Ford, and the rollout of third-generation autonomous vehicles in Detroit

Ford Motor Co. said Wednesday it is rolling out what it calls its third-generation autonomous vehicle, including in Detroit and Corktown.

The news comes amid reports that Ford is near an agreement with Volkswagen to partner on self-driving vehicle development. 

Peter Rander, president of Argo AI, Ford's autonomous vehicle partner, wrote in a blog post that Argo is deploying the Ford Fusion Hybrids "in all five major cities we’re operating in: Pittsburgh, Palo Alto, Miami, Washington, D.C., and now Detroit — where we’re expanding our testing footprint in Michigan beyond Dearborn."

The Ford Fusion hybrid is a third-generation test vehicle that Argo AI in collaboration with Ford will now deploy in downtown Detroit, along with Pittsburgh, Palo Alto, Miami and Washington, D.C. (Photo: Ford Motor Co.)

"Bringing these vehicles to Detroit gives us the opportunity to learn how they operate in yet another environment — one where we have engineering operations in close proximity and where Corktown serves as Ford’s base for self-driving vehicle development," Rander wrote. "Every city represents a unique opportunity to make our self-driving system smarter because of the exposure to different road infrastructure design, driving behavior and even traffic light placement."

Meanwhile, reports say that Volkswagen dropped its autonomous vehicle partnership with Aurora Innovation Inc., an Amazon-backed Silicon Valley startup that on Tuesday announced a new arrangement with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. 

Aurora is led by some of the people who led self-driving development efforts at Google, Tesla and Uber. The Free Press reported Tuesday that FCA will work with Aurora to integrate the Aurora Driver self-driving platform into commercial vehicles (possibly Ram or Fiat commercial). 

In reporting the VW-Aurora breakup, Bloomberg said that "months of negotiations with Ford and its autonomous affiliate Argo AI are near fruition and a deal could be announced as early as July, people familiar with the situation said. Most of the thorniest issues have been resolved and the two companies envision a comprehensive collaboration creating a global colossus in the self-driving space, these people said."

Ford and VW announced during January's Detroit auto show that they would collaborate on commercial vehicles and a small pickup to be sold in Europe, South America and South Africa, and were continuing more complex talks on electric and self-driving technology. 

Ford repeated on Tuesday its long-standing statement on those discussions: 

“Our talks with Volkswagen continue. Discussions have been productive across a number of areas. We’ll share updates as details become more firm,” spokeswoman Jennifer Flake told the Free Press.

Carmakers see tens of billions of dollars in annual potential for autonomous delivery, robo-taxis and other self-driving services and spin-offs, but the cost of development is daunting. Ford and VW would be seeking to leap toward the top of an arena led by General Motors' Cruise affiliate, which has partnered with Honda; and Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo division. 

From Detroit Free Press, June 13, 2019