Austin was the first city to allow a self-driving test vehicle on public streets, but you should expect to see even more in the future thanks to a major industry player: Ford.
On Wednesday, Ford announced that Austin will be the third city in its autonomous vehicle program, which will make self-driving cars commercially available to transport people and goods in 2021. The program is also launching in Washington D.C. and Miami.
Ford joined forces with self-driving startup Argo AI in order to bring the technology to Ford vehicles. Currently, the duo is testing its AV tech with specialized Ford Fusion Hybrids.
A goal of the program is to help provide an alternative to car ownership in densely populated cities. As Ford points out, Austin has been the fastest-growing metro region in America for the past eight years, according to U.S. Census data.
But there have been several cases where cities have run into issues when a company tries to deploy its self-driving cars too quickly. To prevent this, Ford is working with the Mayor of Austin.
“Almost 75 percent of Austinites commute by driving alone in personal vehicles. This is simply unsustainable,” Austin Mayor Steve Adler said in a statement. “With our region’s population on track to double in the next 20 to 25 years, it’s clear we need to re-think how our right-of-way is used if we want people to be able to move around our city.”
He continues, “That’s why it’s exciting that Ford is bringing its self-driving vehicle operations to our city... 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.”
Ford and Argo AI promise to spend the upcoming months getting the cars ready for deployment. They will conduct tests with the cars using actual human drivers, and map out the city with their cars’ sensors.
And then, hopefully by 2021, Ford’s cars will be ready for the road.
