Ford to roll-out its autonomous vehicles in Austin, Texas
Ford announced that Austin will become the company’s third launch market for self-driving vehicles, along with Miami-Dade County and Washington, D.C.
The American automaker thinks that self-driving vehicles have an important role to play in the future of cities. As Ford continues to move towards the commercial launch of their self-driving vehicle services, the company is expanding its testing operations in Austin in collaboration with Argo AI. This includes working closely with city and state officials and community partners to help ensure they are properly integrating their plans into the wider transportation system.
Ford and Austin officials believe self-driving vehicles can be part of a comprehensive mobility solution by providing wider access to transportation and more efficient goods delivery.
Texas has signaled ambitious plans for self-driving technology, passing a bill governing autonomous technology in the state while creating a Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Task Force to further study self-driving vehicles. Austin continues to be a huge proponent of innovation, becoming the first city in the world to host a driverless vehicle on public streets and forming a Smart Mobility Office that's focused on quickly piloting new technology.
This commitment is part of what made Austin such a great place to launch a self-driving vehicle business, but it's just the start. Ford believes that in order to successfully launch a self-driving service that improves people's lives, one can't just drop into a city and start rolling cars out onto the streets. It needs to develop a comprehensive understanding of what people and local businesses would find useful — and that's exactly what we'll be doing over the next few years.
As the company starts mapping roads and testing self-driving system in Austin, they will also conduct business pilots to see how they can best deploy their vehicles. With a large university campus at its core and a vibrant, growing downtown — not to mention a dense population that's open to ride-hailing — there is an opportunity for self-driving vehicles to perform a wide number of services. The automaker wants to engage businesses and community groups about how this new technology can be deployed to help enhance their day-to-day lives.
As Austin works towards expanding transportation options for residents, Ford's ultimate goal is to build self-driving services in a way that complements a rich ecosystem of options.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler said, “It's exciting that Ford is bringing its self-driving vehicle operations to our city. As noted in our Smart Mobility Roadmap, self-driving vehicles offer the potential to expand mobility options for all our residents and present opportunities to increase the capacity of our existing transportation system.”
In the future, self-driving vehicles have the potential to increase transportation choices for community members who previously had limited options. According to national findings, 94% of crashes now are related to human error. Automated vehicles have the potential to drastically lower that statistic because machines don't get tired and don't drive while impaired.
There are still challenges to be resolved, including understanding exactly how changes to the transportation system can best advance communities. Austin's Smart Mobility team has been working closely with Ford and will continue that effort to ensure this technology helps make our city better and more equitable.
Before a single one of the test vehicles starts driving autonomously in a city, the team at Argo spends a lot of time working with Ford and the city to identify where self-driving cars could make the biggest difference, considering a number of factors, including where the demand is, what the market wants, and how they can meaningfully contribute to the transportation network already in the city.
Over the coming months, Argo vehicles will be manually driven through east Austin as well as downtown, mapping the city's main corridors in preparation for autonomous testing. Eventually they will expand beyond these areas, but these initial mapping trips help develop a comprehensive understanding of the environment around our vehicles. For example, Argo uses sensors on our vehicles to create high-resolution, 3D maps of streets, buildings and all permanent static objects in areas where we plan to operate.
During our mapping process, though, the team also gets a sneak peek at what challenges may await. That's also true in Austin, which features heavy pedestrian activity, notably people riding bicycles and scooters. Scooters are especially interesting because they're essentially motorised pedestrians, with speedy and unique movement behavior that needs to be accounted for. Austin has more scooter activity than in other cities where the company is currently testing.
In addition to helping ensure the vehicles can safely navigate the streets, Argo also concentrates on developing a self-driving system that drives as people expect it to. That requires developing a comprehensive understanding of local rules of the road and driving habits, which helps better anticipate what others will do. These types of details go a long way towards developing a ride experience people feel comfortable with and find convenient.
Ford to roll-out its autonomous vehicles in Austin, Texas
Modified on Wednesday 25th September 2019
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Ford to roll-out its autonomous vehicles in Austin, Texas