Self-driving technology has a long way to go before we’ll be able to lean back and let cars handle our commutes. Though companies like Google are taking small steps each year, and large-scale testing has begun in earnest in California and Nevada, we’re still very new to the self-driving phenomenon. As we reported back in October, Ontario will be conducting its very own self-driving testing starting in a little over a week, on January 1, 2016.
This week, we learned that Google is reportedly endeavoring a partnership with Ford to manufacture self-driving cars using Google’s technology. The venture is set to be announced at CES in January, according to sources, and will let Google focus on technology instead of worrying about building cars.
Earlier this year, it was reported that Google’s self-driving car project will eventually be moved into its own separate company under Alphabet, and this report says Ford will likely do the same on their end, mostly for liability reasons. Google has been in talks with several other car manufacturers, and so any deal with Ford would likely remain non-exclusive.
Google already has several former Ford employees working on the self-driving car project. This includes the head of the project, John Krafcik, who worked at Ford for 14 years. Mark Fields, the CEO of Ford, has also said that the company considers itself a “mobility company”, hinting that the company has been planning this kind of partnership for a while.
[source]Yahoo Autos[/source]
