Technology for Autonomous Cars Just 5 Years Away but Policy May Take Longer: Ford

Rumours about companies like Apple working on self-driving cars (along with Google's public developments in the same space) have generated a lot of interest in the world of autonomous driving, and as you'd expect, traditional automakers are equally interested in the space.

"I think we are not just a car and truck company," says Ken Washington, Vice President of Research and Advanced Engineering, Ford. "We are a technology and mobility company, and the challenges with mobility also open up a lot of opportunities."

Washington and other Ford executives who spoke with NDTV Gadgets at the sidelines of Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2015 in Barcelona believe autonomous cars are one such area of opportunity.

"There could be plenty of scenarios where you might not want to drive, or for the elderly or the physically disabled, they might not be able to drive," says Washington. "For all these reasons, there's a lot of interest in the market already."

Like other car companies, Ford is also working to create self-driving cars, and Washington believes that the technology for this is only five years away from being consumer ready. Ford is developing 360-degree short wavelength sensors to the cars, so that the car can "see" the rest of the traffic. Coupled with navigation information, this should enable it to safely navigate through traffic. And all the brains for this will remain on your car, not the cloud, so you don't have to worry about hackers.

The catch is that there are a lot of issues beyond the technical ones that also need to be addressed. If a smartphone malfunctions, the worst that could happen is probably a few missed meetings. A smart-car malfunction could be a far more serious issue indeed.

"There's a lot of policy that needs to catch up, legal, insurance concerns need to be figured out," says Washington. "And honestly, I have no idea right now what the right answers should be. This is a conversation that Ford is very keen to be a part of that needs to take place with car companies, technology companies, and the government, so that we can work out everything together."

The technology is already getting in place though.

"In five years we should have the technology in place that you would be able to tell the car where to go and just enjoy the ride," says Washington. "In some conditions this might not be possible - heavy rain or snow perhaps - but when the parameters are right, you should be able to do this safely."

Does this mean the end of driving your own cars? Washington doesn't think so, and he adds that he believes customers should always be able to choose to drive the car and enjoy that experience, even with autonomous systems improving. It's likely, in fact, that there won't be any single system that will prevail, whether in terms of driving, or fuel types, or even ownership models.

"We believe that you're going to see a lot of models co-existing and working together," says James Buczkowski , Director, Electrical and Electronics Systems Research and Advanced Engineering, Ford. "What we're trying to do is figure out what the models should actually be like, and what vehicles are right for them."

"What's happening is that the way in which people work and connect is changing," says Buczkowski . "And so we're running experiments to see how connected technology can help in a number of ways - from making parking simpler, to improving the insurance experience, to making it possible to share ownership. "

"Millenials don't think about cars in the same way, there's a growing middle class and not everyone can own a car," adds Washington. "But that doesn't mean that they don't want to be in a car, to have a vehicle experience."

"You could borrow a car, get a car on demand for a couple of hours and pay for those hours," he says. "Or you could co-own a car, that's one of the experiments we're doing in India, where you can buy a car with someone you trust and share the costs and ownership."

"There are a lot of different experiments going on, and it's hard to guess at how they will go," says Buczkowski . "For example, car sharing could be something that makes sense when you're at a certain place in your life, but when you get older and have kids, you might need to own your own vehicle."

One such experiment are the e-bikes that Ford revealed on Monday.

"If you're trying to solve for a dense urban environment with challenges like parking, then e-bikes are a good solution," says Washington. "So we challenged our employees to come up with a solution for e-bikes that would not just give pedal-assistance, but also integrate into the digital ecosystem, send alerts to your smartphone and take advantage of the cloud."

The result of this was the two e-bikes that Ford revealed, the Mode:Me and Mode:Pro. These prototypes are very much a work in progress for now. A lot remains to be done - the current personal models weigh roughly 14kgs, which is light for an electric bike, but still not something you'd want to lug around everywhere.

"We're really not thinking about going to market right now," says Washington. "We're still figuring out the use case - maybe you'll want to keep one in the office, to run errands. Maybe you'll keep one in your car, and if there's a traffic jam, you park somewhere and just take your e-bike. We don't want to guess wrong, so right now we're just figuring things out."

Disclosure: Ford sponsored the correspondent's flights and hotel for MWC in Barcelona.