Ford plans fleet of fully autonomous cars operating in a riding-hailing service by 2021; CEO says self-driving cars as a service to become main revenue source
With No Steering Wheels Vikas Shukla / ValueWalk : Apple Car To Have A New Competitor From Ford In 2021 Mark Fields : Ford's Road to Full Autonomy Alexander J Martin / The Register : Ford announces plans for mass production of self-driving cars by 2021 Eric David / SiliconANGLE : Ford announces plans to produce fully autonomous cars by 2021 Angelo Young / Salon : “It's the safety, stupid” — Sorry Tesla, Ford's bet on self-driving cars shows that safe trumps sexy Aaron Mamiit / Tech Times : Ford Promises Fully Autonomous Vehicles For Ride-Sharing Services By 2021: The Race Is On Brandon Russell / TechnoBuffalo : Ford autonomous taxi fleet promised by 2021 silicontap.com : Ford Doubles Down On Silicon Valley, Autonomous Vehicle Efforts Lucas Mearian / Computerworld : Ford to offer self-driving cars without steering wheels by 2021 Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch : Ford acquires SAIPS for self-driving machine learning and computer vision tech Brian Wang / Next Big Future : Ford promises level 4 driverless cars by 2021 out of five level automation scale Daniel Howley / Yahoo! Finance : Ford wants your cabdriver to be a robot Shawn Knight / TechSpot : Ford aims to put fully autonomous cars on the streets by 2021 Rupert Neate / Guardian : Ford to build ‘high volume’ of driverless cars for ride-sharing services Lisa Eadicicco / TIME : Ford's Future Self-Driving Car Won't Have a Steering Wheel or Pedals Roger Fingas / AppleInsider : Ford targeting 2021 launch for self-driving car, potentially going head to head with Apple Nate Swanner / The Next Web : Ford plans to have self-driving cars on the road in five years' time Michael Nunez / Gizmodo : Ford Wants to Build the Largest Self-Driving Car Fleet in the World NBC Bay Area : Ford to Launch Driverless Cars From Silicon Valley by 2021 Miles Branman / Digital Trends : Ford will provide ridesharing services with a fully autonomous car in 2021 Mike Murphy / Quartz : Coming in 2021: A self-driving Ford car with no steering wheels or pedals Peter O'Kelly / Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check : Ford's Road to Full Autonomy — NewCo Shift Khari Johnson / VentureBeat : Ford will make autonomous vehicles without steering wheels by 2021 Nick Bunkley / Automotive News Automaker : Ford to make autonomous cars for ride-hailing, ride-sharing by 2021 Buster Hein / Cult of Mac : Ford plans to make ride-hailing service with autonomous cars Chris Woodyard / USA Today : Audi pioneers cars that will ‘talk’ to traffic signals
Context & Ripple Effects
In August 2016 Ford committed to mass-producing fully autonomous cars by 2021 and running them as its own ride-hailing fleet, with CEO Mark Fields framing self-driving services — not car sales — as the company's future main revenue source. The plan was less a solo bet than an assembly of partners: Ford later brought in Argo AI to build the Level 4 software stack behind the 2021 target, and signed on with Lyft to put its vehicles on an existing ride-hailing network rather than build one from scratch.
The arc since then shows the timeline stretching but the strategy holding: by late 2018 Ford was still testing in Washington, DC with commercial taxi and delivery launches planned for 2021 (DC testing plans), while Apple accelerated its own fully autonomous electric car program toward a 2025 debut (Apple's autonomous car push) — evidence that the 2016 announcement pulled tech companies deeper into the race Ford helped frame.
First-order effects
- Ford's business model pivots from per-unit sales to per-ride revenue: Fields explicitly positions self-driving services as the future main revenue source, making fleet operations and utilization rates — not dealership volume — the metrics that matter.
- Ride-hailing networks become distribution channels rather than customers: the Lyft partnership means Ford supplies the vehicles while an existing network supplies demand, changing what Ford must build in-house.
Second-order effects
- Tech entrants respond in kind: Apple's acceleration of its own fully autonomous electric car program shows legacy automakers' autonomy timelines forcing consumer-tech players to commit to hardware programs of their own.
- The autonomy stack gets outsourced to specialists — Argo AI building the Level 4 software means the competitive frontier shifts from who manufactures cars to who owns the driving software, pressuring rivals without a comparable software partner.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, automakers restructure around fleet-as-a-service economics, with vehicle manufacturing becoming a cost center feeding an operating business — a structural inversion of a century-old industry model.
- Liability and regulation migrate from drivers to operators and software suppliers: once fleets run without steering wheels, safety certification of the autonomy stack becomes the regulatory battleground that determines which players can operate at all.
The trend: Automakers are converting themselves from vehicle sellers into mobility-service operators, with the pace set by software partners like Argo AI and by tech entrants like Apple racing into the same lane.