Ford delays introduction of self-driving taxi service until 2022
Ford is delaying the official introduction of its autonomous driving taxi service until 2022. Originally, the service was planned to be accessible in 2021. The company points to the uncertainties surrounding the consequences of Covid-19 as the reason for the postponement.
In a statement published by TechCrunch, among others, Ford said the challenges of the current business situation and the need to evaluate the long-term effects of Covid-19 on customer behavior led to the postponement decision. According to the manufacturer, understanding customer behavior is an important part of building a new mobility service. Ford says it will use the extra time to investigate changes in customer behavior, which may or may not lead to a review and possible adjustment of the market strategy.
The service may start using custom Mondeo cars, equipped with cameras and lidars, and running on software developed by Argo AI. This is a start-up in which Ford invested a billion dollars about two years ago. According to the manufacturer, the previously committed investment in Argo AI by Volkswagen, worth a total of $ 2.6 billion, is expected by the middle of this year. The two manufacturers are not only investing in this company together, but are also working together on, among other things, electric vehicles. This gives Ford access to Volkswagen’s MEB platform for electric cars. This should lead to an electric Ford car entering the European market in significant volumes by 2023.
Ford’s self-driving cars have already been tested in several US cities. The aim is to arrive at a car with a degree of autonomy in accordance with level 4 on the basis of the Argo AI software. Level 4 concerns cars that in principle function autonomously from the beginning to the end of the journey, whereby that is still within a short period of time. certain area. Ford’s autonomous vehicles on the road to date still have two drivers on board to intervene in an emergency. Ford is also working on a vehicle built from the ground up that is fully focused on autonomy. This is yet to be unveiled this year and may begin to replace Mondeo vehicles.
In an explanation of the quarterly figures, the automaker reports that it has suffered quite a bit from the corona crisis in the first quarter of this year. The company had to take a loss of nearly $2 billion in the past three months, while it made a profit of $1.15 billion in the first quarter of 2019. Incidentally, Ford also made a loss of $1.67 billion in the last quarter of last year. Revenue came in at $34.3 billion, compared to $41.8 billion in the same period a year ago. Ford explains the decline due to lower wholesale sales.