Stanford CIS

Ford plans to mass produce a 'no driver required' autonomous vehicle by 2021

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"Bryant Walker Smith, an expert in legal aspects of autonomous driving, said that Ford's move points to how it plans to emphasize transportation as a service, since the Ford customers will be sharing the vehicles.

"This is a good thing for everyone," said Smith. "Users won't have to pay upfront for a car that could be obsolete in a few years, and Ford won't have to depend on these customers to maintain those vehicles. Users can pay-as-they-ride, and Ford can get-paid-as-they-ride."

"Ford isn't promising a vehicle that can go everywhere and do everything that a human driver in a conventional vehicle can today," said Smith. "Uber is probably the best model for predicting what driverless taxis will look like in a few years: They will be lots of places, but not everywhere. And they will be even more transformative.""

Published in: Press , Autonomous Driving , Robotics