Google to Pair With Ford to Build Self-Driving Cars
Jennifer van der Kleut
Yahoo! Autos published a big scoop this week, reporting that three different sources confirm that Google will pair with Ford Motor Co. to build self-driving cars.
The three sources, who are all reportedly close to the project in some way, say the announcement will officially be made at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
The project makes a lot of sense to a lot of people, and many industry analysts and experts have long suspected the partnership would be coming.
Search engine giant Google has been developing its self-driving car software for several years, and has logged more than 1 million miles on its fleet of more than 50 test cars in both California and Texas. It makes a lot of sense for Google to partner with an established automaker though, as it will save the tech firm millions or even billions trying to develop its own auto manufacturing.
Conversely, the partnership saves Ford a lot of time, work and money from having to perfect its own software. While Google has been testing its self-driving cars for years, Ford only just this summer began testing an autonomous car at Mcity, the “fake city” at the University of Michigan designed for testing connected and autonomous vehicle technology.
Naturally, many industry analysts are wondering if this partnership will eventually lead to an autonomous ridesharing business of some kind.
