Ford's new CEO's comment about the future of autonomous cars is a breath of fresh air https://t.co/fhGgF1qFWi pic.twitter.com/QhBWS8at3A
— Jalopnik (@Jalopnik) August 19, 2017
Nobody is more excited about self-driving cars than auto-industry leaders. No, really. Nobody.
Surveys have revealed that most Americans feel unsafe sharing the road with autonomous vehicles. Just knowing they're on the road is bad enough—riding in one is something most find terrifying.
And yet automakers march diligently on, trying to one-up each other at being the first to produce a fully-autonomous car. That's why Jalopnik calls it a "breath of fresh air" to see Ford distancing itself from the automation-race, at least a little.
Ford Motor Company instated Jim Hackett as its new CEO this year. While Hackett plans to keep Ford positioned as a leader in developing technology, he has enough professional experience in Silicon Valley to see through the hype, and deliver clear-eyed messages to the public about what to expect.
When the San Francisco Chronicle asked him about Ford's promise to put self-driving taxis on the road by 2021, Hackett's response was straight to the point:
"The answer is, we are going to be in the market with products in that time frame. But the nature of the romanticism by everybody in the media about how this robot works is overextended right now. It will be a progressive thing, just like computing. If you think about a vehicle that can drive anywhere, anytime, in any circumstance, cold, rain—that's longer than 2021. And every manufacturer will tell you that."
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