Ford Enters Phase Two of Transition to Autonomous Driving Technology

Within five years, Ford will migrate driver-assist technologies across its product lineup as part of phase two of its transition to advanced engineering and autonomous driving, it said in a news release. Ford’s Research and Innovation Center Palo Alto in California is working on the Ford Smart Mobility Plan that will take the company “to the next level in connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, the customer experience and big data,” it said. A global Ford team is working to make the required sensing and computing technology “feasible for production” and continuing testing and refinement of algorithms, it said. Ford also said Tuesday that Pre-Collision Assist with Pedestrian Detection technology will be available in the U.S. next year on an unnamed Ford-brand vehicle. The carmaker’s plan is to roll out the feature on most Ford products globally by 2019, it said. Ford also has been working to extend vehicle connectivity to wearables. An upcoming MyFord mobile app for smart watches will enable consumers to check from their wristbands driving range and battery charge for their plug-in vehicle and to find their parked cars, said the company.