Ford plans to launch its self-driving vehicle service in Austin in 2021. But it has a big 2020 planned ahead of that.
The auto giant has made its first real estate deals in Austin en route to making Austin "the epicenter of Ford's local self-driving business," the company said Wednesday.
Ford's new command center will be in Austin near the airport -- opening by 2021. Austin is poised be the first of Ford's three self-driving car markets to have a command center. Its other two markets for the service are Washington, D.C., and Miami. From its Austin office, Ford's teams will provide vehicle testing, research and safety evaluations, customer relations and business development.
Ford said it has also leased a building close to downtown for its self-driving vehicle fleet and members of the Argo AI team, which operates its local test fleet. It's also planning to hire technical workers, maintenance staff and other roles.
“Establishing a real estate footprint is a critical part of bringing Ford’s self-driving vehicle service to Austin and something we couldn’t have done without the city’s support,” Kathleen Baireuther, Austin Market Manager for Ford Autonomous Vehicles, said in a statement. “While these locations will help us manage and build our self-driving fleet, we also look forward to them serving as places to educate the community about the work we are doing.”
Ford’s vehicles are being manually driven through East Austin and downtown to 3D map streets in advance of letting the software take the wheel. The company has said the area provides a lot of testing opportunities since there are a lot of pedestrians, scooters and regular traffic. Ford has said it will expand testing to other parts of the city later on.
“Vehicle operations and fleet management are essential parts of building a successful and scalable self-driving service in Austin and other markets which we’ll expand to in the future,” Don Conroy, director of autonomous vehicle fleet management at Ford Autonomous Vehicles, said in a news release. “The command center and terminal buildings offer Ford the opportunity to see firsthand how our vehicles will operate and what they need from us to make sure they are being utilized around the clock.”
