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Ford isn’t going to be the first big company to launch commercial automated vehicle (AV) services. But when it does, it wants to be ready to be ready with a viable business built around the technology from day one. To that end, Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC (AVLLC) is expanding its test and development program again, adding Washington, DC to Miami, Pittsburgh and Dearborn beginning in early 2019.
Ever since former Ford CEO Mark Fields announced in 2016, the company’s plans to launch a purpose-built AV in 2021, Ford has actively been focused on two parallel tracks, the technology development and how to build a self-sustaining business that leverages that technology. It’s been clear for some time that simply adding this technology to vehicles sold to consumers is unlikely to be a viable solution given both the upfront costs and ongoing support needs for AVs.
Ford AVLLC is the wholly owned (at least for now) subsidiary of the automaker that encompasses the teams working on various aspects of automated vehicle business model development including logistics platforms, development of the purpose-built automated vehicles and the company’s holdings in Argo AI. Earlier this year, AVLLC moved a few miles away from Ford’s main campus in Dearborn to a refurbished manufacturing facility in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood known as “The Factory.”
Meanwhile, Argo AI, which is responsible for the development of Ford’s production AV system is based in Pittsburgh. As it has previously done in Pittsburgh, Michigan and Miami, Argo has sent a small initial fleet of vehicles into DC to begin collecting the data needed to build high definition maps of the area where the vehicles will operate.
The mapping vehicles drive each of the roads the operating regions multiple times in order to get a complete picture of the environment. Argo has developed its own tools and workflows to turn the raw sensor data from cameras, radar and lidar into machine-readable maps that contain all of the features of interest such as bridges, traffic signals and buildings in addition to the road configuration. Just as human drivers know where to glance for traffic signals and signs, giving the AV similar knowledge of where to look helps the vehicle’s perception system target those areas rather than scanning the entire field of view. This simplifies the object recognition problem and speeds up processing.
Ford will be the first company to begin testing AVs in the District of Columbia and according to AVLLC CEO Sherif Marakby, the automaker has been in talks with city officials for several months.
“One of the most important things to the city is the equity of operation, meaning having an equitable development and deployment across all eight wards,” said Marakby. “It’s very important to build the business in all eight wards.”
One of the concerns expressed generally about AVs is that the technology should be accessible to everyone, not just the more affluent residents that today are among primary customers for ride-hailing services. Dense urban areas will be the primary markets for AVs because they provide the potential to maximize the utilization of the vehicles and thus the revenue. However, those same urban centers are also generally home to larger numbers of lower income people that also need affordable and reliable transportation services.
AVLLC is setting up its first service depot for its vehicles in the city’s fifth ward. As Ford did in Miami initial testing will occur in a relatively small area but will grow to cover the entire city. Marakby declined to provide a timeline for how long that growth may take. When Ford began its test program in Miami earlier this year, work began in a region of downtown but has spread to other areas as they were mapped and the company saw opportunities for business. In Miami, Ford and Argo hired dozens of local residents to work as technicians and safety drivers and is expected to follow a similar pattern in DC.
On the business model side, the Miami testing program involved bringing in partners including Dominos, Postmates and Lyft as AVLLC worked to understand the needs of the area and how AVs could best be deployed to meet those needs.
“We’re not announcing exact partners in Washington D.C. because we have evolved our thinking and are expanding the partnerships,” added Marakby. “Some of those partners are national like we announced before, but some will also be local businesses. This is something we learned in Miami.”
Some local businesses often don’t have the technology infrastructure or resources needed to serve their customer base more effectively. That’s where companies like Grub Hub and Postmates have been able to facilitate delivery services. AVLLC is working to make its logistics platform easily accessible to local businesses to provide pickup and delivery services and reasonable cost and this will be another aspect of Ford’s effort to provide equitable access all across D.C. and other future cities that they expand into.
Ford will also be working with D.C. officials to test and develop the transportation operating system platform created by Autonomic, one of several software development companies acquired by Ford in recent years. This platform is designed to enable cities to coordinate multiple service providers as part of a multi-modal mobility ecosystem. This platform isn’t dependent on AVs and is already being tested in pre-AV environments with other services like micro-mobility and micro-transit.
On the technical side, Chris Brewer, Ford’s chief engineer for AVs highlighted another lesson learned in Miami. Drivers in different cities behave quite differently and south Florida drivers are apparently quite aggressive. Argo engineers have had to tune the driving behavior of the vehicles to fit into those traffic patterns better while still obeying local laws. Highly congested D.C. will likely require more adjustments to keep everything moving smoothly.
Recently, The Information ran a story claiming that many local residents in Chandler, Arizona were annoyed at the driving behavior of Waymo’s minivans. Some respondents claimed the automated vans frequently stopped mid-turn and displayed other behavioral quirks. Asked about the reaction of local residents in Miami, Marakby said it was actually “very muted” and taking that as an indicator that the AVs were fitting in well.
Overall Marakby emphasizes that Ford AVLLC is not rushing this technology to market just so they can claim to be first. The top priority is safety and there are strict processes in place for everything from vehicle and software changes to training of the safety drivers and technicians. The company wants to ensure that the business opportunities aren’t squandered by bad judgment in deploying the technology.
