Ford has announced plans to launch autonomous cars in D.C. in 2019, at last giving the District some skin in the game of self-driving vehicles.
The testing program, Ford's fourth, is a foundation for launching a commercial self-driving taxi and delivery service in 2021. At the rate these cars can collect street-specific data, that's plenty of time to survey the area, receive feedback and make tweaks.
Pittsburgh-based Argo AI, in which Ford invested $1 billion last year, is developing the driving system and maps for Ford’s self-driving vehicles. Argo already has non-autonomous cars on D.C. streets for mapping, and there will be someone in the autonomous vehicles' driver seat at the start of the program.
The program is headed to all eight wards, the company said in a statement. That was an important selling point for the city, after ride-sharing service Via took some slack for not operating in some neighborhoods.
Ford announced in July plans to spend $4 billion through 2023 in a newly created autonomous vehicle business – Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC (AVLLC). The Argo investment and partnership is part of that total.
The expansion into D.C. comes just months after it debuted its self-driving car tests in Miami, Detroit and Pittsburgh, although those started with drivers at the wheel. And it recently partnered with Postmates to test delivery from local businesses, in a trial studying how people interact with self-driving vehicles on both sides of the delivery process.
Ford and Argo hired dozens of Miami residents to work as technicians and safety drivers and likely will do the same in D.C. It has partnered with Dominos, Lyft and Postmates there to test commercial uses.
“We’re not announcing exact partners in Washington, D.C., because we have evolved our thinking and are expanding the partnerships,” AVLLC CEO Sherif Marakby told Forbes. “Some of those partners are national like we announced before, but some will also be local businesses."
