Ford Planning to Tie-up with Google for Making Self-Driving Cars

Ford Motor Company is in talks with the tech giant, Google, for a deal regarding making of autonomous (self-driving) cars. The talks come at a time when all the carmakers are trying their best to expand their purview of operation. If sources are to be believed, the deal can be finalised by January 2016 and the two companies might make an announcement in this regards soon.

While Google has confirmed that it is in conversation with the automakers, the American firm remained elusive when asked about the details of it.

Though, Ford has been giving clues throughout the year for something like this in the offing but remained tight-lipped this time. “We work with a lot of tech companies all over the world. We keep these discussions private for obvious competitive reasons and we do not comment on speculation,” said Alan Hall, Ford Spokesman.

Earlier this month, Ford CEO Mark Fields, while talking about the speculations on partnership with Apple and Google said, “It’s not only about what are the things that are going to be core to us but who are we going to partner with, in some cases, because I don’t think we can just be so arrogant to think that we’re going to do everything on our own and we’re going to do something better than maybe a company that does that 24/7. For us, partnerships are really important.”

“It makes sense automakers would want to work with Google, which could help them catch up to rivals that are pursuing automated driving to differentiate their products,” said Mr. Thilo Koslowski (an automotive analyst) while appreciating the fact that automobile giants are now willing to partner with tech giants.

It is not yet sure whether the American carmaker will build a car from scratch (in case the deal is finalised) or will be installing equipment like camera and sensors in existing cars which make it autonomous. Once the details are finalised, we can expect the picture will be clearer.

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Source: Automotive News