Washington DC - Google and Ford are in talks about forming a partnership to develop autonomous car technology.
A person briefed on the matter said on Tuesday the extent of a partnership remained under discussion and the precise framework of any effort was unclear but it could include jointly building and developing cars.
The two sides had been talking for months, the source said.
A partnership between a major automaker and Google could speed the introduction of self-driving vehicles by giving the car company access to Google's wealth of software development while Google would benefit from the industrial and automotive know-how of a firm such as Ford.
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Fully autonomous cars could eventually prevent thousands of crashes, deaths and injuries, reduce oil use through better traffic management and extend personal mobility to people unable to drive.
Ford chief executive Mark Fields met with Google co-founder Sergey Brin earlier in December in California to discuss the status of the talks. Google, however, says it is in talks with many automakers, and it’s not clear if the talks with Ford have progressed beyond discussions with other automakers.
Google said: “We're not going to comment on rumour or speculation about specific conversations.”
Ford declined to confirm or deny talks with Google; spokesman Alan Hall said: “We have been, and will continue working with many companies and discussing a variety of subjects.”
Google has logged more than two million kilometres of autonomous driving, and has developed a prototype pod-like self-driving car that could be driven without a steering wheel and pedals.
‘BOTH PARTNERS COULD BENEFIT’
Automotive News reported on Monday the companies were in talks to have Ford build Google's next-generation autonomous cars.
Yahoo Autos reported the two firms would create a joint venture to build self-driving vehicles with Google's technology. Both reports said an announcement on the partnership could be made at the Consumer Electronics Show early in January.
Kelley Blue Book senior analyst Karl Brauer said both partners could benefit.
“An alliance between the two industries could make everything happen much quicker,” he commented.
Former Ford CEO Alan Mulally is a director at Google, while Google named John Krafcik, who worked at Ford in various positions for 14 years, as chief executive of its self-driving car project in September.
Reuters
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