Ford

Google joins Uber, Ford, Volvo and Lyft in forming a Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets to promote self driving car regulations on a federal level versus state by state level. Google has been battling the California DMV who have proposed to ban Google’s Koala car that does not have a steering wheel or pedals and would not require a licensed driver.

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Tesla Model X Founder series are fairly rare vehicles. Tesla CEO Elon Musk owns one (picture above), NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang also has one, and few other investors and early Tesla supporters, like Steve Jurvetson, were able to buy the limited-edition vehicle.

Founder series are not only limited-editions, but they also were delivered early in the production process. The Model X remains difficult to get considering every car delivered up to until very recently had been reserved months or years prior to delivery. The process makes it difficult for competitors, like Audi, to get their hands on the Model X to benchmark it or reverse-engineer it, which can then increase the short-term resale value and add a significant markup.
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Late last year Ford announced a $4.5 billion investment in EV technology and 13 new electric models coming to its lineup by 2020. Today Ford’s EV chief Kevin Layden  sat down with Automotive News and discussed the company’s electric vehicle plans.
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Autonomous and semi-autonomous driving systems are already getting pretty good under favorable driving conditions, but one of most people’s main concern is about how a self-driving car would handle heavy rain or snow.

Although not recommended, Tesla’s Autopilot can already handle snow to a certain degree, but several systems in development are focusing on especially nailing winter self-driving. Ford recently released a video featuring what it calls “Snowtonomy.”
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According to a report today out of The Wall Street Journal, Ford, as part of its plan to reinvent itself, is planning to create a separate business unit dedicated to its ambitions in autonomous cars for “ride-sharing and fleets.” Of course the company is seeking partnerships in this space, and it just so happens that, just as was reported by Yahoo Autos a few weeks ago, Alphabet Inc.’s Google is a big part of this move…

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We are kicking off the new year at Electrek with extensive coverage of everything electric vehicle related at CES in Las Vegas this week.

There might be a few surprises, but we made a quick list of the main events, especially the new electric cars debuting at the show, so you can have a good idea of what’s coming in the EV industry in the next few days:
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Do you remember when Batman turned a part of the Batmobile into a motorcycle with the touch of a button in The Dark Knight? Well this is like a lame version of that. We learn that Ford patented a concept for an electric car powered by in-wheel electric motors that can turn into a unicycle.
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Google’s self-driving car initiative has been gaining momentum over the past year, but now it looks like the company has at least one more big piece of news up its sleeve. According to a report from Yahoo Autos, Google and Ford are planning to announce a joint venture to build self-driving cars.

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We reported earlier today about Ford preparing to unveil a plug-in vehicle at the Detroit Auto Show next month, but apparently that leak was only a teaser as Ford just announced that it is getting really serious about electric cars with $4.5 billion in investment and 13 new electric models coming to its lineup by 2020.
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Ford appears to be set to unveil a plug-in vehicle at the Detroit Auto show next month as evidenced by recent pictures (see above) posted to Twitter by WSJ’s Detroit Bureau Chief John Stoll.
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In a press release today, Ford announced that they are opening to competitors the patents and patent applications they have for electric vehicles. The move is not unlike what Tesla did last year when they opened all their patents in the spirit of accelerating the advent of electric transport. Here is what Kevin Layden, Ford’s director of Electrification Programs, had to say about the announcement:

Innovation is our goal. The way to provide the best technology is through constant development and progress. By sharing our research with other companies, we will accelerate the growth of electrified vehicle technology and deliver even better products to customers.

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