Report: Ford planning separate autonomous car unit, intends to use Google’s self-driving software

According to a reported by Yahoo Autos a few weeks ago, Alphabet Inc.’s Google is a big part of this move…

While Ford is said to be building at least some of the software for its future autonomous cars (including software for the car’s main components), Google will likely be providing the autonomous driving side of things.

Mr. Fields, named CEO in mid-2014, could have an ace up his sleeve. The auto maker is in talks with Alphabet, Inc.’s Google, to forge deeper ties with Silicon Valley, where Ford recently expanded its research lab.

As part of this effort, Ford is considering creating a separate business unit dedicated to developing autonomous cars for use in ride-sharing and fleets, say people familiar with the plans. Ford would develop software for components, including steering or braking, while Google would provide the autonomous-driving software that governs those functions, one of these people said.

Google declined to comment on the matter, but Mr. Fields, when WSJ asked about whether the company would make these moves, said, “We are open to all possibilities.”

Google has been testing its latest self-driving car report, the company’s cars (both the prototype fully-electric cute-mobiles and the larger Lexus cars) have traveled 1,372,111 miles autonomously.

It was expected that Ford would announce and details its partnership with Google at CES 2016 last week, but that event came and went without any official announcement. Rather than make an announcement about this rumored Google partnership, Ford announced the testing of its third generation autonomous vehicle using LIDAR tech from Velodyne.