Automotive IIoT Leadership

Robots on Wheels - By 2021, This May Be the New Normal

Bob Leigh

Written by Bob Leigh

August 19, 2016

If you drive a car, I suggest you read this post by Mark Fields, CEO of Ford Motor Company. Ford is staking their claim in the driverless car market, and it is a bold one. Ford expects to mass-produce driverless cars in 2021 for ride-hailing and ride-sharing services. And this isn’t an advanced autopilot or car with self-driving capabilities; this is a “No steering wheel. No gas pedals. No brake pedals. A driver will not be required.” fully driverless car.

Ford has decided that Level 3 automation, defined by the US Department of Transportation as semi-autonomous driving where the driver needs to take over with ‘reasonable notice,' is not worth pursuing and instead they are going directly for Level 4, a fully driverless car. Ford isn’t the only company investing and preparing for this future, but they have made a very public and bold statement that should accelerate investment in this market. It should also signal to any car company that doesn’t already have an advanced program to develop self-driving cars: you may already be too late.

It is also interesting that Ford will provide self-driving cars for ride-sharing services first. This is a smart move because it will allow them to retain control of the vehicles (with ride-sharing partners) and they will be able to collect the massive amount of data needed to improve the safety and operation of these systems.

This will be a great social experiment. How will society adapt to having cars available on-demand that will take us anywhere? How fast can we reduce the number of motor vehicle deaths (30,000/yr in the United States) by a factor of 10x? The future is almost here, and it isn’t hover-boards or self-drying clothes but is ubiquitous transportation for everyone, available instantly at the touch of an app.

Click here to learn more about RTI and Autonomous Cars.

Most Recent Blog Posts

Automotive Consortia: Driving the Development of Software-Defined Vehicles

Automotive 2023

The Evolving Automotive Market

News & Events Automotive 2023

Parallel Trajectories: Behind the Scenes of the Indy Autonomous Challenge

Automotive Technology ROS 2 2023

Getting Started with Connext

Connext® is the world's leading implementation of the Data Distribution Service (DDS) standard for Real-Time Systems. Try a fully-functional version of Connext for 30 days.


Free Trial