Ford and US ride-sharing service Lyft have teamed up to launch their new program to commercialise autonomous vehicles in an industry first collaboration.
Under its autonomous driving affiliate, Argo AI, Lyft will soon begin offering lifts in self-driving cars later this year.
Set to launch in Miami, Ford vehicles will be fitted with Argo AI’s self-driving technology. As self-driving technology still has some development to undergo before its performance is considered safer than driving today, Lyft has announced that a driver will still be present behind the steering wheel for safety intervention.
The rollout of self-driving cars will see a few dozen cars initially in Miami, with Austin, Texas following soon after in 2022. Ultimately, Ford and Lyft aim to have around 1,000 self-driving cars within 5 years across multiple cities.
While this is an industry first collaboration, there are many other companies very publicly developing self-driving technology today.
Google have been developing their own self-driving technology under their autonomous-driving company Waymo.
Likewise, Elon Musk notably predicted that Tesla would have a million self-driving taxis on US roads by 2020. However, now in 2021, Tesla is still developing their full self-driving technology.
It’s a race to who can get fully autonomous cars on the road first! The question stands though, would you travel in a self-driving car?
In the meantime, many cars on the road today feature the beginnings of self-driving technology such as adaptive cruise control.
If you’re ready to drive a new car with some self-driving capabilities, talk to a novated leasing specialist today on 1800 501 703 or email novated@remunerator.com.au