Ford Motor Co. has assigned a senior engineer to run a development program for autonomous vehicles, a move that takes the technology from research to implementation.
The Dearborn, Mich.-based company announced the move at an event Tuesday in Palo Alto, Calif., at its research center. Randy Visintainer, a 29-year Ford engineer and researcher, will run the global team.
Ford’s CEO Mark Fields has said he believes a fully autonomous vehicle will be ready by 2020.
Ford has begun to put early-stage safety technology in its vehicles in the form of so-called “driver assistance” features. These radar and sensor-enabled devices help stop cars before they crash into a person or another car.
“During the next five years, we will move to migrate driver-assist technologies across our product lineup to help make our roads safer and continue to increase automated driving capability,” said Raj Nair, Ford group vice president of global product development.
Ford said it would bring a forward-collision braking system to at least one vehicle in the U.S. next year. These systems are common on luxury vehicles.
Ford management has expressed its interest in developing different business models. A move toward autonomous vehicles could be a platform for driverless vehicles for companies such as Uber Technologies and Ford itself.
