Ford Motor Co. today announced its plans to begin mass producing a fully autonomous vehicle by 2021 that it will sell for ride hailing markets such as Uber.
Ford’s vehicle will be manufactured with no steering wheel, no gas or brake pedal. In other words, a driver will not be required.
“The world is changing, and it’s changing quickly. We’re not sitting on the sidelines. Ford will be actively driving that change,” Ford CEO Mark Fields said during a news conference held at the company’s Palo Alto, Calif. research facility.
Ford is planning to add two new buildings and 150,000 square feet of work and lab space adjacent to the current Research and Innovation Center in Palo Alto, doubling the size of the research team by the end of 2017. Currently, the facility has 130 researchers, engineers and scientists.