Ford Autonomous Vehicles

History

2018: Creation of the company

On July 24, 2018 Ford announced creation of separate company which will focus on development of unmanned vehicles. The new child structure of the American auto giant received the name Ford Autonomous Vehicles.

It will deal with such issues as integration of the systems of the self-governed movement, development of self-propelled vehicles and advanced technologies, development of network "self-driving transport as service" and also business strategy development.

On the way of GM: Ford created separate company for unmanned vehicles

Thanks to Ford Autonomous Vehicles the car maker intends "accelerate business development of autonomous vehicles for the purpose of capitalization at the expense of market opportunities", said in the press release of Ford. In particular, in the company expect that closer cooperation between development teams of autonomous vehicles and solutions in the field of mobility will allow to develop quicker services and business models which will be useful both in present conditions, and during an era of formation of autonomous transport.

The new enterprise which is structurally allowing to attract third-party investments will be based in a campus Korktayn in Detroit and will control Ford share in the Argo AI startup which is engaged in development of technologies for pilotless cars.

Cherif of Sherif Marakby which before this appointment was the vice president of Ford and  managed department of autonomous vehicles and  electrification will become the CEO of Ford Autonomous Vehicles. In this quality it will be accountable to Board of Directors under the chairmanship of Marcy Klevorn, the executive vice president of Ford and the president of division Mobility.

After transition of Marakbi to a post of the CEO of Ford Autonomous Vehicles, Ted Ted Cannis, the global chief electrification officer, will head the Ford Team Edison command responsible for development and removal on the market of electric vehicles of the next generation. Team Edison at the same time will be still accountable to Jim Farley, the executive vice president and the president on global markets.

Activity of Ford Autonomous Vehicles will cover all aspects of development and monetization of pilotless cars

Ford is engaged in development of pilotless machines long ago and is going to invest in this business about $4 billion more till 2023. There are investments announced earlier in the amount of $1 billion in Argo AI company which Ford purchased in 2017.

Earlier other American automobile building corporation — General Motors — also selected development of robomobiles in Cruise Automation separate company. That attracted afterwards $2.25 billion investments from Softbank which estimated Cruise Automation at $11.5 billion.

Most likely, creating Ford Autonomous Vehicles, the company pursues the similar investment aims. The Reuters agency with reference to the sources reports that Ford conducted negotiations with potential investors, however character and that how far these discussions came, are unknown.^[1]

Robotics

Notes