Ford invested $4 billion to build autonomous driving, but can it catch up with Waymo?

On July 25, Ford announced the establishment of a new subsidiary, Ford Autonomous Vehicles, which will focus on autonomous driving. All operations of Ford's original autonomous driving business will be taken over by this new company.

Ford said it will invest $4 billion in autonomous driving by 2023.

The newly formed subsidiary will be led by Sherif Marakby, Ford's vice president of autonomous vehicles and electrification. In the future, he will be promoted to CEO of the new company and report directly to Ford's chairman of the board, Marcy Klevorn (head of Ford's mobility department).

Ford's $4 billion investment in autonomous driving includes $1 billion invested in Argo.ai in early 2017. Ford plans to launch its first fully autonomous car (without a steering wheel or pedals) in 2021.

Ford shares rose 2.4% on news of the new company, which will include teams for autonomous driving systems, autonomous vehicle research, advanced engineering, autonomous vehicle transportation network development, user experience and business strategy.

Ford is much slower than its old rival GM in autonomous driving. Not long ago, Cruise, GM's autonomous driving division, received a $2.25 billion investment from SoftBank, with a valuation of $11.5 billion.

Ford is further behind Waymo, which has accumulated 8 million miles of road testing and has recently announced plans to purchase a large number of vehicles to form a commercial self-driving fleet.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.