Ford Will Have Volume Production Of Full Autonomous Vehicles In Five Years

Ford’s global CEO Mark Fields could not have put it any clearer: “Ford is going to be mass-producing vehicles with full autonomy in five years,” he said. “There’s going to be no steering wheel, there’s not going to be a gas pedal, there’s not going to be a brake pedal and of course a driver is not going to be required.”

Mr Fields was in Silicon Valley, California – headquarters of the world’s IT industry - where he announced a doubling of its workforce there as the company presses ahead with its autonomous vehicle plans.

He also announced Ford and Chinese search engine company Baidu Inc are investing $US75 million into Velodyne, a manufacturer of lidar sensors (an object detection device which works with cameras and radar to give vehicles a 360-degree view) and 3-D mapping company Civil Maps.