Google’s initiative to put self-driving cars on the road has just received a big thumbs up from automotive major, Ford. The internet giant is reportedly talks with Ford about a prospective deal to develop self-driving cars for the future.
The deal is likely going to be made public by Ford CEO Mark Fields during the Consumer Electronics Show to be held in Las Vegas in January, 2016.
The terms of the deal, however, will not put any barriers on Google and the company will be free to collaborate with other car manufacturers for its self-driving cars initiative.
This is the first such instance for which Google has collaborated with an automobile manufacturer to mass produce self-driving vehicles. Ford certainly is likely going to reap rewards by manufacturing cars running on this technology of the future, which Google has invested time and effort to turn it into a reality. Other car manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Tesla, which have also been investing in this technology might be facing a tough competition from the two companies.
It is speculated that Ford will be immune to any lawsuits filed in case of a collision involving self-driving cars. The failure of this technology will lie solely on the shoulders of Google, the report says. The reason as to why Ford is immune from damages is due to the fact that law makers are yet to pass regulations that cater to the self-driving vehicle technology. The developers of self-driving technology including Google, Volvo, and Mercedes-Benz have all stated that in case of failure arising out of the technology that powers the self-driving cars, they are ready to take the responsibility.
The deal with Ford solves Google’s long standing problem to find a suitable partner to churn out self-driving cars for mass production. Google co-founder Sergey Brin had stated earlier that the company is open to working with original equipment manufacturers (OEM’s) to meet the demands of mass producing cars for personal use as well as general transportation needs.
Google had earlier collaborated with Roush, an automotive product company to develop self-driving pods. The collaboration has already resulted in the production of a vehicle that is being currently tested. The search engine giant had announced earlier that it envisions to put self-driving cars on the on the road by end of this decade.
The Alphabet-subsidiary has been fairly active on the front and had hired Ford and Hyundai executive John Krafcik as CEO of Google’s Self-Driving Car Project back in September last year.
