wheel or foot pedals. Like the self-driving pod being developed by Google Inc., the car will be intended exclusively for commercial mobility services and won't be sold to private owners.

The car will meet SAE’s definition of “level 4” autonomy, according to the company. That means the vehicle will be able to drive itself without human intervention in most but not all driving conditions. A level 5 car can drive automatically under every driving situation.

Earlier today Ford announced it was doubling the staff at its Silicon Valley development team in Palo Alto, Calif. It also said it has invested in laser sensor, vision analysis software and mapping companies. In addition, Ford has licensed a machine vision platform it will use to give its autonomous vehicle “humanlike intelligence.”

Ford began testing autonomous driving technologies a decade ago. The company says it will expand its fleet of self-driving test vehicles to 90 in 2017.