Washington already has a fleet of 30 self-employed cars the company tests in the US and a recent $ 1 billion investment in Argo, an artificial intelligence firm created by ex-directors of Google and Uber. And all to try to make the car of the future take us home without a pedal pressing the Ford logo. It will not be easy. Uber, Google, Tesla , Apple, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz ... everyone wants to be the first to get us to stop driving. Forever.
Question. There are only four years left for 2021. Are they going to arrive in time to release their autonomous cars?
Answer. Of course. The exact way we are going to market them is yet to be seen, but we are looking at two options: use them for parcel delivery or as a taxi service. It may in the end be a combination of both, but the two options involve a fleet of autonomous vehicles in a mapped area. It will be like in a city today, there will be plenty of conventional cars around, pedestrians ... all mixed up.
Sensors and software neither drink nor distract by sending WhatsApps while driving, they will do better than us
Q. Do you really believe that you can mix humans and machines on the same road?
A. Yes. The sensors and the software neither drink nor distract by sending WhatsApps while they drive, they will do better than us. Because, remember, more than 90% of accidents resulting in fatalities are due to human error. It is a de facto opportunity to improve security.
Q. When can we buy an autonomous car?
A. It will not be in 2021, at least we will not sell them in that year. It is difficult to predict a date, but I think it will be between the next five and ten years as technology gradually becomes cheaper.
Q. What is left to do from the point of view of technology to get there?
A. Very much! In the tests we are learning that we have to improve a lot in identifying objects in the distance and also in predicting the intentions of movement in the next seconds of everything surrounding the car. There are many things we still do not know, problems that arise as we test.
The latest version of the self-contained Ford cars.The latest version of the self-contained Ford cars.
Q. There is increasing competition between technology and traditional car manufacturers. Uber is already trying out a taxi service. The 'startup' NuTonomy has released it in Singapore. Google has been involved for years, Apple, Tesla ... Ford will not do something similar until 2021. Are not you ahead of your competitors?
A. No. We started working on freelance cars 10 years ago. We are already very advanced with the prototypes we have. And we know what it takes to make vehicles fully autonomous. Maybe we have a different philosophy on how to release this safely. We try the cars with our engineers, we do not put the people inside to see what happens.
Q. It refers to Tesla and its accidents with the autopilot ...
A. I will not give names. I'm just saying it's not our way of doing things.
Q. Do you think Tesla was quick to launch its autopilot function, or did not explain it well?
A. I'll let you ask that question to Tesla, I'll just say that we test the technology very seriously before allowing people to use it. And when we say autonomous vehicle we mean 100% autonomous. That's different from what a Tesla does right now. We should not confuse an autopilot function with an autonomous car. If a driver believes that function is more capable than it actually is, it can be very dangerous. Ford already has cars with autopilot function for some time. But we have always said it: you can not lean back to read a book, you have to keep pending at all times.
(Photo: MAM)
(Photo: MAM)
Q. Do you really see Uber, Google or Apple selling their own cars, made by themselves, and freelancers?
A. There are three types of companies that are working on this: traditional manufacturers such as us, startups, which focus on developing software and algorithms, and large technology companies such as Uber, Google and others. What we are seeing is that startups and technology in the end have to work with a manufacturer because integrating 'software' into a car is much more difficult than they thought.
Q. What about ethical decisions about saving the driver or pedestrians in case of possible accidents. Should self-employed cars make such decisions?
A. I think it's important to realize that such hypothetical situations are generated by humans. Our hope is precisely that autonomous vehicles avoid such situations. But in case they happen, the whole industry must agree on a solution. Among all. It can not be that Ford goes on one side, GM on the other, BMW on the other ... These moral dilemmas must be openly and publicly debated, and governments and regulators must be part of that debate.
Q. I do not agree with the Mercedes-Benz manager who said that in the event of an accident between an autonomous car and pedestrians, the vehicle should save the driver because he is most likely to survive.
A. I think it's too early to say something like that. It is a very complicated issue. We still do not know what is the most morally and socially correct way of solving this. And that has to be established throughout the industry.
Q. How will we know that the car, the software, is not making such decisions for us?
A. Any algorithm that is used in an autonomous car can be registered and known. What needs to be resolved is to know how open and accessible that code will be for governments, regulators, insurers ... and all parties that have something to say in the case of accidents.
Q. When will you start to try out self-drive cars in Spain?
A. I do not know. We have promised that this year we will begin testing in a country in Europe. But we have yet to choose which. Spain has as many possibilities as the rest of the countries.
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