Ford plans to move self-driving and electric vehicle teams to Detroit

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Written by Jennifer Shuttleworth
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Ford is returning to its roots as the company looks to its future with the move of its key autonomous vehicle and electric vehicle business and strategy teams to Detroit in early 2018. The teams, including Team Edison, are moving to a recentlyrefurbished 45,000-ft2 (1,274 m2) historic industrial complex known as TheFactory in Detroit"s Corktown neighborhood. According to the company, the MotorCity location will enable Ford teams to immerse themselves in urban mobilitychallenges and solutions. Sherif Marakby, Ford vice president of autonomousvehicles and electrification, will lead the Corktown team. "We"re excited to choose this inspirationallocation in one of Detroit"s resurgent neighborhoods to accelerate our work onelectric and autonomous vehicles," said Jim Hackett, Ford president and CEO, in a release."This move and our exciting Dearborn campus transformation are important stepsas we move toward our aspiration to become the world"s most trusted mobilitycompany designing smart vehicles for a smart world." "Returning to Detroit is particularlymeaningful, because it is where my great-grandfather originally set out topursue his passion and where we have always called our home," said Executive Chairman Bill Ford. "Weare planting a special piece of our company"s future in one of the city"s greatneighborhoods, because we believe in Detroit, its people and what we can buildtogether." Ford says it is focused on driving itselectric vehicle business forward, both with hybrid vehicles and full battery-electricvehicles with research led by Ford"s Team Edison. The team is working toaccelerate both the development and adoption of electric vehicles. Additionally, Team Edison is focused on fosteringpartnerships with other companies to deliver smart solutions, following Ford"sglobal lead. Ford recently created an electric vehicle partnership with Zotye,creating Zotye Ford Automobile Co., a 50-50 joint venture that will offer arange of stylish and affordable electric vehicles for consumers in China. Ford has a variety of active partnershipsrelated to the future of mobility. With Ford"s $1 billion investment in ArgoAI, the company is advancing autonomous vehicle development by combining itsautonomous vehicle knowledge with Argo AI"s robotics experience and startupspeed on artificial intelligence software. According to the release, Ford says its autonomous vehicle business centersaround deploying self-driving vehicles in partnership with companies that servethe movement of both people and goods. Working with these partners, such as Lyft and Domino"s Pizza, Ford isconducting research and building out the infrastructure that will help indetermining the design of the self-driving vehicle and the customer experienceit will enable. Planned for production beginning in 2021,Ford"s first autonomous vehicle is an all-new hybrid-electric vehicle withself-driving capability. 



Date written: 20-Dec-2017 10:26 EST

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