Google and Ford Motor Co are in talks about forming a partnership to develop autonomous car technology.
The extent of a partnership between the second-largest US automaker and search engine giant Alphabet Inc (which owns Google) remains under discussion and the precise framework of any effort is unclear, but it could include jointly building and developing cars.
A partnership between a major automaker and Google could speed the introduction of self-driving vehicles by giving the car company access to Google’s wealth of software development, while Google would benefit from the industrial and automotive know-how of a firm such as Ford.
Fully autonomous cars could eventually prevent thousands of crashes, deaths and injuries, reduce oil use through better traffic management and extend personal mobility to people unable to drive.
Google has logged more than 1.3 million miles of autonomous driving. It has developed a prototype pod-like self-driving car that could be driven without a steering wheel and pedals.
It is interesting to note that Ford’s former CEO, Alan Mulally, is a director at Google, while Google named John Krafcik as chief executive of its self-driving car project in September. Krafcik worked at Ford for 14 years in a number of positions.
Recently, German automakers Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz (Daimler AG) bought Nokia’s mapping business called HERE for almost $3 Billion and HERE has announced that it will be working towards creating maps that not only help humans, but also self-driving vehicles.