San Francisco (AFP) – US automaker Ford aims to deliver large quantities in 2021 fully autonomous vehicles for commercial services shared or booking taxis cars, he announced
“Ford will produce in series of vehicles able to run completely autonomously within five years. no flying. no acceleration pedal. no brakes. A driver shall not be required,” he commented the head of Ford, Mark Fields, in a message on the Medium blogging site.
to achieve this goal, the group unveiled a series of partnerships with startups, including Velodyne, a California manufacturer sensors used on autonomous cars in which he performed with the Chinese internet group Baidu joint investment of $ 150 million.
Velodyne specializes in so-called laser sensors Lidar (light, detection and ranging) for creating digital 3D images used to map the environment, locate and identify objects and avoid collisions. The company says to collect accurate data to the centimeter within 200 meters.
“Our investment is a clear sign of our commitment to making autonomous vehicles available to consumers around the world” commented Raj Nair, an official from Ford.
Ford has also announced the acquisition of Israeli society SAIPS, specializing in artificial intelligence especially when it allows a computer to “see” and identify things around him.
the group also evokes an exclusive licensing agreement with Nirenberg Neuroscience, another company specialized in artificial intelligence and vision, which should help to “provide intelligence similar to that of human to computer learning modules of the virtual driver of its autonomous vehicles “
-. stronger presence in Silicon Valley –
Ford had invested earlier this year in two other California companies: in may, he injected a bit more than $ 180 million in Pivotal, specializing in software may alternatively be used for connected cars, and in July he attended a lifting of Civil Maps fund which uses artificial intelligence to make 3D mapping in high definition.
the automotive group has sought in recent years in parallel to expand its presence in Silicon Valley, where he had opened a center early 2015 research in Palo Alto currently employing more than 130 researchers, engineers and scientists.
He announced Tuesday his intention to turn it into a true “campus”, like the headquarters of industry giants technology, adding two new buildings and doubling the workforce by the end of next year.
It also has triple again in 2017 for the second consecutive year, its fleet of cars without driver used for tests in the US, which will cover the approximately 90 vehicles.
“the next decade will be defined by the automation of the automobile,” said Mark Fields Tuesday, saying convinced that “autonomous vehicles will have an important impact on society than the Ford assembly line of a century ago.”
Henry Ford made the automobile general public reach with automated mass production. Mark Fields said in turn want to put on the roads “an autonomous vehicle that can improve safety and solve social and environmental problems for millions of people –not only those who can afford luxury vehicles.”
however, Ford will have to deal with strong competition. Most major automakers, and a host of big names in the technology sector, starting with Google, are working on projects without car driver.
The German BMW announced in particular beginning July 1 Intel partnership with American and Israeli Mobileye to become the “number one independent car”, promising him as mass production by 2021.
No comments:
Post a Comment