Ford and Volkswagen opted to shut down the self-driving commercial vehicle company dubbed Argo AI some time ago, but The Blue Oval subsequently opened its own autonomous unit dubbed Latitude AI shortly thereafter. Regardless, FoMoCo has since largely focused on more achievable levels of autonomy, though it has also mulled the idea of creating a robotaxi of its own. Ford certainly isn’t alone in that space, as companies like Tesla and GM have explored the same type of concept. In the meantime, Waymo is dominating that particular market, it seems.
Even as GM recently chose to shut down its Cruise robotaxi business, Waymo continues to grow and expand, which is also true of that segment in general, according to a recent report from CNBC. The global ride-sharing market is projected to grow from a $123.08 billion this year to $480.09 billion by 2032, a surge that’s being led by Waymo – an Alphabet-owned company that has thus far completed over five million autonomous trips thus far – a huge increase from just 700,000 as of November 2023.
Those figures are even more impressive when we consider that Waymo only currently operates in Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, spanning a mere 500 square miles of public roads. However, with a recent infusion of $5 billion from its parent company, Waymo is already conducting testing and validation drives in Detroit, Buffalo, New York, and at a test track in Columbus, Ohio, with plans to expand in a big way throughout 2025.
Meanwhile, it’s unclear if Ford still has robotaxi ambitions of its own. The automaker revealed that it was working on a low-cost EV platform some time ago, which was originally slated to underpin a crossover, a small pickup, and a robotaxi at the time. However, FoMoCo has since seemingly shifted those plans and has only confirmed that it will launch a mid-size pickup riding on this platform in 2027, and the future of other variants remains a bit murky as of now.
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