Google & Ford team up for self-driving cars
The legislative and other assorted hurdles notwithstanding, the future of autonomous, self-driving cars is coming along quite nicely.
Tech giant, Google has been working towards their goal of having self-driving cars on the roads by the year 2020. Earlier this year, the company reached out to some of the world’s leading names in the automotive manufacturing scene in a bid to put together a supplier base. It is now being reported that Google has indeed entered into advanced talks with Ford Motor Co to bring the tech-giant’s 2020 vision to life. The two partners are scheduled to announce the signing of a contract manufacturing agreement against the backdrop of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that’s held in Las Vegas in the month of January.
Google has already been testing their bubble-shaped self-driven cars around their headquarters since June this year.
The autonomous automobile division which will be launched in 2016, is likely to be a part of Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc. The move marks a further consolidation towards the tech-giants hegemony over increasing aspects of everyday human life.
Meanwhile, the other partner in this venture – Ford Motor Co has been involved in their own efforts towards a self-driving car future. While the company has been off the pace when compared to the competition in this aspect, it will leap-frog over them all once the venture with Google takes off. The automaker has been working on multiple safety related tech-developments in the field of autonomous motoring. These have been mainly focused on driver related sub-systems like throttle operations, brakes and steering controls.
The race to be the first player to pull off a successful launch of self-driving cars is heating up rather fast, with Google’s competitors – like Apple for example, too working towards the same end. It will be interesting to see just who it is that wins in this battle for supremacy in this tech-driven world.
Comments