Ford sets up independent autopilot division | plans to invest $4 billion

Sina Technology News Beijing time on July 25 afternoon news, Ford Motor Company said on Tuesday that the company will set up a new $ 4 billion independent department, with the manager auto-driving vehicle operations and is seeking external investors, the recent end of May Detroit competition The rival GM also took similar measures against its Cruise Automation division.

GM's take-off Cruise division received $2.25 billion in investment from Softbank, which sold 13% on the day. Softbank's 19.6% stake made Cruise a $11.5 billion. In 2016, GM took about $1 billion. The dollar acquired the autopilot venture in San Francisco.

Royal Bank of Canada Investment Bank analyst Joseph Spark said: 'Ford seems to have adopted GM's strategy to try to unlock the value of its autonomous driving business.'

In the afternoon trading, Ford shares rose slightly by 0.9% to $10.56.

Although dozens of established companies and startups are currently pursuing developments on a global scale, Ford's top management believes that the autonomous vehicle market will eventually converge in the hands of three or four important players, and they want to be among them. One, 'A source familiar with Ford's decision-making thinking revealed.

The source also said that Ford had previously negotiated with Softbank on potential investment in its autonomous driving business.

On Tuesday, Ford said that by 2023 the company will invest $4 billion in its newly formed Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC, including its $1 billion designated funds previously allocated to Argo AI, the latter being Ford. Pittsburgh Autopilot Venture acquired in 2017.

Vice President Sherif Marakby will be responsible for leading the new division of Ford's new Corktown campus in Detroit, which will be responsible for autonomous vehicle research, engineering and systems integration, and Ford's future autonomous vehicle fleet business strategy and development.

Ford said the company hopes to take advantage of the new division to accelerate business opportunities and said that 'the new division will accept third-party investment'.

GM's Cruise and Alphabet's Waymo are generally considered to be the two top players in the autonomous vehicle segment. Alphabet plans to introduce autonomous driving taxi service later this year, while GM's Cruise also aims to introduce similar services in 2019. Ford It said that it expects to drive autonomous vehicles into commercial services by 2021.