By Mike Ramsey and Geoffrey Fowler
LAS VEGAS--Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer Mark Fields
said he is focused on being the first auto maker to produce a
mass-market autonomous vehicle, not on being the first car maker to
have one at all.
Mr. Fields was a keynote speaker at the 2015 Consumer
Electronics Show in Las Vegas Tuesday. In his speech, he covered
how Ford was trying to become a mobility company in an attempt to
solve problems, not just build cars. Later, he spoke with The Wall
Street Journal.
"We believe in the industry that there will be a fully
autonomous vehicle, probably within the next five years," Mr.
Fields said. "Unlike our luxury competitors, when we do come out
with an autonomous vehicle, we want to make sure it is accessible
and affordable to everyone."
The earliest versions of driverless cars appear to be coming
from luxury makers like Daimler AG, with its F 015 Luxury in Motion
Mercedes-Benz concept vehicle shown at the CES. Tesla Motors Inc.
has promised to be first, but given few ideas about what it will
do. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said he expected autonomous
cars within five years in an interview with The Wall Street Journal
in September.
But these luxury cars are likely to be at the top of the pricing
scale. Ford's vision is to sell an autonomous car that most people
could afford. It was the first volume manufacturer to offer safety
technology like lane-departure warning systems and
collision-warning systems on its mainline Ford brand. Autonomous
vehicles, however, require much more expensive radarlike technology
and stronger computer processors.
Mr. Fields said the company is exploring new business models as
a means to prevent being disrupted. He announced 25 different
"experiments" that Ford is working on, including mobile-phone based
parking space detection services, car-swapping and car-sharing
companies, and mapping services to be used on unpaved roads.
"We talked a lot about using innovation to drive mobility and
solve some of the most pressing transportation and congestion
issues around the world," he said. "We are going to learn a lot
about a lot of business models. Not only do we want to make a
better world, we want to run a better business."
Write to Mike Ramsey at michael.ramsey@wsj.com and Geoffrey
Fowler at geoffrey.fowler@wsj.com
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