Ford revealed that it has established a new wholly-owned company named Latitude AI with the goal of developing a hands-free, eyes-off-the-road automated driving system.
The automaker intends to grow and expand its automated driving technology, including improvements in Ford BlueCruise, which has already logged more than 50 million miles of hands-free driving, latitude adds a top team of machine learning, robotics, software, sensors, systems engineering, and operations talent for this venture.
This information was released five months after Ford revealed in its third quarter earnings report in October 2022 that it was withdrawing its investment in the autonomous technology firm Argo AI because it was unable to find new investors. At the time, Ford claimed it intended to hire the engineers and developers while utilizing Argo facilities as Argo said it was discontinuing operations in Pittsburgh.
According to Ford, the focus of this technology is on personal vehicles, not commercial ones.
Ford’s chief advanced product development and technology officer, Doug Field, stated that the Latitude team’s “extensive knowledge and talent will help us speed the development of all-new automated driving technology.”
Whereas, Sammy Omari, executive director of ADAS Technology at Ford, will also lead Latitude as CEO. David Gollob has been named president, in charge of running the company’s operations, while Peter Carr has been designated chief technology officer, in charge of managing Latitude’s product and technological development.
According to Ford executives, automated driving technology has a great potential to increase road safety while also freeing up drivers during the more tiresome portions of their journeys, ultimately giving them time back or the “latitude” to use this time however they see fit.
