Submitted via IRC for SoyCow5743
Ford might not be the first name that comes to mind when you think of autonomous vehicles (unless you really like Domino's pizza), but that doesn't mean the automaker is sitting by while everyone else is making leaps and bounds in the space. The company just announced that it's making a $5 million investment in the American Center for Mobility. "This is an investment in the safe, rapid testing and deployment of transformative technology that will help improve peoples' lives," Ford's CTO Ken Washington said in a press release (PDF).
The money puts Ford in the same company as AT&T, Toyota Motor North America and Toyota Research Institute as a founder of the 500 acre Willow Run autonomous vehicle testing campus located outside of Detroit in Ypsilanti Township. Willow Run's first phase is scheduled to open this December. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder called the investment a show of faith from Ford to the world's automotive capital. "As the convergence between the technological and manufacturing sectors continues to grow, it is very encouraging to see great Michigan companies like Ford leading the way toward our future," he said in the same release.
Source: https://www.engadget.com/2017/09/15/ford-willow-run-investment/
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday September 18 2017, @08:25PM
To Ford. That says it all.