Ford outlines plan to build self-driving cars at scale to deploy with partners

The core of this plan starts with building cars tailor-made to “improve the movement of people and goods,” according to Ford VP of Autonomous Vehicles and Electrification Sherif Markaby.

Marakby, freshly returned to Ford after a stint at Uber where he worked on the ride hailing company’s autonomous program, articulated Ford’s self-driving plan in broad strokes in a new Medium post on Tuesday. The resulting document is probably the most succinct and complete articulation of Ford’s autonomous vision thus far, which is noteworthy given that the automaker has previously announced plans to field an autonomous driving service launch by 2021.

Ford’s aiming to create a vehicle it can build at scale that not only is capable of autonomy, but that can also serve in both taxi and delivery businesses, and it says its existing experience working with enterprises in both those fields on fleet development and use-specific vehicle manufacturing will help it gain an edge in this regard.

Marakby notes that the focus will be on making sure the vehicles it brings to market for this task will be designed specifically to be able to maximize utilization time, which means boosting the time they can spend on the road between refuelings. To that end, they’re looking at hybrid-electrics out of the gate, since Ford has ample experience in that area and it’s the best compromise in terms of available tech and maximum range.