Ford Confident of Delivering ‘Purpose-Built’ AV ‘at Scale’ by 2021

Ford’s “confidence level” remains unchanged that it’s on track to deliver a “purpose-built” autonomous vehicle “at scale” by 2021, said President-Mobility Marcy Klevorn on an Q4 call Wednesday. It's “uniquely building the technology along with building a business,” so when Ford AVs become available, the automaker will have “figured out how we want to monetize them,” she said. Ford will be among the two or three “winners” when AVs are ready for large-scale commercialization, she said. The company's work on connected mobility also is “advancing quickly,” said CEO Jim Hackett. “We are connecting every new Ford vehicle in the U.S. to the cloud.” Those vehicles soon “will talk to the world around them through the technology known as C-V2X,” he said of cellular vehicle-to-vehicle connectivity. Through C-V2X, “we will help usher in a new transportation system that reduces traffic congestion, accidents and improves CO2.”