Thursday, September 28, 2017

Lyft and Ford work together on Self-Driving vehicles








Ford in last week of September 2017 made a significant step toward bringing self-driving vehicles to the masses thanks to a new partnership with Lyft that will help both companies progress toward a more affordable, dependable and accessible transportation future. Amazing to us since GM owns a large piece of Lyft.  We understand Ford will cooperate with others the same way they are working with Lyft.

“We know the technology has the potential to have a profound impact, but it’s time to look beyond the potential and talk about how it can be applied in helpful ways to create a viable business,” said Sherif Marakby, Ford’s vice president for autonomous vehicles and electrification.

Ford appears to be doubling down on its push toward autonomous vehicles with a Wednesday announcement of a partnership with Lyft, the nation’s second largest ride-hailing service. Together, the companies aim to create a fleet of self-driving cars that will provide taxi service in major urban areas by 2021.

The companies hope that when you open the Lyft app during a period of high demand, Ford and Lyft software will need to be capable of quickly dispatching a self-driving vehicle so that you can get to your destination as quickly and as safely as possible.

Partnering with Lyft makes sense for Ford. Lyft  has expertise in transportation flow within cities, and an established customer network. Ford brings its already considerable knowledge of autonomous vehicle technology and, obviously, large-scale manufacturing.

There is no doubt self-driving vehicles will have an impact on how people and goods will move more efficiently in the future. But the magnitude of that impactand how quickly self-driving vehicles can benefit societywill largely depend on businesses, government and the public working together.

Ford continues making progress on developing self-driving technologyincluding the self-driving vehicle  Argo AI’s virtual driver system. Ford is  building  the infrastructure and systems necessary to make it easy for people to use our service.

Lyft has a network of customers, growing demand for rides and strong knowledge of transportation flow within cities. Ford has experience with autonomous vehicle technology development and large scale manufacturing. Both companies have fleet management and big data experience. Their combined capabilities can effectively share information to help make the best decisions for the future.

Ford says they are working on building a service based around actual people’s needs and wants. A high priority on safety and dependability so customers will trust the experience that Ford’s self-driving technology will one day enable.

As Ford builds their technology platform they will deploy human-driven vehicles on Lyft’s network. This will allow Ford  to test our platform interface to ensure compatibility with Lyft’s customer-facing platformthe one you currently see whenever you open the Lyft app. The goal is that customers using Lyft won’t notice any difference in their experience.

Ford will connect  self-driving test vehicles to Lyft’s network. When ready, Ford will  have self-driving cars operating alongside Lyft’s current community of drivers to help accommodate times of significant consumer demand to ensure that transportation remains timely and affordable.

REPORTED FROM NUMEROUS PRESS RELEASES

BRUCE HUBBARD
BONNIE LYNCH
AUTO ADVISOR GROUP

No comments:

Post a Comment