Ford picks UK for its driverless cars tech hub

MOTORING giant Ford is building an innovation centre for driverless cars to take advantage of Britain’s ‘world- class digital talent’ and academic institutions.

The hub, due to open later this year, will house about 40 specialists in the Here East campus on the Olympic Park in east London.

Ford said its new base will allow it to work with cutting- edge tech research centres. It already has a partnership with Loughborough University and is working on an energy- efficient power train and plug-in hybrid technology.

The Olympic Park also has a private road network which can be used for testing.

It comes after Ford warned last July that Britain’s decision to leave the EU would cost it £790m over the next two years. However, rather than moving away from the UK, Ford is shifting gears under new boss, Jim Hackett, who previously headed up the firm’s autonomous vehicles unit and replaced Mark Fields as chief executive last month.

Steven Armstrong, group vicepresident, said: ‘Basing our rapidly growing team in the heart of innovation in London is critical to accelerating our learning and development of new technologies.

‘The location at Here East will allow us greater collaboration and the out-of-the-box thinking needed to tackle the urban transport challenges of tomorrow. We will also be ideally placed to build on existing partner projects and have access to London’s world-class digital talent. Both will be key as we build towards our ambition of being a global leader in mobility solutions.’

Ford’s announcement comes as Jaguar Land Rover revealed it has invested £20m in Uber rival Lyft in order to test ride-sharing and driverless cars. Under the deal, the firm will sell vehicles to Lyft to use in its existing network, as well as working on services that it might roll out in the future.

The company will also work with Lyft to develop driverless cars.

Like Uber, Lyft allows passengers to book rides via an app that links to payments on their phone. The firm currently operates in 300 US cities, including New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Jaguar is the latest car maker to partner with a tech company as the industry seeks to offset a fall in vehicle ownership in large cities with a fall back avenue for potential sales.

Sebastian Peck, the head of Jaguar’s transport services business In Motion, said: ‘This new venture will provide a realworld platform helping us develop our autonomous services.’

General Motors was the first major car maker to invest in Lyft, donating £395m in 2015.