Ford aims to sell first driverless car by 2021

Ford has revealed plans to put a mass-production, fully self-driving car on sale by 2021.

President Mark Fields revealed the plans at an event in Palo Alto, California, saying the company will make "sizable investments" in firms developing autonomous technologies, reports the BBC.

The car will come without pedals or steering wheel and will boast SAE level four autonomy - "proper read-a-newspaper-and-have-a-snooze territory", says Car. By comparison, Tesla's Autopilot system is a level two system, working only on motorways and requiring drivers to keep their hands on the wheel.

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"The next decade will be defined by automation of the automobile, and we see autonomous vehicles as having as significant an impact on society as Ford's moving assembly line did 100 years ago," added Fields.

The driverless car will be designed with commercial mobility services in mind, putting ride-sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft firmly in Ford's sights. The idea is a world where fewer people buy cars privately and instead share on-demand vehicles through a subscription package or fares.

The race to be the first company to have a self-driving car on sale is becoming an intense one, says the Daily Telegraph. Ford is developing the technology in competition with tech firms and carmakers such as Google, Mercedes-Benz and Tesla and the winner will have the chance to set industry standards and dominate the marketplace.

Ford's approach of leaping straight to level four autonomy differs to that of its rivals. Elon Musk's Tesla, for example, is drip-feeding its customers new features, building up to fully self-driving systems over several years rather than releasing the technology as a complete package in one fell swoop.