Car firms look at ride-hailing
Ford and its once-subsidiary Volvo have both announced their intentions to move into the ridesharing/ride-hailing realm with their autonomous car development.
Volvo and Uber recently announced they have formed a ‘‘strategic alliance to develop next generation autonomous driving cars’’, with the two entering a joint venture to develop new autonomous vehicles.
In a recent statement it was announced that both Uber and Volvo will use the same base vehicle for the next stage of their own autonomous car strategies.
The ‘‘base vehicle’’ will be developed on Volvo’s modular Scalable Product Architecture (SPA), which is currently used under the XC90, as well as the new S90 sedan and V90 wagon.
Ford on the other hand recently announced its intent to have a high-volume, fully autonomous SAE level 4-capable vehicle in commercial operation in 2021 in a ride-hailing or ride-sharing service.
To get there, the company is investing in or collaborating with four startups to enhance its autonomous vehicle development, doubling its Silicon Valley team and more than doubling its Palo Alto campus.
The company has invested in Velodyne, a company that specialises in light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensors, as well as buying an Israel-based computer vision and machine learning company called SAIPS.
Ford has also started an exclusive licensing agreement with Nirenberg Neuroscience, a company that has developed a powerful machine vision platform for performing navigation and object and facial recognition.