Google Collaborates With Ford to Build Self-Driving Cars – Report

Kuala Lumpur: The online search giant - Google is collaborating with Ford to build self-driving cars, claims a Yahoo Auto reports. While Ford officials have not confirmed the speculation, an official announcement of Google-Ford partnership is expected to come, next year, when the Ford CEO, Mark Fields will attend the International 2016 Consumer Electronic Show (CES). Since the automakers are legally bound to take the full responsibly of their self-driving cars, Google and Ford will solve this issue by creating a joint venture that will be 'legally separate' from both parent companies so that they don't have to deal with any legal issues, in case of road deaths, occur and lawsuits are filed against the manufacturer of the self-driving car.

The Yahoo auto news report also claims that the deal for Google's self-driving cars technology is 'understood to be non-exclusive' in order to allow Google to collaborate with other automakers in the project. Despite being a pioneer in the self-driving car technology, Google has always emphasised that the car making is a very costly proposition, hence, it won't be manufacturing cars on its own. The speculation of Google-Ford collaboration to build self-driving cars hints that the online search giant has plans to commercialize its self-driving car technology while continuing the development of its own self-driving cars as well.

After getting officially enrolled in the California Autonomous Vehicle Testing Program, Ford obtained the permit to test its self-driving car - Ford Fusion Hybrid sedans on public roads in California, in 2016; thus becoming the 11th company to get an autonomous driving permit in the state, where it has created a research centre in the Silicon Valley. The American multinational automaker is also the first company to test its self-driving Fusion sedans at Mcity, which is basically a simulated city in the campus of UMich created to provide a safe place to test self-driving cars. Google's self-driving car project CEO, John Krafcik, has also worked at Ford for 14-years.