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Ford automated driving development vehicle in Washington D.C.Ford
Ford isn’t going to be the first big company to launch commercial automated vehicle (AV) services. But when it does, it wants to be ready to be ready with a viable business built around the technology from day one. To that end, Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC (AVLLC) is expanding its test and development program again, adding Washington, DC to Miami, Pittsburgh and Dearborn beginning in early 2019.
Ever since former Ford CEO Mark Fields announced in 2016, the company’s plans to launch a purpose-built AV in 2021, Ford has actively been focused on two parallel tracks, the technology development and how to build a self-sustaining business that leverages that technology. It’s been clear for some time that simply adding this technology to vehicles sold to consumers is unlikely to be a viable solution given both the upfront costs and ongoing support needs for AVs.
Ford AVLLC is the wholly owned (at least for now) subsidiary of the automaker that encompasses the teams working on various aspects of automated vehicle business model development including logistics platforms, development of the purpose-built automated vehicles and the company’s holdings in Argo AI. Earlier this year, AVLLC moved a few miles away from Ford’s main campus in Dearborn to a refurbished manufacturing facility in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood known as “The Factory.”
Meanwhile, Argo AI, which is responsible for the development of Ford’s production AV system is based in Pittsburgh. As it has previously done in Pittsburgh, Michigan and Miami, Argo has sent a small initial fleet of vehicles into DC to begin collecting the data needed to build high definition maps of the area where the vehicles will operate.
The mapping vehicles drive each of the roads the operating regions multiple times in order to get a complete picture of the environment. Argo has developed its own tools and workflows to turn the raw sensor data from cameras, radar and lidar into machine-readable maps that contain all of the features of interest such as bridges, traffic signals and buildings in addition to the road configuration. Just as human drivers know where to glance for traffic signals and signs, giving the AV similar knowledge of where to look helps the vehicle’s perception system target those areas rather than scanning the entire field of view. This simplifies the object recognition problem and speeds up processing.
Ford automated driving development vehicle in Washington D.C.Ford
Ford will be the first company to begin testing AVs in the District of Columbia and according to AVLLC CEO Sherif Marakby, the automaker has been in talks with city officials for several months.
“One of the most important things to the city is the equity of operation, meaning having an equitable development and deployment across all eight wards,” said Marakby. “It’s very important to build the business in all eight wards.”
One of the concerns expressed generally about AVs is that the technology should be accessible to everyone, not just the more affluent residents that today are among primary customers for ride-hailing services. Dense urban areas will be the primary markets for AVs because they provide the potential to maximize the utilization of the vehicles and thus the revenue. However, those same urban centers are also generally home to larger numbers of lower income people that also need affordable and reliable transportation services.
AVLLC is setting up its first service depot for its vehicles in the city’s fifth ward. As Ford did in Miami initial testing will occur in a relatively small area but will grow to cover the entire city. Marakby declined to provide a timeline for how long that growth may take. When Ford began its test program in Miami earlier this year, work began in a region of downtown but has spread to other areas as they were mapped and the company saw opportunities for business. In Miami, Ford and Argo hired dozens of local residents to work as technicians and safety drivers and is expected to follow a similar pattern in DC.
On the business model side, the Miami testing program involved bringing in partners including Dominos, Postmates and Lyft as AVLLC worked to understand the needs of the area and how AVs could best be deployed to meet those needs.
“We’re not announcing exact partners in Washington D.C. because we have evolved our thinking and are expanding the partnerships,” added Marakby. “Some of those partners are national like we announced before, but some will also be local businesses. This is something we learned in Miami.”
Some local businesses often don’t have the technology infrastructure or resources needed to serve their customer base more effectively. That’s where companies like Grub Hub and Postmates have been able to facilitate delivery services. AVLLC is working to make its logistics platform easily accessible to local businesses to provide pickup and delivery services and reasonable cost and this will be another aspect of Ford’s effort to provide equitable access all across D.C. and other future cities that they expand into.
Ford will also be working with D.C. officials to test and develop the transportation operating system platform created by Autonomic, one of several software development companies acquired by Ford in recent years. This platform is designed to enable cities to coordinate multiple service providers as part of a multi-modal mobility ecosystem. This platform isn’t dependent on AVs and is already being tested in pre-AV environments with other services like micro-mobility and micro-transit.
On the technical side, Chris Brewer, Ford’s chief engineer for AVs highlighted another lesson learned in Miami. Drivers in different cities behave quite differently and south Florida drivers are apparently quite aggressive. Argo engineers have had to tune the driving behavior of the vehicles to fit into those traffic patterns better while still obeying local laws. Highly congested D.C. will likely require more adjustments to keep everything moving smoothly.
Recently, The Information ran a story claiming that many local residents in Chandler, Arizona were annoyed at the driving behavior of Waymo’s minivans. Some respondents claimed the automated vans frequently stopped mid-turn and displayed other behavioral quirks. Asked about the reaction of local residents in Miami, Marakby said it was actually “very muted” and taking that as an indicator that the AVs were fitting in well.
Overall Marakby emphasizes that Ford AVLLC is not rushing this technology to market just so they can claim to be first. The top priority is safety and there are strict processes in place for everything from vehicle and software changes to training of the safety drivers and technicians. The company wants to ensure that the business opportunities aren’t squandered by bad judgment in deploying the technology.
