Auto giant Ford is on its way to make autonomous vehicles. The company is now a step closer as it has been granted a patent for a car which will feature a fully-removable steering wheel and foot pedals for its self-driving cars. The car giant’s new design will allow the steering wheel to be removed from the vehicle and an air bag will be placed in the compartment in front of the driver’s seat.
The company has said that the users will have the option to refit the steering wheel for testing the car and can be treated as an option. Ford in a statement reportedly said, “[The removable wheel] enables the easy provision of a steering wheel as a customer-requested option”. However, the design is a part of the company’s long term plans to remove the steering from its self-driving cars.
Ford has an ambition that it will create an autonomous car which does not need a human driver. At present, there are some semi-autonomous features like the Tesla’s auto pilot which has the drivers testing the limits of the self-driving systems. The auto giant said that it does not expect to make any profits in the autonomous cars till 2021. Ford reportedly invested in Argo AI recently, which is an artificial intelligence company, that will produce the software needed for the new generation self-driving cars.
Apart from Ford, many of the auto companies are also investing and researching in auto driving cars and have collaborated with some of the major software giants in the world. Some of the big companies which are currently working on the technology include Uber and Google.
Photo Credits: wired
