Ford 4th Generation Self-Driving Test Vehicle

Launching a self-driving service is complex. Many different pieces need to come together to create a trusted and scalable self-driving service that provides value to customers and the cities they operate in. At Ford, we are taking a thoughtful approach to how we bring together all these pieces to help shape the future of self-driving vehicles. One important part of this service is the vehicle, which will allow us to stand up our self-driving business.

What This Means for our Self-Driving Service: The systems we’re incorporating into our newest test vehicles are “launch-intent” in terms of the components we believe will be needed to support commercialization. What this means is that with a well-defined architecture and platform in the Escape Hybrid, our team can continuously test and refine performance over the coming years to better prepare us for launch. Everything we learn while using them can be channeled directly into our self-driving service as soon as it starts serving customers. Here is a glimpse of the engineering advancements you’ll see on the new vehicles.

Why This Matters — How This Lays the Foundation for Our Business:

· We have said it before, but the vehicle is just one part of bringing together the future of self-driving services.
· With our fourth-generation test vehicle, we have everything we need from a vehicle to stand up our self-driving service.
· In parallel, we continue to build, test and strengthen our fleet operations strategy, take a smart approach to finalizing our moving people and moving goods go-to-market strategies, build our customer experience and work with Argo AI towards our goal of developing an industry-leading self-driving system.
· We’re confident that we’re on the path to launching a safe, reliable and affordable service. And, we look forward to telling you more about how this service will ultimately help make people’s lives better.

What’s Next: As they become ready for deployment, we will gradually integrate these fourth-generation vehicles into our multi-city testing efforts alongside our Fusion Hybrids in Austin, Detroit, Miami, Palo Alto, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.