Ford debuts upgraded self-driving car with extra compute power, better vision with improved LiDAR sensors; Ford plans to triple fleet to 90 vehicles in 2017
Ford has developed a new generation of autonomous development vehicle, a hybrid Fusion that uses the same essential platform …
Context & Ripple Effects
This debut is the hardware leg of a strategy Ford laid out five months earlier, when it committed to putting fully autonomous cars into a riding-hailing service by 2021 and made self-driving-as-a-service its stated main revenue source. The upgraded hybrid Fusion — more compute, improved LiDAR vision — plus a fleet tripling to 90 vehicles in 2017 is how that deadline gets resourced.
The arc continues after this piece: Ford's Level 4 push with Argo AI formalizes the software side in late 2017, and by mid-2019 the third-gen Argo AI cars are testing across six cities, suggesting the 2016-17 fleet buildout was the foundation those generations iterated on.
First-order effects
- Ford's autonomous test program jumps from roughly 30 to 90 vehicles in 2017, multiplying on-road data collection on the same Fusion platform while the new compute and LiDAR package raises what each car can perceive.
Second-order effects
- Scaling the fleet forces the supplier side to scale with it — LiDAR and compute vendors move from prototype volumes toward production quantities, and Ford's 2020 turn to Mobileye's vision-sensing tech for driver-assist shows the sensing stack kept being re-sourced as requirements tightened.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, automakers compete on autonomy through scaled fleets plus software partnerships rather than licensing a finished stack — Ford's own path (in-house vehicle work, then Argo AI, then Mobileye) became the template other legacy manufacturers followed toward the 2021 service target.
The trend: Legacy automakers are racing to close the autonomy gap with tech entrants by tripling test fleets and pairing in-house hardware programs with external AI software partners, aiming to convert carmakers into mobility-service operators.