Driverless cars are coming and coming fast. In order to brace for a very tech-connected automotive future, it looks like Ford is planning a joint venture with Google to develop and build self-driving cars. The full announcement will come at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2016). The collaboration makes perfect sense to us, as both are considered pioneers and giants in their respective fields and tend to be open to experimental projects.
The reports coming in are still based on speculation, but Yahoo Autos’ sources say that the deal wouldn’t exclude Google from working with other carmakers. This makes sense, and reminds us of the early days of Android where Google focused on building with HTC and a few other hardware suppliers before opening things up to other players. This could mean the software part of the self-driving car future might be dominated by just one or two major players as it is in the smartphone industry, as Apple is also rumoured to be working on its own car.
