Ford brings self-driving cars to Austin, Texas

The carmaker and partner Argo AI will begin mapping downtown and east Austin in the coming months with manually driven vehicles. Ford will gradually increase the size of its coverage and fleet of self-driving cars, with the intention of launching an expansive autonomous taxi and delivery service in 2021[ads1].

Sherif Marakby, CEO of the Autonomous Vehicles Division, wrote in a blog post that Ford will had to account for "heavy pedestrian activity, especially people like bikes and scooters. Scooters are especially interesting because they are really motorized pedestrians, with fast and unique movement behavior that needs to be accounted for. Austin has more scooter activity than we have seen in other cities where we at the moment testing. "

Austin seems like an ideal proof of the basis of the vehicles. "As the region's population is on track to double in the next 20 to 25 years, it is clear that we need to rethink how our right is used if we want people to be able to move around our city," says Mayor Steve Adler said in a statement.

The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization expects vehicle use in the region to double by 2040, but highway capacity will only grow 15 percent. Combined with nearly 75 percent of Austin residents commuting solo, it's a recipe for an overload nightmare. Ford suggests that autonomous vehicles will offer people more options to get around, which can ease traffic jams.